George Nolfi Talks George Lucas’ Political Influence on ‘New Jedi Order’ and Star Wars Legacy

In October 2022, it was reported that Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were co-writing a new Star Wars movie, tentatively dubbed ‘New Jedi Order’ with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as the director. The film was supposed to take place after the sequel trilogy, possibly featuring characters from those films.

However, by March 2023, Lindelof and Britt-Gibson left, and Steven Knight replaced them as the screenwriter. Daisy Ridley was confirmed to return as Rey in April 2023, but by October 2024, Steven Knight also left, and George Nolfi was hired to write the screenplay, with filming now expected to start in late 2025.

The movie has seen numerous delays and problems with writers and quite frankly we have no idea in what state the movie currently is, however Nolfi, certainly has a good idea on how to approach the series.

George Nolfi explained that when writing for a series as rich in lore as Star Wars, he first looks at what has come before and considers the broad ideas set by Lucasfilm, Disney, and the director, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Then, he focuses on creating the story and characters, while ensuring that his work respects and honors the Star Wars tradition.

The way I approach it is, you look at what’s come before you, you look at the broad ideas of what they want to do. Meaning: Lucasfilm, Disney, Sharmeen [Obaid-Chinoy], the director, and then you do what a writer does, and try to try and put beats of a story together. Try and imagine characters, and then you present that with an understanding that it needs to honour, obviously, a long, incredible tradition.

Nolfi explained that Star Wars is deeply rooted in political themes, inspired by concepts like the rise of the Empire, the collapse of democracy, and the shift from order to oppression. He believes George Lucas used science fiction to explore these deep issues in a way that feels engaging, not like a political lecture or philosophy class.

If you think about George Lucas, the six movies that he did, and the universe that he created, it’s actually very steeped in broad notions of politics. It’s not talking about today, per se, but there’s the Empire’s Nazism slash Roman Empire. The democracy of the Roman Empire collapsing and becoming an empire and the perennial story of human beings organising themselves and against chaos, and then the tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos becomes oppression. 

So that is really very core to what I think George Lucas was trying to talk about. And one of the wonderful things about science fiction and Star Wars – which is more almost science fantasy or space opera – is that you can raise the deepest issues without it feeling like a philosophy class, or a political science class, or something I read in the newspaper today. It can be about real things, deep things.

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