As excited as we all are about Star Wars: The Force Awakens this December, let’s not forget that another Star Wars movie will follow in 2016 when Monsters and Godzilla director Gareth Edwards takes the helm.

Who or what it will focus on remains to be seen, but one rumour indicates that it will feature a group of mercenaries or bounty hunters hired by the Rebels to steal the plans of the Death Star from A New Hope.

Regardless, it has been revealed that the Star Wars spinoff has lost writer Gary Whitta. The Book of Eli scribe is expected to move onto his next project (which may or may not be the big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s Starlight) now that the first draft of the script has been completed. He joined the project last May.

“Gary has been a wonderful, inspired contributor and I enjoyed working with him tremendously,” said Edwards in a statement released today. “I’m so grateful for all of his contributions.” Whitta meanwhile adds: “The year I spent working with Lucasfilm on this Star Wars film has been by far the most rewarding period of my entire career. As a lifelong Star Wars fan I’m deeply grateful to have had the rare opportunity to contribute to a new chapter in its ongoing cinematic legacy. The film is going to be amazing.”

This isn’t the first time one of the new Star Wars movies has lost a writer, with The Force Awakens’ original scribe Michael Arndt departing the sequel after working on a treatment and script for a year. Director J.J. Abrams and The Empire Strikes Back scribe Lawrence Kasdan later took over script writing duties.

A new writer for the Star Wars spinoff is expected to be hired, but there are no details on who or when.

The split definitely appears to be amicable, with Whitta Tweeting out the following after the news broke: