Late last week a few more details emerged about Damon Lindelof’s involvement in the recently announced Star Wars movie project that will be set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
While he is no longer attached to the film that will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, he did confirm rumors that he was creating a Star Wars movie set after the sequel trilogy.
“I was in more than talks to join the Star Wars universe, I joined the Star Wars universe and was asked to leave.”
Damon Lindelof – Esquire
So there was truth to all of those rumors about Damon working on a Star Wars project, which also means his pitch wasn’t up to par as previously reported. This is a bummer because he seems ripe for the Star Wars franchise, but it just doesn’t sound like his ideas were jiving with Lucasfilm, which lead into the next report about his take on a post-TROS movie.
Old Rey
According to Jeff Sneider from The Hot Mic podcast, who has been breaking news on this project for months that now all check out, Damon’s version of the New Jedi Order movie would’ve featured a 60 year time jump, and Rey would have possibly been played by a Helen Mirren type of actress.
“From what I understand, it was sixty years after The Rise of Skywalker. Obviously this changed a ton – Lindelof’s was set sixty years down the line, but now we know that Daisy Ridley is coming back [as Rey] so it’s not going to be sixty years later, it’ll be like ten years later. What I heard was, when it was that original idea, the original actor that came attached – everybody thinks that was Yahya Abdul Mateen II…it wasn’t and I actually got that confirmed recently. It was supposed to be an older Rey training two Jedi, a man and a woman, both would’ve been people of colour. Now, they didn’t go out to this actress, but she was the comp, she was not offered, but she was on the casting list as ideally who we want, but it doesn’t mean the prototype person is the person, but for older Rey, they were thinking of Helen Mirren.“
Jeff Sneider
Jeff went on to explain that he doesn’t think much of Damon’s initial script will be kept for the version Lucasfilm announced at Celebration, and that there’s a chance now that John Boyega’s Finn could return now that the film is headed in a different direction and will feature Daisy Ridley back as Rey.
Nick and I will talk more about this movie on next week’s episode of the SWTS, so don’t forget to tune into the Star Wars Time Show on a weekly basis via our podcast platforms or via YouTube if you prefer the livestream angle.