Screenwriter Simon Farnaby has confirmed that a Star Wars film he was developing with director Paul King never made it past the pitch stage. Farnaby, who co-wrote Paddington 2 and Wonka, told Variety in a recent interview that Lucasfilm passed on the project years ago.
The film centered on a robot character and did not focus on any of the franchise’s familiar Jedi, Sith, or Skywalker figures. Farnaby said Lucasfilm executives wanted something that felt unmistakably like a Star Wars movie, and the robot-driven concept did not clear that bar.
“They were like, we really need it to be a Star Wars movie, which is probably why it didn’t get turned into a Star Wars movie,” Farnaby said, according to Variety’s report.
Paul King went on to direct both Paddington films and Wonka instead, cementing his reputation as one of the more inventive family-film directors working today. Farnaby said the original robot concept has not been thrown out. He and King are reworking it into a standalone science fiction film with no connection to the Star Wars universe.
The news lands at a rough moment for Lucasfilm. The studio has cycled through leadership changes in recent years, and several planned Star Wars films have stalled in development or been quietly shelved. Kathleen Kennedy’s slate of theatrical projects has repeatedly slipped, with directors and writers attached and later detached from various announced films.
Disney has leaned more heavily on streaming series like The Mandalorian and Andor to keep the franchise active while its theatrical pipeline sorts itself out. No new Star Wars film currently has a confirmed release date, and the studio has not said when that might change.
Farnaby did not say when the reworked sci-fi project might be ready or which studio would make it. For now, it exists only as an idea Lucasfilm once looked at and turned down, a footnote in a franchise still trying to find its next theatrical hit.
