Rebels' Hera Syndulla Cast in Ahsoka

The latest casting indicates that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey) has been cast as Hera Syndulla in Star Wars: Ahsoka. The series, expected next year, is looking to re-unite the live action version of the cartoon series Star Wars: Rebels. Other characters from the series include Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Natshia Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, and Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger. The series is rumored to be about the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, the big bad of the Rebels series and considered the heir apparent to the Empire throne. At least before Abrams destroyed the Extended Universe. Now Thrawn's role in the post Return of the Jedi world is an unknown. Ahsoka is expected to be released at some point in later 2023.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 Trailer, Release Date

Disney+ has released the first trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2. The season will begin airing on the streaming service starting January 4, 2023. Official write-up on the season:

When the new season opens, months have passed since the events on Kamino, and the Bad Batch continue their journey navigating the Empire after the fall of the Republic. They will cross paths with friends and foes, both new and familiar, as they take on a variety of thrilling mercenary missions that will take them to unexpected and dangerous new places. “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” season 2 stars Emmy Award® nominee Dee Bradley Baker (“American Dad!”) as the voice of the Bad Batch and Emmy Award® nominee Michelle Ang (“Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462”) as the voice of Omega. Emmy Award® winner Rhea Perlman (“The Mindy Project,” “Cheers”) returns to guest star as Cid, Noshir Dalal ("It's Pony," "The Owl House") returns to guest star as Vice Admiral Rampart and Emmy Award® winner Wanda Sykes (“The Upshaws,” “Black-ish") makes her guest starring debut in the series as as Phee Genoa. 

“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” is executive produced by Dave Filoni (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”), Athena Portillo (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels”), Brad Rau (“Star Wars Rebels,” “Star Wars Resistance”), Jennifer Corbett (“Star Wars Resistance,” “NCIS”) and Carrie Beck (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars Rebels”) with Josh Rimes (“Star Wars Resistance,” "Star Wars: Visions") and Alex Spotswood (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels”) as producers. Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer and Matt Michnovetz as story editor.

Star Wars: The Acolyte Cast Revealed, Movie Director Musical Chairs Continues

Some news on the Star Wars movie front as director J.D. Dillard is no longer going to direct a Star Wars film. Nor will he direct The Rocketeer 2 film. News to me on both fronts and I actually try to pay attention to such thinks. Apparently his film would have been inspired by an old TIE fighter video game. Whatever the plan was, none of it got past the scripting phase.

Director Shawn Levy (The Adam Project) has signed on to direct a Star Wars film. No other information has been revealed so could be about anything. Levy's next project is directing Deadpool 3 so whatever he might plan for Star Wars is at least two years away, three more likely. Considering the last five or so years has included multiple directors signing on and leaving various movie Star Wars movie plans, I wouldn't get excited until actually hear that filming has started. Even then no guarantees since half the new era films replaced their director's after filming started.

What is a guarantee is the cast of Star Wars: The Acolyte. Filming on the Disney+ series has started with the cast announced. Nothing has been revealed about the show except that it takes place near the end of the High Republic or about 80 to 100 years before A New Hope. From Gizmodo, "The Hate U Give’s Amandla Stenberg was already announced to star in the series, but she’ll be joined by Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae, The Good Place’s Manny Jacinto, His Dark Materials’ Dafne Keen, Russian Doll’s Charlie Barnett, Inventing Anna’s Rebecca Henderson, 1917's Dean-Charles Chapman, The Matrix’s Carrie Anne-Moss, and Queen & Slim’s Jodie Turner-Smith."

The official synopsis - 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. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.

Star Wars: Andor Now Streaming

Friedly reminder that the first three episodes of Star Wars: Andor is now up on Disney+. The series is set five years before Star Wars: Rogue One as follows Cassian Andor's adventures as a rebel spy. The 12 episode season will have a new episode drop each Wednesday morning.

Disney Convention Brings New Star Wars Trailers, News

Over the weekend, the D23 Expo was held that is essentially an official convention for all things Disney. The company used the occasion to show off upcoming film and TV projects across their entire slate including Star Wars, MCU and more.

