I haven’t been the biggest fan of Disney’s work on the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker still stands as one of my worst movie experiences. This was particularly disheartening, since growing up, I was a huge Star Wars fan. Heck, I still have my box set of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition on VHS. As a result, I’ve always tried to find a silver lining with the current iteration of the series, which I discovered in the various animated series and television shows, and even the now-canceled movie from Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Now it looks like Disney is about to give us a whole lot more from the galaxy far far away; the majority of which will debut on Disney +.
At yesterday’s Investor Conference, Disney announced a plethora of new TV shows! On the live-action side, we will be getting several Mandalorian spin-offs featuring fan-favorite Ahsoka Tano and the Rangers of the New Republic respectively, both of which will come from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Additionally, we’re also going to be getting a long-rumored Lando spinoff, as well as the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader in the upcoming Obi-Wan series starring Ewan Mcgregor. We’ll also be getting an intriguing mystery-thriller Star Wars Acolyte exploring the Sith’s point of view in the waning days of the High Republic. The latter aspect is a little concerning, considering we haven’t even seen the beginning of that era yet. Hopefully Lucasfilm holds off for a while on that one. Perhaps the only mundane announcement here was that the highly-anticipated Rogue One Spinoff featuring Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, which will go by the predictable title Andor, and debut in 2022.
The Animation arm of Lucasfilm will also be getting an expansion with Star Wars Visions Star Wars: A Droid Story and a trailer for the previously-announced Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Star Wars: Visions will be a series of short films from a variety of Japanese anime creators bringing to mind something akin to the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight. Star Wars: A Droid Story features our favorite duo C3PO and R2D2 on a secret mission. Star Wars: The Bad batch follows the fan-favorite Clone Wars characters in the wake of Order 66.
One of the biggest bits of news is confirmation of what the next feature film will actually be. This is following months of development rumors from a Kevin Feige Star Wars film to an Exegol-centric film from JD Dillard. Coming Christmas 2023 will be Rogue Squadron from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.
The thing I’m most excited about is Hayden Christensen’s return and Patty Jenkins directing a Star Wars movie. I had been hoping that Christensen would return for the sequel beyond a brief vocal cameo so I’m glad he’s returning for this and all that implies for the plot. Obi-Wan Showrunner Deborah Chow alluded to a rematch between the former master and apprentice so we’ll see what happens. When it comes to Jenkins the Monster filmmaker is arguably one of the best filmmakers working today, I’m just sad this likely means a delay for Wonder Woman 3. I just hope all of this will be worth the wait.
Are you excited for the future of Star Wars or do you have a bad feeling about this? Let us know on our social media pages!
