James Mangold’s upcoming Dawn of the Jedi movie will do more for Star Wars’ storytelling than a Boba Fett solo film ever could. Recently, Star Wars has been expanding its narrative timeline. Where before, the few decades of the Skywalker saga were the core focus of Disney’s Star Wars canon, new projects and initiatives have drastically broadened the audience’s understanding of the galaxy. The High Republic Era takes place a few centuries before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the so-called Mandoverse has been detailing the significance of the New Republic’s reign, and Rey Skywalker’s upcoming New Jedi Order movie will take the audience further into the future than ever before.
Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi film slots perfectly into Star Wars’ new narrative direction. Going back even further than the High Republic Era, Mangold’s movie will take place at least 25,000 years before the Star Wars prequel trilogy. This is a huge timeline jump, as the film will look at the origins of the Force and the roots of the Jedi religion. In a recent interview with Variety, Mangold confirmed that years before his Ten Commandments-inspired movie was green-lit by Lucasfilm, he’d initially been working on a Boba Fett spin-off movie. Thankfully, however, that project never went anywhere, and audiences will now be given a chance to learn more about the ancient history of Star Wars' mystical peacekeepers.
