In Jon Favreau’s latest snaps from the set of The Mandalorian, he shares two props that might look familiar. The first is an ice cream machine, which you may remember from The Empire Stikes Back, or perhaps the traditional Running of the Hoods. The other is a tad more obscure (well, as obscure as anything Star Wars really gets – it’s an Amban phase-pulse blaster (or something inspired by it) that originates with the first appearance of Boba Fett in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Who wields these objects – if they even end up as anything beyond scenery – is yet to be seen, but neither Willrow Hood nor Boba Fett are entirely out of the question.
Making Star Wars is back with more set pics from The Mandalorian. There’s a door, an alien and someone who seems to be an important cast member. Not sure how many more we’ll have coming, as the authorities seem to be onto them.
A new rumor says that in addition to directing episodes, Bryce Dallas Howard and Taika Waititi will also have roles in the series. Discussing Film says that Waititi may be voicing a droid.
We know who The Mandalorian directors are, but Making Star Wars has learned what episodes they’ll be actual directing. The official release only specified that Dave Filoni was doing the first, but MSW has him, Deborah Chow, and Rick Famuyiwa each directing two episodes, with Bryce Dallas Howard on the fourth and Taika Waititi taking on the (season?) finale. The eight-episode number comes from MSW’s earlier reporting; an earlier report has it at 10, but shortening the load is one way to get the most out of a rumored $100M budget.
MSW has been killing it on this show – in addition to all their recent scoops, they were the first to report that Mandalorians were involved back in August. We don’t have much reason to doubt them when it comes to the show.
We get our first official look at Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, plus a director list. The first episode will be directed by Dave Filoni, and other directors will include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).
The series is being written and executive produced by Favreau. Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson and Karen Gilchrist are also producing.
Still nothing official on the cast (who’s in the armor, Lucasfilm?), but Making Star Wars has some evidence (though probably not for the armor-wearer, though who knows) as they continue their set reporting.
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.
In Variety’s cover story on Hollywood, Netflix and the other direct-to-consumer platforms being developed, Disney CEO Bob Iger reveals that the company’s streaming service will be called “Disney Play.” THR has since gone back and changed the quote to be “a Disney play” – so it’s likely not the service’s name after all. Back to Disneyflix!
Iger says the service is the company’s “biggest priority” for 2019, and the article explores the costs, stakes and other business concerns for not just Disney, but all the other companies in the game.
One estimate says Disney would need 40 million subscribers to break even if they went with a price of $6 a month. (No pricing has been officially announced yet, but Iger has previously said that the Disney service will be cheaper than Netflix, which runs $8-14.)
The Disney service, expected to launch in 2019, will be home to a new chunk of The Clone Wars and at least one brand-new live-action Star Wars show from Jon Favreau. Older episodes of TCW (currently on Netflix) are probably a good bet, and I have no doubt that Rebels (which has never streamed outside the Disney ecosystem) and the upcoming Resistance will be found there as well. One thing the new service won’t have is the older Star Wars films – and it might only get new ones like Episode IX for a limited time (ala Rogue One and The Last Jedi on Netflix), as there’s a broadcast deal with Turner that runs through 2024.
The older Star Wars movies aren’t coming to Disney’s streaming service, Bob Iger said during the company’s earning call Tuesday. “The marketing will make clear that it’s not going to be on there,” said Iger. “But ‘Star Wars’ movies that come out in 2019 and later, you’ll find them there.” Guess Turner wanted too much after all? The TBS/TNT deal runs through 2024.
The service will likely cost less than Netflix, though. And it won’t be totally void of Star Wars – in addition to Episode IX, there’s Jon Favreau’s live-action series, and given they’re getting new The Clone Wars episodes, we can expect the rest of the series as well – plus Star Wars Rebels, which has yet to stream at any non-Disney outlets.
The New York Times takes a look at Disney’s upcoming streaming service and executive Ricky Strauss, who has oversight of the programming. But for our immediate purposes, there is one new nugget here: Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series has a rough budget of “$100 million for 10 episodes.”
“‘Star Wars’ is a big world, and Disney’s new streaming service affords a wonderful opportunity to tell stories that stretch out over multiple chapters,” Mr. Favreau said in an email. He added of Mr. Strauss: “Marketing is about telling a story, and his background in that area allows us to collaborate and create new content.”
Information on the Favreau series is thin on the ground, but we do know he’s writing the whole season, it will feature brand-new characters, and it’s set three years after Return of the Jedi.
$10M an episode is roughly equivalent to the episode budget for past episodes of Game of Thrones. The final season of that show is now up to $15M an episode, per Variety last year. High-end TV episodes generally come out to about $5 million-$7 million an hour. The $10M price tag also puts this in the range of The Crown, which is one of Netflix’s most expensive shows.
We also get a timeline for when Disney’s new movies will stop rolling out to Netflix: March’s Captain Marvel will be the first to go to the new service, which means we can expect Solo on Netflix.
Disney is trying to buy back the broadcast rights to Star Wars from Turner Broadcasting, which currently has them through 2024, says Bloomberg. They apparently want them for their own streaming service.
I admit that I am a bit doubtful, since it seems like streaming and broadcast rights for older titles ought to be separate? But I’m hardly an expert on this sort of minutiae, and Disney might want the exclusivity for their own service regardless of what the TBS/TNT deal allows.
TNT started showing the first two trilogies in September 2016, and got The Force Awakens this year. Rogue One is due in 2019 – if Disney doesn’t find the magic number to get them back, that is. The TNT deal was reportedly worth “at least $250 million” – Bloomberg pegs it as $275 million, and says TNT wants “programming to replace the lost films” as well.
“I honestly didn’t think we would ever have the opportunity to return to The Clone Wars,” says Filoni in a statement. “Thanks to the relentless fan support and the team behind Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, we will now get to tell more of those stories. We feel a tremendous responsibility to make something that lives up to the legacy that George Lucas created with the original series and I think our team, many of whom worked on the show from the beginning, has risen to the challenge.”
