Screenwriters and co-developers Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson exit their Star Wars project before it could begin shooting, marking it as another Star Wars film-related upheaval. While production will continue as planned, Lindelof and Britt-Gibson will not be more involved.

This decision arrived a couple of days after Lindelof gave an interview with /Film during the South by Southwest Film Festival, discussing his doubts about whether he was up to the challenge of creating a Star Wars film. In the interview, he shows how seriously he takes his job and is unwilling to go forward if it doesn’t meet expectations. “If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist,” he explains. Lindelof cites his love and reverence for the Star Wars franchise in the interview, talking about the magic he felt when he was young and watched it with his father. Due to this awe, he feels it’s reasonable if “you start to get in the kitchen and just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’”

According to a report by Above the Line, Lindelof, and Britt-Gibson turned in their screenplay in mid-February and parted ways with the production a couple of days later. Despite this exit, production will still begin shooting on schedule on February 2024 for a release date of about December 19, 2025. Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is still attached to the project and will work with a currently unknown writer, Lucasfilm, brought on board after Lindelof and Britt-Gibson’s departure.