By George & Josh Bate
Exactly three years ago today, three new Star Wars movies were announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023. In this article, we’re taking a look at each of these films and providing the latest updates on them all.
New Jedi Order
Easily the movie that generated the most rousing response from the Celebration Europe crowd three years ago was New Jedi Order. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced that Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel) would helm a new movie set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker. Daisy Ridley came on stage to announce that she would lead the film, which would chronicle her efforts to rebuild the new Jedi Order using Luke and Leia’s teachings as a foundation.
Despite its announcement three years ago, however, New Jedi Order has had a rocky road to make it onto the big screen. Prior to its official reveal, the film’s initial screenplay was reportedly written by Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen), who was eventually joined by Justin Britt-Gibson (The Strain) as a co-writer.
Lindelof and Britt-Gibson exited the project shortly before the Celebration Europe announcement, after which Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) was brought on to rewrite the story. However, in October 2024, it was reported that Steven Knight exited the project. In January 2025, George Nolfi (Ocean’s Twelve, The Bourne Ultimatum) was brought on to write the screenplay and, as of the writing of this article, Nolfi is still the screenwriter of the movie.
In April 2025, at Star Wars Celebration Japan, both Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni confirmed that New Jedi Order was still in development, although there was no news to share about the movie.
Over the years since the film’s announcement, Daisy Ridley has been asked repeatedly about the status of the film. During the recent press tour for her new zombie thriller We Bury the Dead, Ridley told Parade that the movie will “arrive when it’s ready, and it will be worth the wait.”
Adam Driver’s shock reveal of a canceled The Hunt for Ben Solo movie in October 2025 throws another wrench into the development of New Jedi Order. The movie that was set to be directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns would have likely featured Ridley’s Rey in some capacity, but it is unclear how the stories for New Jedi Order and The Hunt for Ben Solo would reconcile with one another.
Yet another complication in the development of New Jedi Order is confirmation that Simon Kinberg is developing a “new saga” of Star Wars movies, which some speculate may be Episodes X-XII. Is it possible that Kinberg’s new saga will supplant Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order and incorporate elements of its story into the new movies? This is certainly possible.
As of now, we’re confident that New Jedi Order will eventually come to fruition – in one way or another. Whether that be as part of Simon Kinberg’s new saga of movies or a film helmed by Obaid-Chinoy as originally announced remains unclear, but we highly doubt that there’s a future in which Daisy Ridley doesn’t return as Rey on the big screen.
Dawn of the Jedi
Also announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 was a movie directed by James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). Termed Dawn of the Jedi by many, the film was described as being like “a biblical epic” by Mangold. “Where did the Force come from? When did we discover it? When did we know how to use it?” were just some of the questions Mangold expressed an interest in exploring in his movie.
Unlike New Jedi Order, there’s been relatively little updates about Dawn of the Jedi in the three years since its official announcement. Beau Willimon, who penned the Narkina 5 arc of Andor Season 1, was brought on as a screenwriter of the film.
In January 2025, Mangold told Movieweb.com, “The Star Wars movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known Star Wars movies takes place. It’s an area and a playground that I’ve always [wanted to explore] and that I was inspired by as a teenager. I’m not that interested in being handcuffed by so much lore at this point that it’s almost immovable, and you can’t please anybody.”
In February 2025, Kennedy stated that Mangold’s movie was “delayed a bit” due to his comitments to the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown and its subsequent awards campaign.
Overall, we’re less confident that Dawn of the Jedi, at least as it was initially announced and conceived, will see the light of day. Mangold is an in-demand filmmaker, who already has his hands on other projects, including a Swamp Thing movie for DC Studios. The mixed reception to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny may have lessened both Mangold and Lucasfilm’s excitement in proceeding forward with another big-budget, tentpole film together. And, generally speaking, there’s just been significantly less rumblings about the movie than other Star Wars projects, implying that its development appears to be more stop-and-start than other movies.
Dave Filoni’s crossover movie
A theatrical film helmed by Dave Filoni was also announced three years ago. Prior to this official announcement, however, Kennedy revealed during Disney Investor day 2020 that the stories of The Mandalorian and related shows would culminate in “a climactic story event.”
At Celebration Europe 2023, Kennedy told IGN that the genesis of the film originated over a decade prior, while Filoni later told Empire Magazine that he wants the film to “define [the] era” between Episodes VI and VII.
Many have speculated that this crossover event movie will be a loose adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s iconic novel Heir to the Empire. Over the past decade, Filoni has slowly introduced a number of elements from Zahn’s book into canon, namely Grand Admiral Thrawn. The events of Ahsoka Season 2 will seemingly set up Filoni’s movie in showcasing a war between the New Republic and Thrawn’s rising Imperial remnant.
Despite relatively little news about the movie in the three years since its announcement, we’re confident that this movie will eventually come to fruition. As Co-President of Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni has a huge say in what Star Wars projects eventually make it to the big screen, and we think he’ll be motivated to make his live-action theatrical debut in the biggest way possible. In June 2024, in an interview with Joshua Horowitz, Filoni confirmed that he has completed plans for the opening of the movie and said that development for the film overall is “going well.” With Filoni spread thin working on Ahsoka Season 2 and The Mandalorian and Grogu, it makes sense that it’s taken some time to hear more about his movie.