Ahsoka TV Spots, Clip For Episode 3 Premiere

Ahsoka's episode three is now available on Disney+. Below are the latest TV spots and a clip to promote the release.

Ahsoka's First Two Episodes Out Now

Friendly reminder that Star Wars: Ahsoka's first two episodes are available now on Disney+. The 8 episode season will roll out each Tuesday at 9pm EST.

The Mandalorian To Get 4K and Blu-Ray Release

Disney has announced that The Mandalorian season 1 and 2 will get released in 4K UHD and Blu-ray on December 12 in Steelcase form with cover art by Attila Szarka and three concept art cards. Loki season 1 (out September 26) and WandaVision (out November 28) are getting the same treatment. All four season sets will become available for pre-order starting December 12.

The news just indicates steelbook releases so no idea with a normal case will be part of the release schedule. Currently no information on what bonus features will be part of the Mando season sets. No info on seasson 3 but with it just released last year, Disney is likely going to wait and see how these sales do and make sure any home video release isn't going to canniblize Disney+ subscriptions. If hoping for season 4 news, that is probably a ways off as Hollywood still has two strikes to deal with. Even if strikes magically ended tomorrow, still a whole lot of work before can start filming so at this point just assume at least a 2025 release date.

Ahsoka Release Moved Up Three Hours, Featurette, Clip, and TV Spot

Disney+ has announced that Ahsoka premiere of first two episodes has been moved from August 23 at midnight to August 22 at 9pm EST/6pm PST. All episodes after will also premiere each Tuesday at 9pm EST/6pm PST. The move is to make it easier for fans to watch the series without having to stay up late or wait until the next day. Indications are the time of day will become the new normal for future Disney+ releases. The first video below is a look at the master and apprentice relationship that is throughout Star Wars. The second video is a clip from the show as Ahsoka wields her lightsabers. The last video is a quick TV spot for the show.

More TV Spots for Ahsoka

Ahsoka is just a little over a week away from its premiere on August 23 on Disney+. The first video below has wise words from Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) who Ahsoka was padawan too in Star Wars: The Clone Wars placed over scenes of the series. The second video highlights Ahsoka training another while the last video is Rosario Dawson providing a very quick summary of the character's history.

New Star Wars: Ahsoka TV Spot

The two episode series premiere of Ahsoka is just a little over two weeks away. Seems Disney+ is beginning to role out its marketing plan which it has to do without the show's actors due to the current strikes going on.

Ahsoka Official Trailer

Disney+ has released the first official trailer for Ahsoka. The 8 episode season will start on August 23 with first two episodes. The series is set after The Book of Boba Fett as Ahsoka attempts to hunt down Grand Admiral Thrawn before he can return and unify the remants of the Empire. For cartoon fans, you could consider this a follow-up to Star Wars: Rebels.

The cast includes Rosario Dawnson as Ahsoka Tano, Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn, and Ray Stevenson (RIP) as Baylan Skoll.

Star Wars: Ahsoka Release Date Revealed in New Trailer

A new trailer for Star Wars: Ahsoka reveals that the series will start streaming on Disney+ starting August 23. The series stars Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, continuing the story of the character that started way back in Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon series, continued in Rebels, with appearances in The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett. Other stars in the series include Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Hera Syndulla), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger). The main plot is Ahsoka attempting to find her friend Ezra and stop the threat of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) from restarting the Empire.

For May the 4th, Disney+ Releases Two Star Wars Series

Happy May the 4th! To celebrate the day, Disney+ has released the full season of Star Wars: Visions season 2 and the first half of the 14 episode season 1 of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures. Visions is seven episodes telling Star Wars stories through the "unique talent and perspective" of seven Japanese anime studios. Young Jedi Adventures is for the preschooler set as follow Younglings including young Yoda learning the ways of the Jedi set during the High Republic era. Both are now available on Disney+.

Star Wars: Visions Trailer, Bad Batch Final Season and Other Updates

Star Wars Celebration 2023 is more or less done in London but a few bits of news came out after the blast from Friday. 

