The Star Wars movies may be going on “hiatus” for a while now that The Rise of Skywalker has written an end to the “Skywalker saga,” but we’re about to get more new Star Wars content than ever. A quick rundown of what’s coming:
- A second season of The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars series that follows a bounty hunter and his little baby Yoda-looking buddy as they criss-cross the galaxy.
- A docuseries about the making of the first season of The Mandalorian.
- A Disney+ show all about Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), the Rebel spy from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
- A Disney+ series that follows Obi-Wan Kenobi (with Ewan McGregor returning to the role after playing it in the prequel trilogy) after the events of Revenge of the Sith but before A New Hope.
- This is getting a little more into speculation territory, but the odds are looking very good that Rosario Dawson will show up as fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano in the second season of The Mandalorian. And there have been rumblings that Disney may give her a show of her own after that.
- Meanwhile, in the publishing world, Disney is rolling out a new series of novels and comic books set hundreds of years before the prequels, when the Jedi order was out there in the universe doing good and forging its sterling reputation: Star Wars: The High Republic.
So YEAH: Disney has some plans for Star Wars. And apparently, we haven’t seen the last of them.
According to Variety, Disney has tapped Leslye Headland to develop a new “female-centric” Star Wars show set “in a different part” of the Star Wars timeline. Headland is coming hot off the success of Netflix’s Russian Doll, about a game developer (Natasha Lyonne) who is stuck in a loop where she continually dies and comes back to life. It was weird, it was dark, it was funny, it was exciting, it garnered a bunch of Emmy nominations and it’s coming back for a second season. Headland served as co-creator, showrunner, writer and director, so she knows her way around a set.
As for when the show could be set in the Star Wars timeline, we have no idea. With The High Republic, Disney is showing a willingness to expand the horizons of the universe. Maybe a new show could go even further back to the Old Republic, when the Sith and Jedi were warring for the galaxy? Or maybe we go forward in time to see what the galaxy is like years after Luke, Leia, Rey and the rest have become figures of legend? Anything is possible.
Finally, the show is said to focus on female characters. Star Wars has been inching towards inclusivity for a while now, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) headlining the latest movie trilogy and Deborah Chow being among the directors on The Mandalorian. This would be another step forward.
Now, if the show is set in some far-flung time period, the female characters in question will probably be new. But a thought occurs to me: I already mentioned how Disney may be planning to give Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) her own show after she makes her debut in the second season of The Mandalorian. Might Headland be working on that?
That doesn’t really work with the “new timeline” thing, but it’s tantalizing:
"How Rosario Dawson would look as Ahsoka Tano! from StarWars"
And that’s all the Star Wars news to report. Check back next week when we’ll have another three series in the offing.
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