In early 2022, Star Wars fans discovered that the director of The Adam Project and Deadpool 3, Shawn Levy, would be heading over to the franchise for a brand new Star Wars movie. Fans were excited to see what this might mean for the upcoming movie. However, Levy recently confirmed that, similar to a lot of the other projects in Hollywood, development on the Star Wars film has been paused because of the writers’ strike.
Even though it’s not really a consolation, the director recently confirmed that work on the movie has already begun. So, while there won’t be any official progress on the upcoming Star Wars movie behind the scenes, the plans and ideas he came up with for the film are likely still building up in his mind in the past couple of months since the strikes took off.
During an interview with Collider, Levy stated, "We were just starting the process of developing my movie, and the writers' strike happened. So we are in that holding pattern that so much of our industry is in." What’s even more disappointing, besides the movie being delayed because of the writers’ strike, is the fact that the end of the strike is nowhere to be seen as of right now. So, even if it does end towards the end of the year, Shawn likely won't be able to finish the script for his Star Wars movie before 2024.
This would push all the pre-production or possibly an actual production into 2024, meaning a 2025 release date would be given to the movie. The remarks shared by Shawn Levy would also apply to some other movies that were announced by Lucasfilm, including films by James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. These three Star Wars films were confirmed at the start of 2023 at Star Wars Celebration without any official timeline for which movie would come first.
Apart from the strikes delaying the projects, Lucasfilm is also known for starting collaborations with filmmakers before those talks gradually end and the studio leaves the creatives. Shawn Levy also shared his concerns regarding this matter and expressed his confidence in his Star Wars project moving forward at some point in the future. You can read his full response below, where he talked about the topic during an interview with Collider last December:
"I'm very aware of the ratio of filmmakers who get to the starting line. I'm a student of the business, and so of course I note that. But here's my attitude: I have this golden ticket into a galaxy far away, and I'm going to devote myself to developing a screenplay that gives me the privilege of making this movie. I don't attach to things because it looks good in a trade announcement. I attach to things that I intend to make. And you better believe I'm not going to squander this juiciest of opportunities. I'm going to work my ass off. But first, I got to work my ass off on making Deadpool . So it's definitely longer-term planning, but I want to be one of the movies that gets to the starting line because these are rare opportunities, and I want to make the most of it."
Considering how the strikes won't end for quite some time, we have no other option but to sit around and wait for updates to come out regarding the Star Wars projects. In the meantime, we can also binge-watch some of the Star Wars shows, such as Ahsoka!
