James Mangold’s ‘Star Wars’ Movie to Be Co-Written by ‘House of Cards’ Co-Creator Beau Willimon

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“House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon will co-write the script for “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi.”

He’ll pen the Lucasfilm project alongside James Mangold, who will also direct the film. It will trace the origins of the Force and will be set 25,000 years before any other “Star Wars” project previously seen.

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“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the force,” Mangold told Variety in 2023 when the film was announced. “When I first talked to 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 most recently directed “Logan” and last summer’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

Elsewhere in a galaxy far, far away, Disney announced on Friday that “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” a cinematic spinoff of the hit Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” will open May 22, 2026.

“Dawn of the Jedi” isn’t Willimon’s first brush with the franchise — he previously wrote for the first season of the critically-acclaimed “Andor” series starring Diego Luna. In the film world, he wrote the 2018 film “Mary Queen of Scotts,” and co-wrote the screenplay for “The Ides of March” with Grant Heslov and George Clooney.

Willimon is represented by WME and Schreck Rose.

The Hollywood Reporter was first to report the news.

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