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.