James Mangold's 'Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi' is set 25,000 years before George Lucas' saga so he wasn't "handcuffed by so much lore".

The 61-year-old filmmaker is set to helm the upcoming sci-fi blockbuster - which will showcase the origins of the Jedi Order - and has now explained he chose to set 'Dawn of the Jedi' long before the events of the Skywalker saga in an effort to ensure he had full creative control of the story.

Speaking to MovieWeb, he said: "The 'Star Wars' movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known 'Star Wars' movies take 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."

'Dawn of the Jedi' will be Mangold's next major franchise film after he helmed 2023's 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' and the X-Men movie 'Logan', though he insisted the appeal of the 'Star Wars' series will not automatically guarantee his flick's success.

Instead, the director wants 'Dawn of the Jedi' to win audiences over emotionally and offer viewers a special experience they will want to revisit.

The 'A Complete Unknown' filmmaker explained: "Success is never guaranteed, but the reality is that the way to get most people to agree is to move them; to somehow find the humanity in a situation.

"Whether it's a mega-franchise or a smaller dramatic movie, whatever they are, usually the movies you remember are the ones that move you. The ones that leave you cold, even if they're clever, even if they're spectacular, even if they're dazzling, somehow just become replaced by the next dazzling object a year later.

"It's the feelings, it's 'the feels' right? That truly defines how we feel about these movies and whether we care to visit them again."

While Mangold is raring to make his 'Star Wars' movie, the director previously stated that he wouldn't make a multi-verse film like 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' or 'The Flash' because he considered the theme to be "the enemy of storytelling".

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said: "It's weird that I've even worked in the world of I.P. entertainment, because I don't like multi-movie universe-building.

"I think it's the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It's more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us."

'The Wolverine' director added he wanted to make movies focusing on character-driven stories that work on an "emotional level", instead of pictures that rely on impressing fans with 'Easter eggs'.

He said: "For me, the goal becomes, always, 'What is unique about this film, and these characters?' Not making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level."