Lucasfilm outlines ongoing plans for STAR WARS

In a major article for Vanity Fair, the creatives at Lucasfilm have outlined their plans moving forwards for the Star Wars franchise. The franchise has had mixed fortune recently, scoring a major international hit with TV series The Mandalorian but also two box-office disappointments with Solo (2018) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and TV series The Book of Boba Fett which had a mixed reception.

During the article, Lucasfilm confirm the release schedule for their upcoming TV shows, with Obi-Wan Kenobi launching on 27 May and Rogue One prequel show Andor hitting screens a few weeks later, before the end of summer. The Mandalorian Season 3 will arrive late this year or early next, with Ahsoka being a confirmed 2023 release. The Acolyte, a show set during the "High Republic" era about 100 years before The Phantom Menace, is likely to appear in 2023 or 2024.

Lucasfilm are also developing a new project, which so far only has the code name "Grammar Rodeo" (a Simpsons reference). The show sounds like Star Wars: Stranger Things, with a group of four children who get swept up in events following the fall of the Empire. The show is reported to have a "Amblin coming-of-age adventure" vibe from the 1980s. Director Jon Watts, who helmed the recent Spider-Man Homecoming trilogy, is in charge alongside writer Chris Ford.

In terms of feature films, it appears that the new focus is on Taika Waititi's Star Wars movie, which is in pre-production and will be Waititi's next project once Thor: Love & Thunder launches and he gets his commitments to that out of the way. That could potentially be a 2024 release. Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron movie was delayed a while back due to commitments to Wonder Woman 3 and Cleopatra, but Jenkins cleared Cleopatra by transferring it to another director. Rogue Squadron will be Jenkins' next film once the third Wonder Woman movie is done, possibly for 2025.

Marvel Cinematic Universe head honcho Kevin Feige agreed to brainstorm and produce a Star Wars movie a while back, but he's so busy with the MCU that that project has been back-burnered. Likewise on hold is Rian Johnson's Star Wars trilogy. Johnson has committed to his Knives Out franchise and a Netflix deal, which puts a Star Wars return a long way off. Left unspoken is the mixed critical reception to Johnson's film The Last Jedi, which may have discouraged his return to the franchise altogether.

The Knights of the Old Republic movie, rumoured heavily a couple of years ago, and the rumoured Lando Calrissian TV show, are also left completely unmentioned.

The article addresses potential issues with the Star Wars franchise moving forwards: most of the projects reiterate on eras and things we have seen before. Only The Acolyte seems to be set in a new time period distinct from the prior settings, and even that is apparently going to eventually be setting up The Phantom Menace (I suspect a Darth Plagueis appearance). The article also suggests that the failure of Solo has been blamed on recasting Han Solo rather than its release date or franchise fatigue. This has driven the decision to use CGI to resurrect classic characters rather than recasting, which I think is the wrong conclusion to draw from that. The "deepfake" technology is getting better all the time, but it's still not at the point where classic characters can be restored to the screen convincingly. Even if it could, it feels like that's feeding into the desire to keep Star Wars permanently stuck revisiting the same time periods, characters and concepts.

The mixed reception to Star Wars projects which have tried to go in new directions seems to have resulted in a lot of conservatism in these new projects, which is a shame. The problem with the sequel trilogy wasn't that it was trying to go in new directions, but that it starting off not doing that (with the highly retro and fan-servicing The Force Awakens), then did that only semi-successfully (in The Last Jedi, half of the best Star Wars movie bolted onto half of the most pointless) and then reversed course again and made a complete pig's ear out of the situation (in The Rise of Skywalker). A Star Wars project which did go in genuinely new directions with a coherent plan in place from the start and was genuinely well-written I think would have every chance of success.

Forthcoming Star Wars Projects

• Obi-Wan Kenobi: Disney+ streaming series, 27 May 2022
• Andor: Disney+ streaming series, late summer 2022
• The Mandalorian Season 3: Disney+ streaming series, late 2022/early 2023
• Ahsoka: Disney+ streaming series, 2023
• The Acolyte: Disney+ streaming series, 2023/2024
• "Grammar Rodeo": Disney+ streaming series, tbc
• Taika Waititi-directed Star Wars movie, tbc
• Rogue Squadron: feature film, tbc
• Kevin Feige Star Wars movie: on hold
• Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy: on hold

STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON delayed

Lucasfilm have announced a delay to their next theatrical Star Wars release, Rogue Squadron. The movie was scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2023 but the movie has now been put on indefinite hold due to scheduling issues with director Patty Jenkins.

Jenkins was hired to make the film in late 2020, with the plan being for the film to enter production in 2022. However, Jenkins' schedule has shifted with Warner Brothers greenlighting a third Wonder Woman film, with Jenkins returning to co-write and direct, despite the previous film in the series, Wonder Woman 1984, having a risible performance both critically and commercially. Jenkins has also committed to making Cleopatra, a remake of the 1963 epic, and may shoot that before Wonder Woman 3 and both before Rogue Squadron.

Rogue Squadron has not been officially cancelled and officially remains in development with Jenkins as director. However, it may not see the light now until 2025 or later.

