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Report: Sets for Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series are up, filming begins soon

Jason Ward at Making Star Wars has it “on good authority” that Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series will begin filming in southern California as soon as next week… And they have set photos. It certainly looks like Star Wars.

If filming is indeed that close, that could mean that some sort of official announcement is on the horizon as well. (Though maybe not, as we have no real benchmarks for how a live-action Star Wars series would be promoted.)

Officially, we know from Favreau himself that the show is set seven years after A New Hope (so, three years after Return of the Jedi) and will feature all-new characters. The show will drop on Disney’s upcoming streaming service and is said to be budgeted for a high-end $10M per episode. We don’t have an ETA on the series, but the streaming service is expected to launch in 2019.

Rumor has it that the show is about Mandalorians.

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Kathleen Kennedy renews contract, will lead Lucasfilm through at least 2021

Kathleen Kennedy has signed on to remain president of Lucasfilm for another three years, per The Hollywood Reporter. Kennedy, who was hand-picked by George Lucas to lead his namesake company before the sale to Disney, has overseen Lucasfilm since 2012. The four Star Wars films released under her tenure – The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Solo – have grossed nearly $4.5 billion worldwide.

While J.J. Abrams’ Episode IX is the only film currently in production, the article reiterates that projects from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are still in development. A fifth Indiana Jones film is also moving forward.

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Extended look at Star Wars Resistance and release details

With the Resistance premiere coming up, Lucasfilm gives us our most comprehensive look yet at the new cartoon with an “Extended Sneak Peek.” In addition to the main cast, it includes more Poe Dameron and a glimpse at Captain Phasma and General Organa.

The show will debut on October 7 on Disney Channel (10 p.m. ET/PT) and DisneyNOW. Two more episodes will be available on DisneyNow and Disney Channel video on demand.

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Star Wars out this week: Solo on Blu-ray

This week’s big release is, of course, Solo: A Star Wars Story on Blu-ray Tuesday, September 25.

On the comic end of things on Wednesday, September 31, we’ve also got Poe Dameron #31, the final issue. There’s also Doctor Aphra #24 and Star Wars Adventures #14.

But there’s something I missed last week that you can get your hands on – a new version of The Complete Visual Dictionary, quite literally the “new edition,” a title quirk which I’m sure will age well. (The last actual Visual Dictionary was released in 2006, but there was a new Visual Encyclopedia in 2017. The main difference seems to be that the Encyclopedia covers “more than 3,000” items, while the Dictionary boasts “more than 1,500”.)

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Star Wars, Empire producer Gary Kurtz dies at age 78

Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz died Sunday from cancer, his family has announced. He was 78.

Kurtz produced American Grafitti, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back with George Lucas. He also produced The Dark Crystal and Return to Oz. Kurtz has become a somewhat controversial figure where it comes to the mythos of making Star Wars. Chris Taylor has an interesting interview with him from 2014.

StarWars.com has posted an obit, and there are more remembrances below.

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Bob Iger on Star Wars: “Too much, too fast”

The Hollywood Reporter has an extensive interview with Disney CEO Bob Iger where he addresses Star Wars timing, the streaming service and more.

On Star Wars, he acknowledges that the schedule so far may have been “a little too much, too fast.”

I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.

If Solo’s underwhelming box office means we’re not stepping up to two films a year anytime soon, I will consider that a worthy sacrifice. And I don’t mind going back to an even bigger gap, although I doubt we’ll see the three years of the OT and PT eras again. But look at what Disney is (reportedly) planning for Marvel on streaming, and something similar for Star Wars could be an interesting alternative to standalone spin-off films.

On the streaming service, Iger says the company is “weaning ourselves off licensing revenue from third parties” with the departure from Netflix, although the Star Wars broadcast deal is staying in place.