The latest Star Wars Celebration was held last weekend in Japan, and Disney took the opportunity to reveal a bunch of new movies and TV shows on the way. The galaxy far, far away is about to get a lot more crowded.
Let's go over some of the big ticket revelations, starting with the buzziest of them all:
Star Wars: Starfighter
Star Wars has been absent from the big screen since The Rise of Skywalker bowed in 2019. That's about to change. The Mandalorian & Grogu, a movie continuation of The Mandalorian TV show, will hit theaters next year. And in 2027, Disney has something new lined up: Star Wars: Starfighter.
We've heard whispers about this project before, but we got a lot of new details at the Star Wars Celebration. As revealed by director Shawn Levy (who also directed Deadpool & Wolverine), the movie will be set after The Rise of Skywalker, making it the latest movie set in the timeline.
That said, Levy cautioned crowds that it's "not a prequel" and "not a sequel," which I take to mean it's a standalone adventure not intimately connected to the story told in any of the mainline movies. "[It] just gives us the Star Wars DNA that we love but with an adventure that’s all new," Levy said. "[It's] a world we haven’t seen on-screen.”
The biggest news is that the movie will star Ryan Gosling, Ken himself. "If you can have Ryan Gosling in anything you make, do that, because that's going to make the thing so much better and cooler," Levy told PEOPLE. The director is excited to pair Gosling's "kind of uniquely cool ethos with Star Wars."
We don't know anything about the movie itself, except that it'll be cool. Just going based on the title, Gosling might play a pilot or something.
Lost meets Star Wars
Starfighter is the only new movie we learned about at the Celebration. On the TV side of things, we learned that Carlton Cuse — who co-created Lost back in the day — will be working on a new show with his son Nick, who has done work on series like Watchmen and The Leftovers. That's literally all we know.
Carlton Cuse also worked on shows like Bates Motel, Colony, Tom Clancey's Jack Ryan and Locke & Key. Some of those were hits and some of them weren't. Some of them had spooky sci-fi mystery elements in them, like Lost, and some didn't. I don't think we can really predict anything about the show at this point.
What I will say is that it's interesting to see that Disney is developing another new Star Wars show. They've had some hits and misses there. The Mandalorian was a hit, but it feels like it may end it with the upcoming movie. Andor was critically acclaimed, but it's coming to an end after the second season that's airing right now. On the miss side of things, Star Wars: The Acolyte was cancelled after one season.
Maybe Disney is trying to replace some of these outgoing series with a splashy new one, but we'll have to wait for details. We have no idea when the Carlton Cuse show will come out
The Ninth Jedi
Disney is also developing a couple of new animated Star Wars TV shows. First up is The Ninth Jedi, which is based on an episode of the animated anthology show Star Wars: Visions. That episode, obviously, was also called "The Ninth Jedi."
The Ninth Jedi is set many generations after The Rise of Skywalker, when the Jedi have faded into myth and Force users are searching for meaning and purpose. As you can see from the clip above, the original episode was done in an anime style. We expect the show to follow suit.
Also, a sequel to the original "Ninth Jedi" episode will air during the third season of Star Wars: Visions, which start up on Disney+ on October 29. The Ninth Jedi TV show is expected to come out sometime in 2026.
Maul: Shadow Lord
Finally, there's a new animated show on the way called Maul: Shadow Lord. It will follow Darth Maul, the red-and-black guy who wielded a duel-bladed lightsaber in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, as he builds up the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, a villainous organization seen in movies like Solo and video games like Star Wars Outlaws.
Darth Maul famously got chopped in two in The Phantom Menace, so you may be wondering how he's still around. The character was brought back on Star Wars animated shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels, where we learned there was a lot more to his story. Sam Witwer voiced Mual in those shows, and he'll return for this new one.
Like The Ninth Jedi, Maul: Shadow Lord is due out sometime in 2026.
Waiting for Star Wars
So there you go: our lives are full of new Star Wars shows and movies, as it ever has been.
However, we now have to give our disclaimer and say that Disney has a history, at least in recent years, of announcing new Star Wars stuff and not following through. Marvel boss Kevin Feige wasgoing to make a Star Wars movie,Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was working on somethingWonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was doing a Rogue Squadron movie, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was going to make a new movie trilogy, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were going to make a new movie trilogy...all of those projects appear to have been shelved. And we're not sure if a newer movie about Daisy Ridley's Rey will make it to the screen either.
I'm not trying to get down on Star Wars, but this has been going on with the franchise for a minute now. My hope is that they're past that stage and know only to announce something if they really plan to follow through with it. At the least, I expect the animated series to make it to air; they've been pretty consistent with those. But as for Star Wars: Starfighter and whatever the Cuses are working on, I'll believe it when I see it.
In the meanwhile, there are other Star Wars shows in between seasons, like Star Wars: Ahsoka. That one we can count on to come back sooner or later:
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.