Every cancelled Star Wars project that was never made

Ever since Disney bought out the company Lucasfilm, we’ve seen countless different Star Wars projects; these projects range from movies, TV shows, shorts, and tons of other content. This October marked the iconic and classic 10 year anniversary of this happening, and let’s just say that there definitely hasn’t been a shortage of different things to look forward to within the franchise.

Within the first 38 years of Star Wars, there were six live-action movies. Since 2015, another five movies have been released.

Down below, we will be discussing some of the coolest unreleased projects, some projects that were released but tweaked slightly, and even some that we still might see at a later time. Whatever the case may be, let us know which one is the most exciting/surprised you the most!

1. Solo by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Yes, this movie did get released eventually, there was that short amount of time where things lied pretty uncertain with it. Initially, there were rumors that the same people who directed Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street were going to be directing Solo. Only a few short months later, those rumors (which would’ve been true) were taken away from us. We’ll never know exactly why such a split happened, but whatever the reason, we’re just glad that the film was still able to be released.

2. A Star Wars movie done by Zach Snyder

There were rumors a little while back that Zach Snyder, a horror and DC director and producer, was trying to pitch a Seven Samurai sort of film to Lucasfilm. Was that true? We will never know; his team at the time denied that it had anything to do with the Star Wars franchise anyways. Even though it’s not happening in the lightsaber universe, it is in the works as a brand new Netflix project and it will be called Rebel Moon. This project was either cancelled or giving a ‘no thanks’.

3. Star Wars 1313

While we first revealed that this list would feature movies and TV shows, this one just so happens to be an exception! Star Wars 1313 was actually a video game that was underway; this game would’ve focused on a main bounty hunter in the galaxy, Boba Fett. It was actively being produced when Disney bought Lucasfilm; however, the sister company Lucasarts was no more and eventually the project got scrapped. This would’ve been such a cool game! Would you play it?

4. A Boba Fett movie done by Josh Trank

Almost fresh out of the announcement of Disney buying Lucasfilm came quite the cool announcement: director of Chronicle, Josh Trank, would be directing a Star Wars film somewhere down the line. This particular announcement also came when it was announced that someone else would be directing a film (eventually was announced that that film was Rogue One). Trank’s movie got its plug pulled after he got into some supposed trouble while making Fantastic Four.

5. Star Wars Detours

This one is probably one of the only ones on this list that got completely scrapped after filming, editing, directing, what have you, was already finished. We had a trailer and everything. Everything was all set and ready to go. There were many rumors as to why the show got cancelled after it was literally all already made. The most recent and final rumor that we came across was that it was too silly and some even called it irrelevant for what the company wanted out of the franchise.

6. A Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy

There was one movie in the franchise that really kinda changed everything for the future going forward: The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm was so excited that they announced that Rian Johnson would be making a follow-up original trilogy in relation to it. This made fans super excited, but upon release of The Last Jedi, people got scared (radical choices in the movie, for example). All movies, because of this, were put on hold. It’s super unfortunate though, because this film rocks!

7. Rangers of the New Republic

Just two short years ago, the news came out that several new shows would be released on Disney+. Fans, much like myself, got super excited, but also mildly stressed out because that’s yet another thing to add to our watch-lists (not that I mind, though). Anyways, as far as Rangers goes, the lead actress, Cara Dune, was set to star in it. What’s the problem with that? Well, she was let go by Lucasfilm and eventually the project ended and some ideas end up in The Mandalorian…

8. Star Wars Episode IX  by Colin Trevorrow

Episode IX was originally set to be called “Duel of the Fates” (not a bad title idea per say, just used to the one that we all know, love, and adore now much better). The man responsible for Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow was all set to be working on the final trilogy. It is very heavily believed that Lucasfilm wasn’t a giant fan of the direction that the film was going in; ultimately J.J. Abrams had to step in. The script actually leaked and showed just how differently the characters were ‘moving’.

9. The Force Awakens written by Michael Arndt

Oscar-winning film writer, Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), was actually the first person to take a try at writing the script for Episode VII. About a year or so into him working on said project, he decided to leave; once again, this is when J.J. Abrams had to step in and alongside him was Lawrence Kasdan. There really wasn’t too many rumors as to why he left, but there was rumors as to what he was doing: focusing on the OG trilogy, and even a said “Jedi Killer” was in the mix too!

10. An Obi-Wan Kenobi Film Trilogy

Are you a huge fan of the Kenobi show that debuted on Disney+ earlier this year? I certainly was – I truly do think that it was a masterpiece within the franchise and still can’t quite get over just how dang cute and fierce that little Leia was. Prior to it becoming a TV show, it was set to be a trilogy of movies. Billy Elliot director, Stephen Daldry was all set to work on said project, when it was put on hold in the wake of Solo. At least we still got some great Kenobi content out of it, right?

11. A David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Star Wars film

Back around 2019, the showrunners of Game of Thrones were set to be working on a Star Wars franchise film; in particular it was going to be the first post-Rise of Skywalker Star Wars film that was set up for a 2022 release. The news broke legit almost the second that Game of Thrones had ended. When Rise of Skywalker didn’t live up to expectations (I still personally thought that it was a great movie and trailer), it got totally rethought and eventually scrapped.

12. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron

This is one of those projects that falls under out category of ‘we might still see it later on’. In late 2020, so really not that long ago, the director of Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins was going to make a Star Wars film about Rebel pilots. The film was actually given a December 2023 date (I remember initially hearing about this…I think). Time passed and nobody heard really much of anything about the film. It might be something that the franchise will be interested in in due time.

13. A J.D. Dillard movie

The director of two movies called Sleight and the other one called Sweetheart named J.D. Dillard actually just so happened to be J.J. Abrams assistant on The Force Awakens. Because of this, he was all set to be developing a Star Wars project of his own. During some promotion of his new movie at the time called Devotion (lots of one-word titles, huh?), Dillard was asked how the Star Wars project was going, to which he replied that it no longer was going…at all.

14. Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One

This is yet another Star Wars project that actually happened…it was just switched around part way through! Gareth Edwards is credited for directing Rogue One; however, it was pretty widely known (guess I missed this one) that Lucasfilm wasn’t too happy at all with the direction that the film was going in, so they hired writer Tony Gilroy to come on and help fix it up just a bit. Early trailers might give insight as to some of the slight changes that were made, but overall, it was still a good movie.

15. Star Wars Underworld

This project was actually cancelled long before Disney had bought out Lucasfilm as a whole. This was going to be a live-action TV show that was nearly all set and ready to go, when all of a sudden, as if we weren’t already expecting this, George Lucas and team decided that it was way too expensive for its time. Concept footage had leaked years back when this was first happening. Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy reportedly took it on and tried reviving it, but to no avail.

16. James Mangold’s Boba Fett movie

Although said news was never actually announced, there were some rumors at least that the man, the myth, the legend who is now directing his 5th Indiana Jones film, James Mangold, was working on a Boba Fett style of a Star Wars movie. Said film ended up getting axed after Solo had essentially underperformed and basically forced a reassessment of the whole entire model of a Star Wars type of story here. The Book of Boba Fett was eventually released to give fans content!

That’s a wrap on our current list of all Star Wars projects that were cancelled or re-worked on!

Which project, from this list, was the most interesting to read about? What film that was re-worked on do you think could’ve been better? All of this and more down in the comments! Enjoy!