Theater alum Beau Willimon ’03 (CC '99) and Film alum James Mangold ’99 have joined forces to tell a new chapter of a galaxy far, far away in Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi. Beau is set to co-write the Lucasfilm project alongside Mangold who will also direct the film.
“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the force,” Mangold told Variety when the film was announced.
“When I first talked to Kathy Kennedy (Lucasfilm President) about it, I just said, ‘I just see this opening to make kind of a Ben-Hur or The 10 Commandments about the birth of the force.’ The force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now,” said Mangold.
The project, tentatively titled Dawn of the Jedi, will explore the origins of the Force and be set 25,000 years before any of the timelines and stories told by the Star Wars movies and shows.
This is not Willimon’s first venture into the Star Wars universe. The writer worked on season one of Andor, which focused on the eponymous character Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna. Willimon wrote three episodes, one of which, titled ‘One Way Out,’ earned him an Emmy Nomination for outstanding writing for a drama series.
Dawn of the Jedi is currently in pre-production, with no release date set. Mangold is expected to begin work on the film after wrapping A Complete Unknown, a Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, which is slated for release on December 25, 2024.
