Back in December, Lucasfilm’s Kathy Kennedy announced that a new Star Wars series, titled Rangers of The New Republic, would be part of a lineup of new shows for Disney+ adding that it would take place within the timeline of The Mandalorian with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni set to executive produce. We had heard that Favreau was going to be the showrunner on the project but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be in front of cameras anytime soon.
A small tidbit briefly mentioned in a new Variety write-up highlighting Dave Filoni’s new title as Executive Creative Director (as listed on the Lucasfilm website), suggests that the series currently isn’t in “active development.” This could mean the duo aren’t actively writing or planning-out the newly announced show which isn’t shocking with three other big Star Wars projects on their plate currently.
It’s worth mentioning they didn’t say the project isn’t happening or has been cancelled.
There had been some theories that after Gina Carano was fired by the studio back in February that the show might be in peril as it was said to focus on Carano’s Cara Dune (unconfirmed by Lucasfilm), the second season of The Mandalorian did seemingly attempt to prime audiences for this new series. However, Lucasfilm doesn’t strike me as the sentimental type of company after replacing a handful of directors instead of cancelling projects entirely and would end an entire show over a single actor.
Then again, they temporarily killed films that would center on Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett only to give them Disney+ shows instead.
This doesn’t mean Rangers of The New Republic can’t be retooled later or isn’t going to be made entirely, but likely since The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Season 3 of the The Mandalorian are going to be priorities for Favreau and Filoni, there is a good chance that they’re just a little busy at the moment with three other shows to make time for this fourth project. Personally, I believe they could push forward with a recast/new character alongside adding Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Captain Carson Teva and Bill Burr’s Migs Mayfeld to the lineup. Until Lucasfilm says they’re not making it we should assume it’s happening at a later date.
The Book of Boba Fett is the next big Star Wars series to debut on Disney+ in December with Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi currently shooting.
The Ronin can confirm that Andrew Jones, the production designer of The Mandalorian Season 1-2 will be returning to the Star Wars universe for The Book of Boba Fett. The series is said to be currently filming in California and according to Lucasfilm/Disney, will be debut this December on Disney+.
Jones won an Emmy last year for his work on the first season of The Mandalorian.
Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Robert Rodriguez are executive producing the series that stars Tamuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. It’s expected the trio of producers will also be directing episodes.
The Book of Boba Fett will be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian and star Temuera Morrison as the titular bounty hunter, along with Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. Robert Rodriguez — who directed Chapter 14 of The Mandalorian, a thrilling installment that reintroduced Boba Fett to the Star Wars galaxy — joins Favreau and Dave Filoni as executive producer.
We’ll be excited to see what the cast ends up looking like.
The Mandalorian creator and producer Jon Favreau appeared on Good Morning America to make a special announcement.
At the end of the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm announced that The Book of Boba Fett expected to star Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen with it to begin airing on Disney+ in December 2021. We saw the pair arrive at Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine to assassinate an older Bib Fortuna with Boba Fett taking over the kingpin’s throne (a nod to Conan The Barbarian) suggesting that the series may explore the criminal syndicates of the Star Wars universe’s underworld, not just bounty hunting.
Jon revealing that The Book of Boba Fett will shoot first and then they’ll move into Season 3 of The Mandalorian. Also, Disney confirming Robert Rodriguez is involved on the producing team joining Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.
Favreau also alluded to Pedro Pascal will return for Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
The Book of Boba Fett, a new Original Series, starring Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen and executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez, set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus Dec. 2021. pic.twitter.com/JP54yEe9WF
Deadline first reported that filming on the project has started weeks ago.
We’ve heard for over a week that Robert was being courted to lead his own Star Wars series and will be heavily involved with the show.
Only a matter of time before Danny Trejo is announced for a Star Wars role.
Other Disney+ projects set in the Star Wars universe on the horizon include Diego Luna’s Andor (currently filming in London), Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen (set to begin shooting in March), Rangers of The New Republic, Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series, Leslye Headland’s High Republic show The Acolyte, and another show featuring the iconic character Lando.
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is also directing the next Star Wars film Star Wars: Rogue Squadron coming to theaters on December 22, 2023.
Here is the press release for the project from Lucasfilm.
Boba Fett is back. And his story is just beginning.
As teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the season finale of The Mandalorian, the legendary bounty hunter’s journey will continue in The Book of Boba Fett. Jon Favreau, executive producer of The Mandalorian, confirmed today on Good Morning America that the new series is currently in production and will arrive December 2021, only on Disney+.
The Book of Boba Fett will be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian and star Temuera Morrison as the titular bounty hunter, along with Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. Robert Rodriguez — who directed Chapter 14 of The Mandalorian, a thrilling installment that reintroduced Boba Fett to the Star Wars galaxy — joins Favreau and Dave Filoni as executive producer.
