Age: 39
male
Ari Aster (born July 15, 1986) is an American filmmaker. After garnering initial recognition for the short film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), he became best known for writing and directing the feature films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), both released by A24, making a name as a filmmaker of elevated horror. After pivoting away from the genre with Beau Is Afraid (2023), his next film, Eddington, premiered in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. His films are notable for their unsettling combination of horror, dark comedy, and graphic violence. He co-founded the production company Square Peg with Danish producer Lars Knudsen in 2019.
Ari Aster
Assistant Director
for Assistant Director in Star Wars: The Shadow of Jinn
Suggested by maksimzagoskin
In the aftermath of the Order 66, the Jedi are not merely extinct—they are forgotten, their legacy erased by fear and Imperial control. But across the galaxy, something far older than the Empire begins to stir. Kael-Von Dunn, a hidden apprentice of Qui-Gon Jinn, survives in isolation, haunted by fractured visions and whispers that do not belong to any living being. As his connection to the Force deepens, it becomes unstable—warped—revealing glimpses of a presence that watches from beyond time itself. When Darth Vader and his Inquisitors—among them the relentless Second Sister and the enigmatic Marrok—begin a brutal hunt for Kael, their mission takes a darker turn. Entire outposts are found abandoned. Force-sensitive individuals vanish. Survivors speak of voices in the dark… and shadows that move without light. Drawn together by fate, Kael joins forces with the long-believed-dead Mace Windu and the rogue warrior Asajj Ventress, alongside his partner Argana-De Vale. As they trace the source of the disturbance, they uncover a forbidden truth buried within the Force itself—one that even the Jedi feared to confront. At the heart of a dead world lies a fractured nexus of the Force, where reality bends and time collapses. There, Kael encounters an ancient, lingering consciousness: Darth Plagueis—no longer fully alive, yet far from dead. Twisted by his obsession with immortality, Plagueis has become something else entirely… an echo within the Force, feeding on those who attempt to wield it. As paranoia consumes allies and enemies alike, and even Vader begins to sense a power beyond his control, Kael must confront a terrifying revelation: "The Force is not a gift. It is not a balance. It is something that remembers." In a final descent into the nexus, where visions of the past and future collide, Kael is forced to choose—destroy the connection to the Force entirely… or become part of what lurks within it. Because something has awakened. And it has begun to look back.