Star Wars: The Bad Batch has been renewed for a third and final season. Footage shown of the third season are described as "The footage revealed at the convention shows Hunter and Wrecker — the final two remaining members of the Batch — headed out to find Omega. For her part, Omega is in the custody of the Empire at Mount Tantiss, now playing some kind of reluctant role in Palpatine's cloning ambitions. Also trapped with her is Crosshair, now broken down and reckoning with the role he played in how things got this bad. Whether he knows about Tech's death or not is unclear. Did Omega have a chance to tell him? Palpatine arrives at Mount Tantiss to further his cloning ambitions, something we know will have ramifications through The Mandalorian all the way down to The Rise of Skywalker"

In regards to one of the three announced movies, the Dave Filoni movie that will tie together all the Mandalorian era (MandoVerse) tv shows is "6 or 7 years away." Besides the three official movies that may or may not get made, there have been other movie rumors floating around. , with odds being 50/50 at best of all three getting made, it seems Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy remains optimistic about other rumored movies. Another Rian Johnson remains a possibility saying "Rian and I talk all the time. He is unbelievably busy." Net result is could be years if ever. As for a Taika Waititi film, that too is on the radar where she said "Taika is still working away. He’s writing the script himself." So again no ETA. 

On the TV front, news on the last TV shows not yet spoken about. Kennedy also commented on Obi-Wan Kenobi saying "That is not an active development. But I never say never, because there’s always the possibility." So yes that series is cancelled. Not cancelled is Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi which will get a season 2. No other details besides that.

Star Wars: Visions season 2 has a trailer (below). The new 9 episode season will premiere on May 4 on Disney+. Summary of each episode along with voice cast can be found here.

Star Wars: Ahsoka Trailer and Poster

Star Wars Celebration 2023 has provided news on all the TV and movie plans for the next few years of the franchise. Most of the shown footage has only been for attendees. However Disney was kind enough to let the public see the first trailer for Star Wars: Ahsoka.  The series will hit Disney+ in August, 2023. As a bonus, below is also the new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Update: Few more details about the series came out over the weekend. Ashoka is a continuation of Star Wars: Rebels animation series. Ashoka writer and director Dave Filoni recommends starting at the show's fourth season if want to be up to date on the main characters. Filoni also wrote all the episodes in the series and will direct several of them. 

In casting, David Tennant (Doctor Who) will return to voice the droid Huyang, a character he voiced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The droid is over 900 years old and helps Padawans through the process of building their light sabers. As for who plays the live action Grand Admiral Thrawn, that will be Lars Mikkelsen who also voiced the character in Rebels.

   

Three New Star Wars Movies Announced

Star Wars Celebration 2023 has begun in London which means a bunch of news dropped this morning about upcoming plans for the franchise. Previous posts have covered most of the TV news. On the movie front three new films are in the works. Not a trilogy however, each is separate from each other and in completely different eras of Star Wars.

The first announced movie is the continuing adventures of Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker that is set about 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker "as she builds a new Jedi Order."  This is the same project that Damon Lindelof recently left with Steven Knight signed up immediately to replace him. Assuming it can stay on schedule, this is the one aiming for a December 2025 release date. Based on an image from her appearance, this period of time is dipping into the Extended Universe by calling this era the "New Jedi Order".

Speaking of titles taken from the Extended Universe, another era has been added called "Dawn of the Jedi". This era is 25,000 years in before A New Hope and will be directed by James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) which will explore the emergence of the Jedi.

The third film in the works will be directed by Dave Filoni and set during post Return of the Jedi years of the current TV series that he is apart of. The film is about the "escalating war between the Imperial remnant and the New Republic" that will likely bring much of the cast from The Mandalorian, Boba Fett and Ahsoka along for the ride.

If your curious, the now nine eras of Star Wars are Dawn of the Jedi, The Old Republic, The High Republic, Fall of the Jedi, Rise of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, The New Republic, Rise of the First Order, and New Jedi Order.

New Cast Members for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

With Star Wars Celebration 2023 going on now, a little more information has been released about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Joining series lead Jude Law are child actors Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, and Robert Timothy Smith. The series is from Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) who says "This is a show that we've been working on for a really long time. It's a story of 10-year-old kids from a tiny planet who get lost in the Star Wars galaxy. It's the story of their journey home" however the show is also described as "1980 coming-of-age adventure in space" so its likely intended to be a family/all-ages adventure story. Exactly when in the timeline this series is set and if it will dove tail into any known movie or TV continuity was not part of the presentation. 

