Miss the metric ton of Star Wars news that dropped today? We’ve got you covered. The galaxy far, far away is going to be very, very busy.
Disney held an epic four-hour investors conference today, announcing a Death Star’s worth of new content. The biggest announcements came from that galaxy far, far away. Here are the biggest!
Image: The Mandalorian/Disney+
1. An Ahsoka Tano show is coming
We’ve suspected this for a while, but it’s official: Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the guys behind The Mandalorian, are making a show all about Ahsoka Tano, the ex-Jedi played by Rosario Dawson in one of the best episodes of The Mandalorian’s second season. Can’t be too mad at this.
Rangers of the New Republic, a new Original Series set within the timeline of @TheMandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/YKlWJpvhAW
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
2. Rangers of the New Republic
Another new show will be Rangers of the Republic. We don’t know much about it yet. Maybe it’s about those guys who pulled over Mando and Frog Lady in that one episode?
These three shows will be interrelated, which confirms what we’ve heard about Star Wars building its own shared universe. The jury’s out on whether that’s a good or bad thing.
“Everything I did, I did for the Rebellion.” Andor, an Original Series set in the Star Wars universe, is streaming in 2022 on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/q2IT2qzEeR
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020
3. The Cassian Andor show
We’ve known for a while that Disney was making a show about Cassian Andor, Diego Luna’s character from Rogue One. Today, we got our first look behind the curtain. The name of the show? Simply Andor.
And now for the big one:
Hayden Christensen returns as Darth Vader, joining Ewan McGregor in OBI-WAN KENOBI. The Original Series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith, and is coming to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/9WR2npRUkk
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020
4. Hayden Christensen will play Darth Vader in Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi show
We knew Disney was making a show about Obi-Wan Kenobi with Ewan McGregor returning to the title role after playing the iconic character in the prequels. But we didn’t know that Hayden Christensen will once again play Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, much less that the two will face off in what Kathleen Kennedy called “the rematch of the century.”
We dunno how this will go down, but that’s a pretty big addition to the Star Wars mythology. Color me intrigued.
A sneak peek at Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an all-new animated Original Series from Lucasfilm Animation, coming soon to #DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/V0jQc4XNIe
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020
5. The Bad Batch
We got a preview for The Bad Batch, the animated show that follows clone characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Star Wars: Visions, an Original Series of animated short films, celebrates the @StarWars galaxy through the lens of the world’s best Japanese anime creators. Coming in 2021 to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/syUmiL7SdI
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
6. Visions
Visions will be a short film anthology Star Wars show that gives Japanese creators a crack at the galaxy far, far away.
The galaxy’s favorite scoundrel, Lando Calrissian, will return in Lando, a brand-new event series for @DisneyPlus. Justin Simien (@JSim07) is in the early stages of developing the project.
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
7. A Lando Calrissian show is coming
This show is still early in development, but there is a series about lovable rogue Lando Calrissian on the way. Will Donald Glover be returning to the role after knocking it out of the park in Solo: A Star Wars Story?
Leslye Headland brings a new @StarWars series to @DisneyPlus with The Acolyte. “The Acolyte” is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
8. The Acolyte will take us into Star Wars’ past
We’ve known for a while that Russian Doll showrunner Lesly Headland was making a “female-centric” Star Wars show. Now we now that it’s called The Acolyte and that it will be set in the final days of the High Republic era, hundreds of years before the original films. This is the same time period that a new series of Star Wars books will be set in. It’s a time when the Jedi Order is still riding high and doing good out in the galaxy.
Lucasfilm Animation is teaming up with Lucasfilm’s visual effects team, Industrial Light & Magic, to develop a special @StarWars adventure for @DisneyPlus, A Droid Story. This epic journey will introduce us to a new hero guided by R2-D2 and C-3PO.
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
9. A Droid Story
Lastly on TV, R2-D2 and C-3PO will hold down a series called A Droid Story
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
10. And there are movies, too!
Going forward, it looks like Disney’s focus for Star Wars will definitely be centered on TV, but there are a couple new movies on the way, too. Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is working on a Star Wars film. So is Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins, and her’s seems farther along. It’s called Rogue Squadron, so it’ll probably be about the ace pilots fighting the Empire.
From Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins comes a new Star Wars movie: pic.twitter.com/3SMt6p7bNv
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) December 10, 2020
All that, and a third season of The Mandalorian is coming next year. Merry Christmas.
And that’s about all the Star Wars news I can handle in one day. It’s hard to say what the biggest announcement was. Ahsoka getting her own show is huge but expected. The news of a Lando show was surprising!
But for my money, it has to be Hayden Christensen returning to the role of Darth Vader. He got mixed reviews on his performance the first time around in the Star Wars prequels, but with Disney in charge, it’s a whole new world.
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