Rumor: James Mangold Tackling Star Wars Before Swamp Thing for DC

During Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced that the company would be continuing its partnership with its Indiana Jones 5 director James Mangold in the form of a new Star Wars feature film. Mangold apparently pitched the film to Kennedy while making Indy 5 as a biblical epic, a mixture between The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur that would explore the origins of the Jedi, taking place during the newly-named era 'Dawn of the Jedi'. The movie is yet to be titled.



Mangold's was one of three film projects to be announced during Star Wars Celebration, alongside a movie about Rey Skywalker rebuilding the Jedi Order (by director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy), and a movie acting as the culmination event for all storylines from The Mandalorian and its spin-off series (by director Dave Filoni). According to reports, Lucasfilm intends for Star Wars to make its big return to the big screen with the Rey film, following it up with Filoni's film one year later. That places Mangold's story as the third and last one of the three to be released.



Timelines do match up here, as Mangold is supposed to be filming a Bob Dylan biopic this August (with Timothée Chalamet attached to star), a month after Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres. However, it was also confirmed over the weekend that, in addition to Star Wars, James Mangold is also going to be directing the upcoming DC Studios film Swamp Thing. As a result, the new question has become what he'll be filming first. According to reporter Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic With Jeff and John, Mangold is supposed to be traveling to a galaxy far, far away before he takes over his DC film.



LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 07: James Mangold attends the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny presentation during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)



On the one hand, this makes sense. From James Gunn's announcement of the DC Studios slate, we know that Swamp Thing is probably the last project the studio will be producing from what they've confirmed so far. Since they are coming out of the gate with their first film in July of 2025, Swamp Thing is probably looking at a late 2020s, maybe even early 2030s, release date (I know, that sounds dizzy). But he's probably been developing this Star Wars film for over a year, either on his mind or putting pen to paper already (he's also confirmed he's writing the film), so it makes sense that he will be working on that right after he's finished with the Bob Dylan biopic (early-to-mid-2025 seems like a good estimate for when he could be ready to turn in a first draft of the script, unless he's multitasking a lot).



On the other hand, this is already bringing back some PTSD-like flashbacks from the Patty Jenkins-Rogue Squadron announcement, as she was confirmed to be developing a project for Lucasfilm and DC within 10 days, and right before her new film for one of those companies was to be released. And at the time, she was also going to work on another biopic of sorts, directing a Cleopatra movie with Gal Gadot. All of that eventually fell apart, so we hope it's not happening again.







Lucasfilm has not yet committed to specific release dates, probably out of fear of not meeting them. Their next slated theatrical film is on December 19, 2025, but they might be extra cautious to lock down a movie for that date as they could be thinking Obaid-Chinoy's project could benefit from a months-long delay, especially given recent behind-the-scenes writer shakeups. Avatar 4 is supposed to hit theaters in December of 2026, but James Cameron recently hinted it could move into 2027, thus allowing Lucasfilm to take that spot should they need it.



Whatever the case may be, given the current state of things and his own schedules, it's unlikely we'll see Mangold's 'Dawn of the Jedi' film (or Star Wars Zero as he's calling it) before December of 2027 (which would be extremely optimistic and likely quite rushed).



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