Russian Doll showrunner Leslye Headland is creating a “female-centric” Star Wars series, and it sounds like it will get into stuff fans haven’t seen before:
The Star Wars universe is bursting at the seams right now. While the latest movies received mixed reviews, spinoff shows like The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars have been killing it over on Disney+. And there are more Star Wars series on the way, including one from Russian Doll showrunner Leslye Headland!
We learned that Headland would be making a Star Wars show back in April. We know the show will be “female-centric,” but that’s pretty all the information we’ve had for months…until now.
Speaking to Fantastic Frankey, Headland teased the setting of the new show. “I would say it’s in a pocket of the universe and a pocket of the timeline that we don’t know much about,” she said. “That’s what I can say.”
She also talked a little more about what exactly being “female-centric” means for her show. “Just because my show is technically, yes, ‘female-centric’, meaning it centers around a female protagonist, I don’t think that necessarily excludes men from that space,” she says. “I relate to male characters all the time. I root for Mando. I root for Luke… An inclusive space means an inclusive space. But at the same time, I think that just because something has a female protagonist doesn’t necessarily mean it’s only for women.”
Disney currently has a lot of Star Wars shows in development: there’s an Obi-Wan Kenobi show, a Cassian Andor show, more seasons of The Mandalorian, and more. Headland thinks the Star Wars universe is big enough for all of them. If Star Wars is a religion and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi is like a Reformation of the lore (this is Headland’s metaphor, by the way), then her series is like a “tent revival.”
"You can come over if you want to. We’re going to be talking about some cool stuff. There’s going to be some things we haven’t discussed in canon yet. There are going to be some characters you don’t know about. I would love you to join us. I would love you to be interested in it. If it’s not your thing, the cool thing about Star Wars right now is there’s so much you can align yourself with and get invested in, but if you don’t like it, that’s fine."
I think The Mandalorian is the perfect example of an accessible Star Wars show. You don’t need to have seen the movies to enjoy it. Sometimes, you don’t even need to have seen the previous episode to enjoy the next. I really like the format, and I can see other Star Wars shows following its lead.
Headland’s show doesn’t have a title or a release date. That probably means it won’t be along for a while, but we’ll have plenty to entertain us in the meantime:
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