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If you want an example of how to make franchise films that still feel original, look no further than James Mangold's Logan. Despite the decade plus of complicated cinematic X-Men lore, Logan is a movie that stays unrestrained by all its history, while still respecting what's come before. And now, James Mangold is diving into a new franchise, staying unshackled its even larger canon. That franchise is, of course, Star Wars, and Mangold recently spoke about how he's managing to give it the Logan treatment.

(Our words, not his, but the point still stands.)

Before we get to that though, let's get some context in here. James Mangold's upcoming Star Wars feature film is currently referred to as Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, but as The Hollywood Reporter makes clear, that's only a working title. What we do know for sure is that the film will be set 25 millennia before any Star Wars films we've seen before. And if that sounds like something very different from previous trips to that Galaxy Far, Far Away, it should.

"To me, the really important aspects are the freedom to make something new," Mangold said in a recent interview with MovieWeb, "Do we find a way on the page to say something original?" He continues:

"The Star Wars movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known Star Wars movies takes place. It's an area and a playground that I've always [wanted to explore] and that I was inspired by as a teenager. I'm not that interested in being handcuffed by so much lore at this point that it's almost immovable, and you can't please anybody."

Mangold has a point - with so much storytelling taking place within the years of the Skywalker Saga (Episodes I - IX), there's only so much wiggle room an artist has to tell a really original story, especially with Disney and Lucasfilm's commitment to keeping canon consistent across all Star Wars media. That doesn't completely rule out good stories, Andor is proof of that, but it's a critique often leveled at beleaguered entries such as The Book of Boba Fett, Skeleton Crew, and Ahsoka.

Also, since we're on the subject of the Skywalker Saga timeline, we feel the need to point out that if Mangold's comments are to be taken completely literally, they only confirm that Dawn of the Jedi will take place 25,000 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, not Disney+'s The Acolyte. It's a difference of some 200 years, which is hardly anything in a timeline this huge, and it could very well be just an issue of semantics.

But hey, that's us being sticklers for canonicity, which is very much not what Mangold is trying to do with his upcoming Star Wars feature. If Dawn of the Jedi is a success, Mangold might agree, people will be less concerned about where it fits in on the Star Wars timeline, and more excited by how it stands out from that timeline, just as they were excited by how Logan stood out form other X-Men flicks.

Let's just hope Dawn of the Jedi can avoid getting Deadpooled.

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.