Disney and Lucasfilm have adopted a wary attitude towards the future of the Star Wars franchise on film, following the commercially disappointing performances of Solo: A Star Wars Story (which became the first film in the franchise to lose money at the box office) and The Rise of Skywalker (which made less than half the money of The Force Awakens). Instead, they have pivoted the franchise hard towards television, where The Mandalorian has been a smash hit success for Disney+ and generated two spinoff series: The Book of Boba Fett (to air in December) and Ahsoka (in pre-production). Two other series are in post-production, namely Rogue One spinoff Andor and the long-gestating Obi-Wan Kenobi project starring Ewan McGregor. Both are expected to air in 2022. The streamer is also developing The Acolyte, set in a much earlier time period. A further series, Rangers of the New Republic, was in development for some time but was recently put on indefinite hold. That's not including the animated projects The Bad Batch, Visions and A Droid Story.

On film, aside from Rogue Squadron, Lucasfilm is also developing a Taika Waititi-directed film, although a schedule for that movie has not yet solidified: Waititi has an insanely full directorial slate, including Next Goal Wins (in post-production), Thor: Love and Thunder (in post-production), The Incal (just announced) and a live-action version of Akira, as well as numerous ongoing TV shows. Lucasfilm is also developing a trilogy of Star Wars films to be planned, written and possibly directed by Rian Johnson, but this project has been put on hold due to the huge success of Johnson's Knives Out franchise (and, cynics may say, the polarising reception to Johnson's 2017 movie, The Last Jedi). Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige is also developing a Star Wars project as producer, and Lucasfilm has reportedly held talks on a Knights of the Old Republic movie, possibly contingent on the success of the new video game version of that story now in production.

The future will hold a lot of Star Wars, but the question is how much of it will be in the cinema, where the franchise originated.

Lucasfilm confirm a large number of new STAR WARS projects

Lucasfilm have confirmed they have a large number of new Star Wars projects currently in development. As with Disney's recent slew of announcements about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Wars news focuses primarily on television.

The exception to the TV news was the formal confirmation of the next Star Wars feature film. Rogue Squadron is scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2023 and will be helmed by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. Jenkins' father was a US fighter pilot who flew F4s for the US military, making the appointment appropriate. Jenkins' video and the logo both show a Rebellion-era T-65 X-wing, suggesting the film will be set around the time of the original trilogy or maybe shortly afterwards.

The only other movie news was confirmation that Taika Waititi would be helming a Star Wars movie. Nothing was revealed about the content other than it is "fresh" and unusual, hinting that Waititi will be bringing his signature comedic slant to the franchise. This isn't Waititi's first space rodeo, since the director previously helmed an episode of The Mandalorian in its first season.

The TV show news was divided between things we knew about and new announcements. Andor began shooting two weeks ago and sees Diego Luna return as Rebel spy and intelligence operative Cassian Andor, and will depict his adventures in the run-up to the events of Rogue One. Genevieve O'Reilly also returns as Mon Mothma. Obi-Wan Kenobi is due to start shooting shortly and will be set on Tatooine ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and nine years before the events of A New Hope. The film sees Ewan McGregor return to the role of Obi-Wan. Curiously, it will also see Hayden Christensen reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, presumably in flashback sequences or maybe visions of some kind.

The Clone Wars is getting a sequel series in the form of The Bad Batch, focusing on the members of Clone Force 99, a group of discontented Clone Troopers, in the months and years following the fall of the Old Republic. Another animated series, Visions, will feature 10 anime-inspired short films from Japanese animation studios, whilst A Droid Story will focus on R2-D2 and C3-PO getting into scrapes with a new character.

The Mandalorian is getting two spin-off TV shows which will be set in the same timeframe. Ahsoka will pick up with Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano and follow her adventures, possibly using the World Between Worlds as a narrative device. Rangers of the New Republic sounds like it will be a more original idea focusing on the people helping build up and extent the New Republic's influence.

Lando is a spin-off show focusing on Lando Calrissian (natch), but it's unclear if this will be a show focusing on Billy Dee Williams's older version of the character or Donald Glover's younger version, or perhaps both (with the former framing flashbacks to the younger).

Most intriguing is The Acolyte, a show set during the High Republic era. This era is the focus of a new series of novels and comics set in a time period 400 years before the prequel movies, and it'll be intriguing to see what the TV series will add to the experience.

Lucasfilm also confirmed their first two non-Star Wars projects since the Disney acquisition have been fully greenlit. The fifth Indiana Jones movie will start shooting in the spring with James Mangold directing, whilst the Willow TV series will start shooting in March in Wales.

The Lucasfilm release schedule is as follows:

Film

• Rogue Squadron (25 December 2023)
• Untitled Taika Waititi film (2025)
• Indiana Jones 5 (tbc)

Television

• The Bad Batch (2021)
• Visions (10 episodes, 2021)
• Andor (12 episodes, early 2022)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (6 episodes, 2022)
• The Acolyte (tbc)
• A Droid Story (tbc)
• Ahsoka (tbc)
• Lando (tbc)
• Rangers of the New Republic (tbc)
• Willow (tbc)