Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Rogue One co-writer Tony Gilroy will return for Disney+’s Cassian Andor series, Variety reports today. He’ll write the pilot and several episodes, working alongside showrunner Stephen Schiff.
Gilroy was fairly outspoken about Rogue One on a podcast last year.
Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk are both on board for the series, which is expected to debut in 2021.
Disney+ began the morning with a giant thread of the movies and shows that will be on the service when it launches next month, but we don’t need to scroll through all that: StarWars.com has the Star Wars lineup, and a roundup of the things that’ll appear later.
Most of the Star Wars stuff you’ve already seen will be there on November 12 – plus at least one episode of The Mandalorian – but The Last Jedi, Solo and even The Rise of Skywalker will be coming within the “first year.” The new episodes of The Clone Wars will be coming in February (have we heard before that it’ll be 12 episodes?), but all the old episodes will be there, plus the complete run of Rebels and the first season of Resistance.
New shows on the service are expected to release episodes on a weekly basis.
The Last Jedi and Solo are currently on Netflix, under Disney’s old agreement with the veteran streaming service.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series has a director and a writer, Lucasfilm announced today. Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian, American Gods, Jessica Jones) is set to direct, with Hossein Amini (The Alienist, Drive) writing. It’s not yet clear if both are aboard for the entire season, or are just the first announced.
The show, which features the return of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, takes place eight years after Revenge of the Sith – 11 before A New Hope.
“We really wanted to select a director who is able to explore both the quiet determination and rich mystique of Obi-Wan in a way that folds seamlessly into the Star Wars saga,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement. “Based on her phenomenal work developing our characters in The Mandalorian, I’m absolutely confident Deborah is the right director to tell this story.”
The show will be on Disney+, the streaming service that launches later this year. It’ll be the third live-action Star Wars series, and the second staring a major returning movie character, after The Mandalorian and a Cassian Andor-centric Rogue One prequel.
If you haven’t heard enough about Disney+ or Galaxy’s Edge, boy are you in for a treat… Anyone who didn’t sign up for the streaming service during D23 can get in on the action now. At least one commercial was aired during the Emmys last night (where Star Wars alum Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her show Fleabag took home 3 awards – comedy actress, directing, and best comedy series).
As for Galaxy’s Edge, it’s full court press time now that it’s open on both coasts (though the second ride is still months out) and it’s getting an ABC “takeover” and a two-hour primetime TV special on Freeform. (If you can stand the chipperness, there’s a sneak peek at EW.)
As for that other big event coming up in December – remember movies?!? – things are slowly progressing. A spot for The Rise of Skywalker (the new D23 footage, sans flashback intro) was shown during Sunday night’s NFL game, and there’s apparently a spot based on the first trailer in circulation as well. An Empire cover with Kylo Ren has been spotted, not to mention a ton of toy leaks I won’t even get into. With Force Friday coming on October 4 we don’t have long now… No matter how long it feels.
Jon Favreau is game to revive (and maybe redeem?) The Star Wars Holiday Special for a new generation. “Let Disney+ know,” he told ET’s Ash Crossan at the Saturn Awards (where he was honored for his MCU work, and where Resistance won Best Animated Television Series).
I still say, you gotta get hopping on this while the sequel trilogy gang is still under contract, guys:
Meanwhile, the complete list of movies and TV shows going up at Disney+ at launch is out, and there are few Star Wars surprises – all the films through The Last Jedi, and all the released animated shows since The Clone Wars – so no 2D Clone Wars, Ewoks, Droids, or the never-seen Detours. One surprise though – the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams, which documents the making of the original trilogy.
And no classic Holiday Special either, which is probably more of a blessing than anything else – although it truly does have to be seen to be believed. (If you dare, and please feel free not to.)
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor is an official go for Disney+, and we finally have a proper trailer for The Mandalorian!
The Obi-Wan series is “close,” with the scripts written, and it will begin filming next year, as will the Cassian series. Obi-Wan is set eight years after Revenge of the Sith.
And we also got a date for The Clone Wars: February 2020.
There’s also a trailer for Disney+ as a whole, which leans heavily on the old heartstrings:
Lucasfilm and Disney+ are preparing for their big D23 panel today by launching the first poster for The Mandalorian.
Continue reading “Behold: The Mandalorian’s first poster”
Jon Favreau talks to The Hollywood Reporter about The Mandalorian and his other ventures in a wide-ranging article that confirms that a trailer for the Disney+ series is coming to D23.
Continue reading “Jon Favreau talks storytelling, tech and The Mandalorian”
Ahead of Disney’s D23 Expo this weekend, streaming service Disney+ has launched on Twitter (with an epic thread) and Instagram, plus annouced some interational roll-out dates. Canada and the Netherlands will launch on the same day as the U.S., with Australia and New Zealand following on Nov. 19.
The Disney+ panel at D23 is Friday, August 23 at 3:30 p.m. Pacific. We’re hoping that a trailer for The Mandalorian, which will launch with the service, is finally released, plus details on The Clone Wars revival, the Cassian Andor show and (perhaps most of all) the rumored Obi-Wan announcement.
One of the most persistent Star Wars rumors since Disney bought Lucasfilm has been the return of live-action Obi-Wan. Today, Cinelinx sources report that Ewan McGregor has signed on to reprise the role in what looks to be a Disney+ series.
Given the fandom’s evergreen thirst for Obi-Wan, and Disney+’s willingness to get film stars to reprise their roles for streaming – see Rogue One’s Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk, or many Marvel stars – this is quite plausible.
UPDATE: Now Fantha Tracks is weighing in with a number of additional details: McGregor will direct several of the 8 episodes, and have “a a familiar mechanical co-star.”
UPDATE #2: Giving this rumor a lot more weight, trades Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline are also reporting it, via their own sources. Reports from the Hollywood trades rank only a smidge below official confirmation, and as we’ve seen many times before, several of them having it independently is a very, very good sign.
D23 is just over a week away, and while we know for sure The Mandalorian will be the star, but the timing here is pretty interesting. The Disney+ panel at D23 Expo is Friday, August 23 at 3:30 p.m. Pacific.