Lost Creator Damon Lindelof's Star Wars Plans Would Have Changed The Franchise Forever

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"Star Wars" may be returning to the big screen with "The Mandalorian and Grogu" after a bit of hiatus, but all anyone can seem to talk about these days are the movies that weren't able to make it across the finish line. Of course, this particular franchise is littered with the wreckage of projects and pitches that simply weren't to be — from the abandoned version of "Solo" that original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller envisioned to Colin Trevorrow's initial sequel trilogy-capper "Duel of the Fates." But a select few managed to strike an even larger chord among fans, including Steven Soderbergh's Ben Solo movie starring Adam Driver. Now, we're learning more about another tantalizing production that almost sounds too good to have been true and, yes, would've changed everything.

Some might remember that /Film's Ryan Scott was actually the first to break the news that something was up with the "Star Wars" movie Damon Lindelof had been hired to write. Not even a week later, it was officially confirmed that Lindelof and writer Justin Britt-Gibson had parted ways with Lucasfilm. Since then, we've heard very little about why this happened and what their unique take on "Star Wars" would've been about, beyond focusing on Daisy Ridley's Rey post-Skywalker Saga ... until now.

Thanks to a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) by YouTuber Matthew R., Lindelof's recent guest appearance on the "House of R" podcast has been making the rounds. During the extensive conversation, the ever-vocal writer opened up about what went down with his usual wry humor. "[Lucasfilm] asked me, 'What do you think a 'Star Wars' movie should be?' And I said, 'Here's what it should be.' And they said, 'Great, you're hired.' And then two years later, I was fired," he explained.

Damon Lindelof's Star Wars movie would've been about nostalgia versus revisionism

Let's just say we have a feeling that Rian Johnson's "The Last Jedi," aka the sequel film where the villain outright stated, "Let the past die; kill it, if you have to," resonated with Damon Lindelof. While it seems as if his "Star Wars" movie would've been set after the events of "The Rise of Skywalker" and followed Rey in her own solo movie (directed by "Ms. Marvel" filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy), any other information about the broad strokes of the script remain locked up tighter than the Death Star plans — which is to say, everybody knows about it now. Lindelof did the honors of revealing the main thematic thrust behind his idea of what a "Star Wars" movie could be:

"But what we were attempting to do, my partner Justin Britt-Gibson and Rayna McClendon and I, what we were attempting to do was to have this conversation in the movie. Which is to say, there is a Force of nostalgia and there is a Force of revision, and they are at odds with one another, and let's do the Protestant Reformation inside 'Star Wars,' and it didn't work. You have your cake and eat it, too. But the conversation that the fandom is having, without winking and looking at the audience [...] that didn't feel necessarily that risky."

Honestly, that sounds fascinating. This seems like exactly the kind of big swing we're used to seeing from the mind behind hit shows like "Lost," "The Leftovers," and "Watchmen," while also helping redefine the franchise in a similar way that "The Last Jedi" did. Would this have upset close-minded fans? Almost certainly. Would we take this over something as dull as "The Mandalorian and Grogu"? Abso-freaking-lutely.

Why Damon Lindelof thinks Lucasfilm fired him from Star Wars

Later in his conversation with the "House of R" podcast, hosted by Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin, Damon Lindelof clarified why his vision for the sequel ultimately didn't pan out. Apparently, it didn't have to do with the studio being scared off by his pitch, encouragingly enough. Instead, the writer chalks it up to several different factors:

"The writing was really hard. It was slow — the tone, getting it right, where it [fit] inside of the canon, what its relationship was with 'Episode IX.' Is it starting a new trilogy? All of those things, they're so massive, they're so big. It's the old tanker equation, which is you turn the wheel and it takes five minutes before it turns a little bit like this."

It's not terribly surprising that Lucasfilm found itself at a crossroads after "The Rise of Skywalker" ended with the Skywalker Saga with a whimper and struggled to figure out a way forward. Unfortunately, for Lindelof and his writers, that came at their expense of their proposed Rey movie. Lindelof went on to conclude:

"I think that idea of, we're looking for the center of 'Star Wars.' And when 'Episode VII' came out, we all knew what it was: it was Rey and it was Finn and it was Poe. And then we were migrating back in: Luke and Leia and Han and Chewie and all those guys. But we got the sense that, when this new trilogy was over, we were going to be launching with these new characters, and that was the center of 'Star Wars.' The new question is, are Mando and Grogu the center of 'Star Wars' now?"

Perhaps. "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is next up, hitting theaters on May 22, 2026.