The first video below is the final trailer for Star Wars: Andor that will start streaming on Disney+ starting September 21.  The second video is a teaser for season three of The Mandalorian that does not have a release date beyond being sometime in 2023. The last video is for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi that are six shorts involving many known Jedi's at certain points in their history. No trailer yet but Star Wars: The Bad Batch season two will begin on January 4, 2023 for a 16 episode run.

On the news front, another member of Star Wars: Rebels is getting the live action treatment with Eman Esfandi (King Richard) joining the cast of Star Wars: Ahsoka as Ezra Bridger.  If interested in the MCU news click here. For MCU trailers, click here. Other Disney projects like Willow, click here. 

Star Wars: Andor Official Trailer, Delayed Release Date

 Disney+ has posted the first full trailer for Star Wars: Andor. It also announced that the series has been delayed three weeks from August 31 to September 21, 2022 and will debut with the first three episodes of the 12 episode season. The series will follow Cassian Andor about five years before the events of Rogue One along with Mon Mothma, the Republic senator that founded the Rebel Alliance.

Star Wars: The Acolyte Casts Lead

This weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con, Disney+ officially confirmed that Amandla Stenberg (The Eddy, Rue in The Hunger Games) has been cast as the lead in Star Wars: The Acolyte. The series is set 100 years before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace during era of the High Republic when Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were thought to have been eliminated from the Galaxy. Nothing else was revealed about the upcoming Disney+ series.

Star Wars Celebration Convention Brings Updates on Star Wars Projects

This weekend Star Wars Celebration 2022 was held this weekend in Anaheim, California. With it came new trailers and updates on various Star Wars projects. The next few years, the Disney+ will become stuffed with TV shows from the franchise. Movie plans are in the works but the convention provided little information on that front. Without further ado, here is a quick summary of everything.

Star Wars: Andor - Below is the first teaser trailer for the series. The show is set to have 2 seasons of 12 episodes each. The first season begins five years before Rogue One and the shows course will follow the character over the five years right into his introduction in Rogue One. The first episode is set to premiere on August 31, 2022.


Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 3 - New season is currently set for a premiere in Feburary 2023. Carl Weather will return and will also direct an episode. Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) will return and appear in more episodes. Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) also has a role in the film. Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) also has a role, likely involving Din's ownership of the Darksaber. Really not much is known about the season except for this casting news as Disney remains tight lipped on all things plot about Star Wars.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - New show announcement. The series will star Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts) and set during the same time period as The Mandalorian (so five or so years after Return of the Jedi). The all ages series will explore the galaxy from the perspective of lost 10 year olds trying to find their home. This is the series that a Vanity Fair article referred to as "galactic version of classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure films of the ’80s". The series will be headed by director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home).

Star Wars: Ahsoka - The series is currently filming for a 2023 release. Brief footage was shown at the convention but not released to the public but it did confirm that Star Wars: Rebels character Sabine Wren will be in the series along with her droid Chopper. Sabine will be played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 - Below is the teaser trailer for the second season of the series that will hit Disney+ on September 28, 2022.


Light & Magic - A six part documentary series about Industrial Light and Magic. If there is a breakthrough in special effects in the last 45 years, chances are ILM created it. Directed by screenwriter and director Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back), the series will mostly focus on the companies work on the Star Wars franchise.

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - New animated series set during the High Republic era (so hundred and more years before Phantom Menace). The series focuses on a group of Younglings under Master Yoda's tutilege as they learn how to help people at different locations throughout the galaxy. Series is aiming for a Spring 2023 release.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - An animated anthology series of 6 episodes of around 15 minutes each that will be released in Fall 2022. The series will focus on different Star Wars characters with Ahsoka Tano, Count Dooku, and Liam Neeson voicing Qui-Gon Jinn.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - On the video game front, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is getting a sequel as follow the continuing adventures of Cal Kestis tries to protect Force sensitive children despite the Empire trying to hunt him down.


Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 - The anime series of short films from creators around the world will return in Spring 2023.

Willow - Not Star Wars news but still worth knowing. Below is the official teaser for the series that is a continuation of the classic film.


