Star Wars Celebration Day 1: Film Presentation

New 'Star Wars' movies are on the way featuring Daisy Ridley as Rey, with Dave Filoni, James Mangold and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy among those directing.

(L to R) Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daisy Ridley at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

Star Wars Celebration is happening now at the Excel Center in London, so of course the announcements are coming thick and fast about that galaxy far, far away.

Yet, following a fallow period after ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ that featured any number of big, exciting promises but nothing in the way of actual movies, it’s hard not to view the news with a slightly cynical eye –– how many times have must we be told about something Rian Johnson is cooking up, or Taika Waititi’s planned film –– before we start to cross our arms as a fandom and say, “we’ll believe it when we see it!”

Our patience (young Padawans) might yet be rewarded, as Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm team took to the stage to confirm a new trio of films that hopefully have a lot more chance of coming to fruition (though, of course, we all said that about Patty Jenkins’ ‘Rogue Squadron’, still yet to leave the development hangar and waiting for a slot on the roster.)

So what did get announced today?

(L to R) Director James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

What is Dave Filoni working on?

Dave Filoni, of course, is one of the masterminds (alongside Jon Favreau) of the current run of small screen ‘Star Wars’ that has helped to keep the flame alive for fans including 'The Mandalorian’ and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ and the upcoming likes of ‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Skeleton Crew’.

But Filoni, whose province has been on the small screen for years now, is being rewarded with a shot at the big one.

He will direct a big-screen adventure tying in to ‘The Mandalorian’, a “cinematic event” that tells a vital part of the “escalating war between the Imperial remnant and the New Republic.” It’ll continue to flesh out the time between ‘Return of the Jedi’ and ‘The Force Awakens’ –– though it’s currently unknown whether it’ll mark a final chapter in the wider ‘Mando-verse’ story, or whether Filoni and Jon Favreau’s epic yarn will continue beyond the big-screen tale.

Also unknown at this point? The title or any specific details on which characters might appear. But we’d put serious credits on a certain green, big eared charmer showing up in some capacity.

(L to R) Dave Filoni, Daisy Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

What is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s film?

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the Pakistani documentary maker who was welcomed into the wider Disney family thanks to her work on episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel’, has been attached to a mysterious new ‘Star Wars’ movie since at least 2022.

It has been through some development wrinkles –– ‘The Leftovers’ and ‘Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof was reportedly co-writing the script at one point, but that job seems to have switched more recently to ‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight.

This one sounds most likely to thrill fans of the ongoing Skywalker storyline, since it’ll see the return of a big part of the sequel trilogy.

The will take place at the furthest end of the ‘Star Wars’ timeline, moving 15 years beyond ‘The Rise of Skywalker’. Her film, set in an era described as the New Jedi Order, will be all about establishing a bountiful new age of Force-users in the wake of the Skywalker Saga. And the Jedi building that future? None other than Rey herself, with Daisy Ridley confirmed to return in the role she originated. “My heart is pounding,” Ridley stated as she took to the Celebration stage, to huge cheers from the audience.

(L to R) Director James Mangold, and Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

James Mangold to direct a Star Wars Movie

Finally, there is news of a third movie to be directed by another filmmaker drafted in from a different corner of the Lucasfilm empire.

James Mangold, who has been busy on ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (more on that in a moment) is also headed for ‘Star Wars’.

For his film, he’s going right back to the beginning –– exploring “the first Jedi to wield the Force” as he explained on stage. It goes back to the earliest part of the newly-updated set of Star Wars eras, the Dawn Of The Jedi.

Here’s what Mangold later told Empire about the movie,

“It takes place 25,000 years before Episode IV, and it’s about the discovery of the Force,” he explains. His influences extend to historical theological epics. “I told Kathy [Kennedy] I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of 'Ten Commandments' of ‘Star Wars’ –– kind of a Cecil B. DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea.”

None of the movies have a release date or name announced yet, though with Disney/Lucasfilm targeting a December 2025 slot for a new ‘Star Wars’ movie, there’s a chance one of them could fill it. And at least it sounds like they have a plan –– now we wait and see if it works out.

(L to R) Director James Mangold, Mads Mikkelsen, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge from 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

"His final adventure will be his greatest."

PG-132 hr 35 minJun 30th, 2023

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Online

A new Indiana Jones trailer

Talking of Mangold, Team Lucasfilm also revealed the latest look at ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’, the fifth and likely final outing for Harrison Ford’s artifact-hunting adventurer.

With the story (aside from a prologue set in the 1940s at the peak of Indy’s adventures and featuring some impressively de-aged shots of Ford) now taking place in the late 1960s, an older and wiser––debatably––Dr. Jones is more content to lecture than to put his life at risk to find some mythical treasure. It’s not the years, as he once reminded us, it’s the mileage.

But when he’s contacted by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), he realizes that he can’t escape his past entirely. The title gadget is being sought by a Nazi sleeper cell (including Mads Mikkelsen’s Voller) who plan to use it to correct Hitler’s “mistakes” and see the Reich restored.

Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in Lucasfilm's 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.'

They discovered it, Jones took it from them way back when and now –– as this new footage reveals –– Helena takes it from him, since she’s found a bidder willing to pay richly for it. Cue another adventure for our hero.

The new trailer, which stylishly blends the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ with the classic Indy theme is sure to get fans excited.

Following a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the next Indy movie is due in theaters on June 30th.