The One With The Force: James Mangold's Star Wars Will Take Place 25,000 Years Before The Phantom Menace

Image courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney

 James Mangold says his upcoming Star Wars film will take place 25,000 years before The Phantom Menace. The movie is said to take a deeper look into the Force and won't interfere with established canon in the hopes of steering clear of a rabid fandom. The movie which has been gestating for just over a year has no official title and no release date at this time but is still in active development from Disney. Mangold's last feature was the critically panned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. 

When speaking with Movieweb, Mangold had this to say:

"The Star Wars movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known Star Wars movie takes place. It's an area and a playground that I've always wanted to explore and that I was inspired by as a teenager. I'm not that interested in being handcuffed by so much lore at this point that it's almost immovable, and you can't please anybody."

This falls in line with was Disney has done with their latest streaming release of Skeleton Crew. The current short run series takes place outside of the known universe, based on a hidden planet away from what we've all seen and known for decades. While it's Star Wars at its core, it doesn't rely on the Skywalker legacy to tell its story, which is a nice break from the norm. 

His movie is said to explore the origins of the Force and how it's "understood, wielded and harnessed." It does sound interesting and may be a nice expansion for the mythology. We'll see how this goes. Kathleen Kennedy seems to be on auto-destruct with most announced Star Wars movies. 

-CG