Description of shown footage (few images here):

Those kids, our main group—two young girls (one wearing a Star Trek: TNG -tyle head visor), a young boy, and a small alien that looks very much like he’s a young Ortolan, one of the blue pudgy alies popularized by Max Rebo in Return of the Jedi—appear to have found their way aboard a mercenary starship. There are shots of them encountering weird creatures, holograms of their parents back home begging for them to return, and the kids being menaced by pirates (including, it seems, the Nikto pirate formerly of Gorian Shard’s crew in The Mandalorian, further tying the series’ timeline into the post-Return of the Jedi era). The kids find themselves on the run from blaster fire in what looks like a pirate base and flying away on their new ship before the trailer concludes with them locked up in a prison cell carved out of a cave. A hooded figure approaches, floating the key to their freedom in front of the kids with a whimsical display of the force. “He’s a Jedi!” One of the kids exclaims as the figure lowers their hood to reveal that it is Jude Law’s mysterious character.

Star Wars: Andor Season 2 Set for 2024 Release

Looks like the wait for the second and final season of Andor is going to be longer then most expected. Star Wars Celebration 2023 has begun and it revealed that the season will not begin airing on Disney+ until August 2024. The series short description is summarized well by Gizmodo, saying "having set up different rebel factions and the key players in those groups, like Cassian, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), and Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård), season two can now show how those groups come together to form the Rebel Alliance."

Footage shown at Celebration teased the return of key characters, including Rebel cell members Vel Sartha and Luthen Rael (in and out of his disguise as an antiquities dealer), as well as Syril Karn, who appears to have gone up in the world, and been thrust into a higher class of Imperial citizenship. Scenes also showed Mon Mothma slowly building alliances, trying to bring her disparate senatorial and rebellious worlds together as dissent grows across the galaxy. Several shots showed a protest being policed by Stormtroopers, where violence breaks out with lots of explosions and lots of chaos. But at the heart of it all was footage of Cassian, both skulking through hallways and seemingly coming into his own as a Rebel spy. The trailer concluded with Luthen echoing his comment from season one—“Don’t you want to fight these bastards for real?”—over a shot of Cassian, dressed up in a fancy suit with his hair slicked back, in some kind of fancy bar.

Star Wars: The Acolyte Set for 2024 Release

Star Wars Celebration 2023 has started and the result is a bit of a news dump on upcoming plans for Star Wars for the next few years. Starting with The Acolyte which is now set to premiere on Disney+ in 2024. No specific date in that year but wouldn't be surprised if its by summer. The show stars Amandla Stenberg, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lee Jung-Jae and more. The series is set about 100 years before A New Hope during the "Golden Age of the Jedi" in the High Republic era. Footage was show to attendees, described by Gizmodo:

Each could be seen in the series’ brief footage, shown in the room only. It began with a group of younglings, all types of humans and aliens, being trained by a Jedi Master in bright white robes played by Lee Jung-jae. “Close your eyes. Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them,” he says as we see a very run-down, busy village where a hooded figure walks down the street. “The Force is powerful. It’s a power we must respect,” the Jedi master’s speech continues. Inside a bar, a Jedi is sitting, played by Carrie-Anne Moss. For some reason, the Jedi and this hooded figure, played by Stenberg, begin to fight. Stenberg’s character looks like a ninja, complete with a black mask covering the bottom of their face.

The rest of the footage plays mostly in montage: We see footage inside what looks like a Jedi temple. Several younger Jedi (Keen and Barnett) sneak through tight spaces. Someone is scaling up the side of a temple. There’s a scene in the snow. A Neimoidian appears. And finally, Stenberg’s character says over the montage, “This isn’t about good or bad. This is about power. And who is allowed to use it.” The final shot is of around eight Jedi standing in the woods, with Jung-jae’s character in the middle. He lights up his lightsaber, and then all the other Jedi join him, igniting their own blades of all different colors. The vibes we got were sort of a samurai movie mixed with a heist movie, but with a lot of Jedi.

