Hollywood insider and producer Kamran Pasha recently claimed that the reported Star Wars project from Watchmen showrunner Damon Lindelof is not happening.
Lindelof’s Star Wars project was first rumored to be in the works by Richard Rushfield at The Ankler back in March 2022.
Rushfield claimed, “Word around Buena Vista St. is that Damon Lindelof, the Emmy-winning creator of Watchmen, Lost and The Leftovers, is working on a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.”
The project would then be announced to be in the works by The Hollywood Reporter (THR) in October 2022.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Aaron Couch claimed Lindelof was co-writing the script and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy would be directing the film.
THR’s Borys Kit would provide further coverage about the film a day later claiming that the project had “been in the works for months.” Kit also claimed that Lindelof was writing the script with Justin Britt Gibson.
He went on to reveal that the film is being planned as a stand-alone film, but if it happened to be successful it could lead to sequels. Finally, he revealed the film would take place following the events of The Rise of Skywalker and could “feature some of the characters from the Star Wars trilogy made in the 2010s.”
At the end of 2022, World of Reel claimed Lindelof’s Star Wars film would go into production beginning in April 2023.
There have also been conflicting reports from Jeff Sneider at The Ankler about the race and gender of the lead character. On the podcast The Hot Mic, Sneider originally claimed, “So I’ve heard that the lead in Lindelof’s new movie, the Star Wars movie. Is Lindelof directing this movie? I don’t know. So I heard that the lead will be a person of colour and likely, though it’s not confirmed, it’s what I took from it, it’s a man. I couldn’t get a name or anything like that.”
However, in now-deleted tweet he claimed that it would be a woman lead rather than a man. As reported by Bespin Bulletin, Sneider tweeted, “Update to yesterday’s HOT MIC podcast. I had predicted Brian Tyree Henry would wind up the lead in a STAR WARS movie, and maybe he will, but for now, I’ve heard that the POC lead in Lindelof’s movie is actually a woman, not a man as I’d originally been lead to believe. Any ideas?”
Sneider explained the deletion on Twitter writing, “Original source reached out to say someone’s f***ing with me and it’s a guy, so who knows? I don’t care, it’s Friday night. AMA that’s not about STAR WARS!”
Despite all the reporting there hasn’t been a confirmation of the film from Lucasfilm and Kamran Pasha claims the entire film is not happening.
He appeared on Valliant Renegade’s channel where he first detailed how he didn’t believe any of the reporting because the film came out of nowhere and film production and development usually takes a significant amount of time to come together. He also claimed that Lindelof has a reputation for not getting his projects together in a timely fashion.
However, he then went on to reveal information he received from a source within The Walt Disney Company that informed him, “Lindelof did not have authorization to announce he had an upcoming movie at Lucasfilm. [Kathleen Kennedy] was forced to confirm, she didn’t announce it nor did her people… it came from his camp.”
Pasha went on to claim that Lindelof and his people might be trying to will the project into reality by announcing the film without permission. He explained, “It fits into the modus operandi that I have believed and claimed and have heard from my sources is true that the same thing was done with the master of this, Leslye Headland and The Acolyte, where she basically decided, you know, ‘I’m gonna force their hand. I’m gonna move to make this show by announcing things without permission.'”
Fellow scooper and insider WDW Pro would provide his analysis claiming the project is not happening given the timing of it and the current transition phase that The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm is in.
He explained, “All of this is a farce. We know that they’re going into a transition time. The transition is coming. None of this is real. We all know it’s not real. It’s the ramblings of a studio in disarray.”
Pasha then suggested that Lindelof was using the disarray to push himself, “This gentleman has had his career. His star has fallen in the last several years. You don’t hear anything about him. And suddenly now, he’s the talk of the town. Because again, the strategy is this project isn’t real, but now his agent can call around and say, ‘Look what he’s doing and let’s put him up for this assignment. Let’s put him up for this project. You want to meet with him again, right?’ It’s just strategy.”
Later in the video, Pasha discussed another scoop he received from an alleged insider who told him, “Kennedy asked Iger if, given the newly planned Lindelof movie, she could stay on to oversee it. Bob said no.”
While discussing this information, Pasha explained it was a ploy for Kennedy to try and stay on at Lucasfilm as long as she has something in development. He revealed that his source informed him that the Lindelof project is not real, “Apparently, the direct conversation that my source is privy to said Bob Iger’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s not real. You and I know that’s not real. So no.”
What do you make of this rumor? Do you think the Lindelof project is legitimate or is it all smoke and mirrors?