Indiana Jones 5 - Last but not least is a brief update on this movie. The movie remains set to come out on June 30, 2023 with James Mangold (Logan) directing the film instead of Steven Spielberg. Other than a rumor the plot will involve Nazis, nothing is known about the plot. All we currently have to go on is the image below.

Vanity Fair Article Outlines Future of Star Wars for TV and Film

Vanity Fair is providing a pretty good look Disney+ every expanding Star Wars TV universe. The article is worth reading for fans. Below if a a few highlights of note. 

TV Shows: 

- Obi-Wan Kenobi is out May 27 as Ewan McGregor reprises the role to protect Luke from an Inquistor that hunts down the Jedi and potential force users. 

- Andor, coming out late summer, will focus on the character from Star Wars: Rogue One along with Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) who becomes the leader of the Rebels. 

 - The Mandalorian season 3 is aiming for late 2022 to early 2023 release date. 

 - Ahsoka is still in the works, no release date set but aiming for 2023 release. 

- The Acolyte is also planned, set about 100 years before The Phantom Menace. Set in the time of a "prosperous and seemingly peaceful era" at least on the surface. 

- "Grammar Rodeo", code name for untitled Star Wars series set in same period as The Mandalorian from director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and writer Chris Ford (Spider-Man: Homecoming), is described as "galactic version of classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure films of the ’80s." 

TV Shows Highlights: 

- Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been cast in Ahsoka in unnamed role. 

- Andor is described by lead Diego Luna as "a refugee story, with desperate people fleeing the Empire at the full force of its power." 

- Dave Filoni, who worked along side George Lucas and worked on all Star Wars cartoons, had added to the Mandalorian people that was different then The Mandalorian creator Jon Farveau was planning. The two worked together to merge their visions of the culture. 

- “I think people now look back and think it was like a slam dunk, but we were very cautious,” Filoni says of the Child. “The amount of measuring, especially in the first season, for how we were framing this kid took a lot of effort.” 

- Star Wars TV shows are filmed in studio space called The Volume (also called StageCraft), where large curved LED wall allows them to create whatever environment they need to create look as if filmed on location. Four Volumes now exist, three in LA, one in London and one in Vancouver. 

- Decision to add Darth Vader, played by Hayden Christensen, to Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't decided until March 2020. Initial drafts of the show concept did not include him in large part because of their final confrontation in A New Hope. 

- The decision to cast Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka was influenced by fan art of her as the character. - Kathleen Kennedy on re-casting the core Star Wars cast, "There should be moments along the way when you learn things. Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that." (Stupid lesson to take from the Solo film not doing well instead of recognizing it was a weak story that came out just a few months after audience divisive The Last Jedi.) 

Movies: 

- Untitled movie from director Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnorok) and writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) is first in new pipeline. No release date or other story details. 

- Rogue Squadron, from director Patty Jenkins, is still planned but that could be many years away. 

- Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi) was going to do a new trilogy but that is on hold due to his Netflix deal for the Knives Out franchise. (It is likely dead.) “I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling,” Kennedy says.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Official Trailer

Here is the official trailer for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi. The six episode series will premiere on Disney+ starting May 27 with the first two episodes. Series description:

The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The series stars Ewan McGregor, reprising his role as the iconic Jedi Master, and also marks the return of Hayden Christensen in the role of Darth Vader. Joining the cast are Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Teaser Trailer

Here is finally the first look at Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series that will premiere on Disney+ on May 25. The story is set about 10 years after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith with Luke growing up on Tatooine while Obi-Wan watches over him from a distance.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Series Gets Release Date, Poster

The Book of Boba Fett aka The Mandalorian Season 2.5 just concluded its season. With that comes news of the next Star Wars series to hit Disney+.  Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Ewan McGregor reprising the role, will hit the service starting May 25th. As the poster shows, this series will also take place on Tatooine (like Boba and much of Mandalorian) only the time frame is 10 years after the events of Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith (or about 10 years before Star Wars: A New Hope). 

Other returning castmates are Hayden Christensen who will reprise the role of Anakin Skywalker. It isn't clear if that includes playing Darth Vader. Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse will play Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru who both played the characters very briefly at end of the Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan brought them Luke. No other story details but safe to assume it involves keeping Luke safe and his heritage hidden.