It looks like the wait for The Mandalorian Season 3 will be a longer one as the series is not expected to start filming until late into the year. The reason why is due to special "Virtual Production" stage built specifically for filming Star Wars television shows and pioneered by The Mandalorian Season 2. Video below gets into the details of the stage.
So with one virtual stage to film on and three Star Wars shows in the works, that means coordinating when what can film when. As of right now, The Book of Boba Fett has wrapped with goal of a December release date. Next to use the space will be Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series that will likely take 3 or so months to film. Once that completes work, that will allow The Mandalorian to take over and begin filming. The order of the television filming slate was likely also impacted by Padro Pascal's schedule as he is spending the summer filming "The Last of Us" for HBO.
The video below is worth checking out as likely more and more television shows and movies will use the technology once more virtual stages are built using it.
Disney+ as revealed the first trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The series will premiere on May 4 with a 70 minute episode with each new episode appearing on the service each Friday starting on May 7. I do believe the show is set after Star Wars: The Clone Wars but to early to know if it will continue any story or character lines from that show. The show description:
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in “The Clone Wars”) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.
Disney has revealed the core cast and production start date for Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series. Filming will begin in April for an unknown release date but safe to assume it will be early 2022. The key bit of casting news is the return of Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse who played young Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru back in 2005 with Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan (returning Ewan McGregor) dropped off just born Luke. Details on the series story has not been revealed but with Hayden Christensen also signed on, one assumes to reprise the role of Darth Vader, it suggests that it will tell focus on some point where Obi-Wan had to prevent the Empire from discovering Luke's existence.
The season 2 finale of The Mandalorian was nerd nirvana for a multiple reasons (those last 10 minutes!) that make it must see TV. After the credits was one last stinger moment set on Tatooine, in the base of Jabba the Hutt (who Leia killed five or so years before). With it came a simple message "The Book of Boba Fett Coming December 2021". Based on the ending safe to assume that Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett) will star and Ming-Na Wen (Fennec) will also play a role in the series.
Today Disney held its annual investor conference. With the company as a whole shifting to a streaming model, that meant revealing their plans for 2021 and beyond across all their brands including Lucasfilm with Star Wars. The biggest bit of news is they have 10 Star Wars series that plan on creating over the next year or so. The release dates, what few there are, are pretty vague but plans are to start rolling things out likely in late 2021 and throughout 2022.
Star Wars:
Rogue Squadron
Andor
The Mandalorian Season 3
Ahsoka
Rangers of the New Republic
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Lando
The Acolyte
The Bad Batch
Visions
Lucasfilm:
Indiana Jones 5
Willow
Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman 84) has been tapped to direct Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. In a tweet the director expressed the project is personal as she wants it to reflect her loss and love of her fighter pilot father by making the "greatest fighter pilot movie of all time." Rogue Squadron is the designation of the pilots that attacked the Death Star in The Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: A New Hope. Luke Skywalker is a founding member, first flight leader and the one who named the squadron using Jyd Erso from Star Wars: Rogue One as inspiration for their call sign (as depicted in Star Wars comics). In the now defunct Legacies/Extended Universe stories, Rogue Squadron continued on, members coming and going as the Resistence fought the Empire on multiple fronts. It later reformed during the age of the New Republic to fight new enemies. End result is the movie could pretty much be set at any time in Star Wars canon and use any old or new characters as it sees fit to tell its story.
Speaking of Rogue One, the prequel movie will get its own prequel series of sorts with Andor. Diego Luna will reprise his character of Cassian Andor. The series will show the Rebellion spy doing his work before his job at some point before the movie as it will likely depict origins of the Rebellion. Below is a brief a "sizzle reel" for the series.
The Mandalorian season 3 is expected to drop around Christmas time in 2021. It will also spin off two series Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. Ahsoka will have Rosario Dawson return to the role with Disney saying its set "within the timeline of The Mandalorian." The assumption is it will continue to explore the characters search for Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars: Rebels. Rangers of the New Republic will follow some of the "sheriff" type characters that have periodically helped The Mandalorian. Exactly who will be in the series was not revealed.
For years it was rumored that next non trilogy movie would be Obi-Wan. After Solo failed to perform, the movie was cancelled. But not the idea as Disney decided to shift to a series. That remains the case but now its been revealed that Hayden Christensen will return as Darth Vader for the series. The series itself will take place 10 years after the events of Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith.
The details are light on Lando but Donald Glover reprise the role from Solo and likely will be set somewhere around that time period which is also after The Revenge of the Sith. Justin Simien (Dear White People) is set to create the series.
According to Disney's tweet, "The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic Era." The end of the High Republic era was depicted in Star Wars Episodes I to III but that era was around 1000 or so years old in time frame. Probably to give viewers landmarks, I wouldn't be surprised if the series is set a little bit before The Phantom Menace.
With all the live action announcements, Disney has not forgotten the cartoon side of things that kept the Star Wars flame going for years between movies with Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Visions. Bad Batch is set after end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. The Batch is a reference to the fact that during this time all soldiers were clones of Jango Fett, father of Boba Fett. From Disney: "Star Wars: The Bad Batch follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in “The Clone Wars”) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose. This animated series will arrive exclusively on Disney+." Trailer for Bad Batch is below.
Star Wars: Visions will be a series of "animated short films, celebrates Star Wars galaxy through the lends of the world's best Japanese anime creators. Coming in 2021 to Disney+"
On a related note, Lucasfilm has other plans beyond Star Wars with Indiana Jones 5 going into production in 2021 for a July 2022 release date with James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari) directing. Harrison Ford will return to the role, likely for the last time in what many are assuming will be one more attempt to hand the role off to another. The current rumor is Chris Pratt. The Willow TV series is coming in 2022 with Jon Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) directing the pilot. Warwick Davis will reprise the role of Willow Ufgood from the 1988 film.
