Daisy Ridley‘s “Star Wars” movie is still alive. Lucasfilm has hired George Nolfi (“The Borne Ultimatum”) to write the script for the long-gestating follow-up to 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which is still set to be the feature directorial debut for Oscar-winning documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
By the time Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy officially announced the project and Ridley’s involvement at Star Wars Celebration in April 2023, the film — which currently has the working title of “Star Wars: New Jedi Order” — had already lost its initial screenwriting team of Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” “Prometheus”) and Justin Britt-Gibson (“The Strain”). Their replacement, Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”), worked on the film for over a year before departing in the fall of 2024. While the project’s underlying premise has remained the same — Ridley’s character, Rey, oversees a new class of Jedi knights — Knight’s departure coincided with the removal of a “Star Wars” film scheduled for December 2026 from Disney’s film slate, indicating that the film is nowhere near ready to go before cameras.
Hiring Nolfi, however, makes clear that Lucasfilm also isn’t putting the Ridley project into carbonite and remains dedicated to getting it into theaters — if not quite at light speed. Instead, a “Star Wars” film directed by Shawn Levy and likely starring Ryan Gosling appears to be on track to follow “The Mandalorian & Grogu” as the next “Star Wars” movie with an official greenlight.
After starting his career as the screenwriter of hit films “Ocean’s 12 and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” Nolfi pivoted to directing with the 2011 Matt Damon sci-fi thriller “The Adjustment Bureau.” Most recently, he directed Anthony Mackie in the 2020 drama “The Banker” and the 2024 sci-fi thriller “Elevation.”