Another Star Wars Movie Plan Bites the Dust (Updated)

At this point it is just too hard to keep up with all the started and stopped Star Wars movie plans. The latest news is Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have exited the Star Wars movie they were working on for Lucasfilm and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel). The submitted a draft and few days later quit the project. Technically the film is still moving forward with the director while new scriptwriters are found as its still penciled in for a December 19, 2025 release date but wouldn't be the least suprised if its cancelled. Lindelof may have forecast these events when he spoke at SXSW last week saying "“the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high” when it comes to creating a film for Star Wars. Lindelof went on to say that “If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist... I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’ We’ll just leave it at that point.” At this point its become clear that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is doesn't know what she wants in a Star Wars film, only what she doesn't want (once presented with a script). I suspect her input can best be summed up as "but not that" and little else making any effort to improve on the script difficult. This may also explain the continued director problems the film side of the franchise has had. The result is she has settled into not making any decision on much of anything on the movie front, likely hoping something comes forward that is a clear home run. Could be a long wait. If summarize any Star Wars film or TV show, none of it sounds like should be a hit. The franchise is highly dependent on that alchemy of a good enough script combined with actors, director, crew and more that elevates it into something much more along with a fandom that is willing to accept a lot if the core concept and execution is done well. Update: Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders creator) has been tapped to pick up where Lindelof and Britt-Gibson left off. More realistically its probably a page one re-write. On the bright side he has about one year to get an approved script together. To hit the December 2025, the latest the film can start filming is end of summer 2024. Maybe he will achieve what half a dozen or so writers have failed to do.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Cancelled, Lots of Movie Rumors Going Nowhere

The last Star Wars film was in 2015. The drought will continue until at least 2025 as what movies that were in some stage of planning have been cancelled. Variety is reporting that Star Wars: Rogue Squadron has been cancelled. The movie was announced back in 2020 and removed from the schedule in 2022. It would have been directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman). No reason for why it was cancelled but guessing Jenkins demanded Lucasfilm quit waffling so she could either do a new movie with them or turn her attention to a new project elsewhere. The long rumor MCU producer Kevin Feige film is also off the table but that was mostly just rumor to begin with.

There are supposedly still movies in the pipeline. Taika Waititi (Thore Love and Thunder) is working a film where he intends to cast himself as a major character. Lucasfilm wants to work with Rian Johnson (Knives Out, The Last Jedi) again but he is booked for the next three years so earliest a film from him could hit theaters is at least five years from now. There is also rumors that treatments are being worked on from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face, Ms Marvel) and Damon Lindelof (Watchmen).  Even if one of these rumors moves forward this year into something real (could happen on April 7 at Star Wars Celebration), it will still not hit screen until 2025 at the earliest.

Basically it is lot of rumors but nothing concrete. The rumors do not matter until a director, writer, and production date is officially announced. Even then, I wouldn't get excited until actual filming starts considering the many director problems they have had over the years. TV side of Star Wars is the future of the franchise for the foreseeable future thanks to the well run machine created by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the only real smart move that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has made. If she was as hands on to the TV side as she is with the movie side, chances are we would still be hearing rumors about a second season of The Mandalorian and no other shows would have made it to production. 

Kennedy is so afraid of making the wrong movie move that she has settled into making no move, likely due to the debacle that was the last trilogy. Abrams decision to make post Return of the Jedi such a stagnant, negative 30 year gap just so he could retell A New Hope will be a problem that will haunt the franchise for decades. The best move is really to wipe the new trilogy from canon and work on new one that takes full advantage of the open universe that Return of the Jedi had left us and the Extended Universe had spent literal decades exploring before Abrams ill-fated decisions.

To sum all this up, from a fan perspective, as of right now there are no Star Wars films in the works.

The Mandalorian Season 3 Has Begun on Disney+

Just a friendly reminder that The Mandalorian season 3 has begun its weekly run on Disney+ with the first episode available now.

The Mandalorian Season 3 Trailer, Release Date

 Last night Disney+ dropped the first trailer for season 3 of The Mandalorian. The eight episode season will begin on March 1, 2023.