Across the Skywalker Saga and the recent spread of Star Wars streaming series, the story of the galaxy far, far away has largely been set across a relatively concentrated period of time – exploring the rise, fall (then re-rise, then re-fall) of the galactic Empire. While the lore of Jedi, Sith and the Force stretches much further back than the tales of Anakin, Luke and Rey, those origins haven’t been explored much on screen. Until now.
It was announced today at Star Wars Celebration that James Mangold is officially directing a new Star Wars movie, one set right at the beginning of the Star Wars galaxy. And speaking to Empire at Celebration, he opened up a bit more on exactly when it’s set. “It takes place 25,000 years before Episode IV, and it’s about the discovery of the Force,” he explains. His influences extend to historical theological epics. “I told Kathy [Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm] I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars – kind of a Cecil B DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea.”
Mangold is no stranger to picking up well-established franchises, having capped off (for a while) Wolverine’s journey in the X-Men universe with Logan, and picking up the reigns on this summer’s Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, taking over from none other than Steven Spielberg. And with his Star Wars movie, he’ll be able to play with the world we know, once again in his own way. “It’s a movie that both connects to the worlds we know, but is also far enough away from it that I think there’s a lot of opportunities to tell a story freely, also,” he explains, “and not be so incredibly tied in by the knots and different story strands that are already in place.” Who’s ready to go a long, long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?