New ‘Star Wars’ Movie in Development With ‘Sleight’ Director, ‘Luke Cage’ Writer

By Adam B. Vary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Lucasfilm is developing a new “Star Wars” feature film with “Sleight” writer-director J.D. Dillard and “Luke Cage” writer Matt Owens, Variety has confirmed.

The project is still in its very early stages, and all further details — characters, location, time period within the “” creative galaxy — remain a mystery. That includes whether Dillard would direct the film, or whether the project would premiere in theaters or on Disney Plus.

Should the project land a greenlight, however, it would be the first time black filmmakers were lead creative forces behind a live-action “Star Wars” movie.

Disney/ declined to comment.

The murkiness of the platform for this prospective new “Star Wars” project, meanwhile, only further clouds the future of “Star Wars” at Disney.

On the theatrical side, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson is still nominally developing a new suite of “Star Wars” movies for Lucasfilm, but this month he was also tapped by Lionsgate to make a sequel to his hit 2019 film “Knives Out.” Kevin Feige is also developing a “Star Wars” movie, and screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (“Avatar,” “Shutter Island”) is reportedly writing a feature for Lucasfilm based on the beloved video game series “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” But although Disney has three “Star Wars” movies dated to debut in theaters in Dec. 2022, Dec. 2024, and Dec. 2026, no actual projects have been officially attached to those dates.

On the Disney Plus side, at least, things are much more firm. Walt Disney Company chairman Bob Iger told investors earlier this month that “the priority in the next few years [for ‘Star Wars’] is television,” which could include spin-offs of the hit Disney Plus series “The Mandalorian” — the second season of which debuts this October . Lucasfilm is still pushing ahead with a planned series with Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, although production had to be pushed to 2021 after writer Hossein Amini departed the project. (McGregor told  Variety that the delay is “not really as dramatic as it might seem.”) And a “Rogue One” prequel series starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor is still on track to debut in 2021.

Where this new “Star Wars” feature fits in, only baby Yoda knows for sure.