Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi has officially been announced, with Logan director James Mangold confirmed as director. After the lukewarm reception to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 and several feature film false starts, Lucasfilm has been mostly focusing on Star Wars Disney Plus shows like The Mandalorian. With Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron and Rian Johnson's announced film seemingly on the backburner, it has long been unclear what is next in of feature films set in a galaxy far, far, away.

At Star Wars Celebration 2023, however, it has now been confirmed that Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi is on the way, and it's set very far before existing movies in the franchise.

Mangold's film will be set 25,000 years in the past and is expected to chronicle the origins of the Jedi and the Force. It's currently unclear when the film is expected to release.

Dawn Of The Jedi Can Fix A Big Star Wars Problem

Ben Solo (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) holding lightsabers in The Rise of Skywalker.

J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens was generally quite well received, but Johnson’s follow-up film, The Last Jedi, was far more divisive. The film that concluded Disney’s sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, was generally disliked and is widely considered a lackluster finale to Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) story.

Related: JJ Abrams' Original Rise Of Skywalker Story (& Problems) Uncovered

One reason why the film was so disappointing is that it relied too heavily on nostalgia and made a number of very safe but ultimately unsatisfying storytelling decisions. Bringing back Palpatine as a villain, for example, and making him Rey's blood relative, felt like quite a stretch and didn't really fit with the new story that was being told. Since Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi is set so far before the events of Rise of Skywalker and the entire Skywalker Saga, it can tell an entirely new story with new characters.

Free from the pressure that comes with telling a Skywalker story with legacy characters during an era that has already been very extensively explored, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi can blaze some much-needed new ground. Hopefully, this will result in a story that feels like a fresh exploration of the vast Star Wars universe instead of an attempt to cash in on franchise nostalgia. It will likely be quite a while before any more concrete information is released about Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, but the project is already an exciting addition to the film slate.

Source: Star Wars Celebration

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