Guillermo del Toro Confirms Axed ‘Star Wars’ Movie, Writer David S. Goyer Scripted It Four Years Ago: ‘There Is a Lot of Cool Art Work From It’

Guillermo del Toro confirmed on X/Twitter that he planned to direct a “Star Wars” movie around four years ago from a script by David S. Goyer, best known known for writing superhero movies such as “Batman Begins,” “Man of Steel” and more. The project never made it past development, but Goyer confirmed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that “a lot of cool art work” was produced for it.

“I wrote an un-produced ‘Star Wars’ movie that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct. That was about four years ago,” Goyer said. “There was a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time. It’s a cool script… you have to ask him about it. There is a lot of cool art work from it that was produced.”

Del Toro shared Goyer’s interview on X/Twitter and added: “True. Can’t say much. Maybe two letters ‘J’ and ‘BB’ is that three letters?” The director’s post has led “Star Wars” fans to theorize on what these letters might mean. Was del Toro planning to use BB-8 in a movie? Jabba the Hutt? The possibilities are endless.

Goyer also revealed that he started work on a second “Star Wars” project, a “script treatment for an origins of the Jedi movie that takes place 25,000 years before the first ‘Star Wars’ film.” While Goyer ultimately parted ways with Lucasfilm, a Jedi origin movie is now currently in development from “Logan” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold. He’s described the pitch as a Biblical epic about the dawn of the Force.

“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the Force,” Mangold previously told PvNew. “When I first talked to [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy about it, I just said, ‘I just see this opening to make kind of a ‘Ben-Hur’ or ‘The 10 Commandments’ about the birth of the force.’ The Force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now.”

Mangold’s film is one of three “Star Wars” movies in active development. Another, from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is a sequel to “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” that follows Rey (Daisy Ridley) as she trains a new Jedi order. And a third, from “Star Wars” favorite Dave Filoni, will close out the interconnected stories being told on the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka.”