James Mangold Reportedly Shuns ‘Star Wars’ & DCU Movies Again for Timothee Chalamet Motocross Movie

Mangold and Chalamet scored a hit with the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown last year, and now it looks like they will be collaborating again on High Side, a motocross-themed heist thriller drawn from an unpublished Jaime Oliveira short story and now being shopped by Chernin Entertainment. The reports, which are still only suggested at this point, describe the story as being centered on a fallen MotoGP prodigy named Billy who is lured into a string of bank robberies by his estranged brother, with the duo relying on superbike skills…think Point Break on two wheels.

While this will be great news for fans of Mangold and Chalamet and high-octane drama, it is not the best news for fans of either James Gunn’s DCU or the Star Wars franchise. There have already been rumblings about both movies being potentially derailed by Mangold’s seeming inability to stick with either of these projects, and these latest whisperings are not going to make that go away.

Will James Mangold Ever Make His ‘Star Wars’ and DCU Movies?

Warner Bros. Television

James Mangold’s potential involvement in the DCU as the writer and director of Swamp Thing was originally announced over two years ago, but since then, there has been no movement at all on the film. Peter Safran, James Gunn’s co-CEO at DC Studios, previously suggested that Swamp Thing had been delayed indefinitely, as the movie would either be made with Mangold or not at all. He said earlier this year:

“[Swamp Thing’s] writer/director went off to make another little movie, A Complete Unknown. We hope that he’ll come back to Swamp Thing when he’s ready. Because, again, that was one of those ones, we love him as a filmmaker, so we’re happy to wait for him. Swamp Thing is not integral to the larger story that we’re telling.”

For Lucasfilm, however, Mangold possibly sidestepping into yet another movie could cause bigger problems. While the DCU seems to have many different movies cooking in their oven, Lucasfilm – and Disney – are desperate to make Star Wars a dominant force on the big screen after years of slumming it on Disney+. However, other than Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu, and now Shawn Levy’s Starfighter, most other potential movie releases have been scrapped or stalled in some way.

It seems that everyone is happy to wait for James Mangold to find time to make movies for them, but the more he strays from the path, the less likely it becomes that we will ever get to see either of his big franchise movies ever make it to the big screen. In the meantime, The Mandalorian & Grogu is locked in for May 22 2026 and Levy’s star-fighter adventure for Memorial Day 2027, potentially giving Mangold a few years to write, film and complete his movie for a possible 2028 release.

Birthname

James Allen Mangold

Birthdate

December 16, 1963

Birthplace

New York City, New York, USA

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