Boba Fett made his big-screen debut in 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, becoming an instant fan favorite thanks to his visually arresting armor and cool demeanor. Jeremy Bulloch, the original actor inside the armor, passed away last week — but his legacy, including all he brought to Boba Fett, goes on. The Book of Boba Fett will carry that legacy forward.
Season 3 of The Mandalorian will go into production next year.
With the second season of The Mandalorian winding-down, we won’t likely have any new live-action Star Wars until possibly next fall. So, I figured I would give a rundown of what other live-action projects are in the works from Disney+ shows to feature films in various stages of development.
BOBA FETT SERIES: Deadline reported last month that a secret Boba Fett project for Disney+ had begun shooting without mentioning who exactly was starring, writing or directing the thing. We can only assume with Temuera Morrison now firmly in the role for The Mandalorian that this might be the incarnation that this new project tackles.
I have my own speculation that this might actually end up being Season 3 of The Mandalorian given the lack of information on who is working on it and the proximity of when Jon Favreau wanted to start shooting Season 3. While Lucasfilm can be sneaky, this would be the first time they’ve started filming a Star Wars project without us knowing who was at least writing and directing it.
At one time, Josh Trank and Simon Kinberg were developing a Boba Fett movie but the project ultimate didn’t come together after hiccups between the two making Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot. There had even been rumors that James Mangold was in talks to resurrect the series but quickly shot that down along with his involvement with Season 2 of The Mandlorian.
CASSIAN ANDOR PREQUEL SERIES: Diego Luna recently confirmed to Jimmy Kimmel that his Rogue One prequel series focusing on Cassian Andor and K-2SO has already started shooting in London with director Toby Haynes (Black Mirror). Haynes stepped in for Tony Gilroy, who may still end up directing an episode.
The cast for the Star Wars series includes Luna, Alan Tudyk, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller. Andor will skew more in the spy genre and might continue the tone established in Rogue One.
DEBORAH CHOW’SKENOBI SERIES: Ewan McGregor is officially reprising the Obi-Wan Kenobi role but as we all know uses the name Ben Kenobi while hiding out on Tatooine and overseeing the protection of Darth Vader’s son Luke Skywalker from the Empire. Lucasfilm revealed via a franchise timeline that Kenobi will take place around the time of the Corellia scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The series will be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) and there are assumptions that Joel Edgerton will return to the role of Uncle Owen along with a new actor playing a young Luke Skywalker. It’s unconfirmed if we’ll be seeing flashbacks to the Clone Wars or if Kenobi will ever go off-world at any point.
Casting announcements should be incoming shortly.
Filming according to Ewan McGregor is expected to take place this March. The locations are said to be Pinewood Studios UK and Boston, England as the Pinewood facility will have their own Volume/StageCraft which has been used frequently on The Mandalorian.
THE MANDALORIAN: A third season of The Mandalorian is expected to begin shooting at some point after there was word from showrunner and producer Jon Favreau they hoped to get filming started before the end of 2020. We had heard that Jon is expected to direct at least one episode in Season 3.
It’s also possible we could see spinoff series focusing on Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Those have yet to be announced despite the fan assumptions.
LESLYE HEADLAND’SMYSTERY STAR WARS SERIES: Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) is officially working on a new female-centric Star Wars series that according to Deadline would include martial arts elements and take place at a different point in the Star Wars timeline.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Disney+ is developing a female-centered Star Wars series, written and showrun by Leslye Headland, believed to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. The rumored spinoff is said to be separate from this Star Wars project but the situation is fluid.
There has been plenty of speculation of what the show could be or who it could focus on but no details have been confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney.
I’m sure we’ll learn more about the series soon.
RIAN JOHNSON’S BRAND-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY: Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson has been developing his own original trilogy for the studio but looks to be more focused on his Knives Out sequel at the moment. There haven’t been much in the way of details concerning Johnson’s project but is expected to take place in another era of Star Wars with new characters. Also, there had been some talk that while Rian would oversee all three films he likely wouldn’t end up directing all them.
Here is how the official press release described the trilogy.
Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce…In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.
Johnson has also dismissed multiple claims he’s exited.
TAIKA WAITITI’S STAR WARS MOVIE: After dismissing reports of his involvement, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was officially announced for an upcoming theatrical Star Wars film with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) co-writing the script. This news wasn’t terribly shocking after Kathleen Kennedy suggested wanting to work with him. Taika later getting his feet wet working on Season 1 of The Mandalorian as both director and voicing the bounty hunter droid IG-11.
The Kiwi director is going to be a little busy as he’ll start shooting Marvel’s Thor: Love & Thunder soon in Sydney, Australia.
JEDI ORIGIN TRILOGY: According to Variety back in October 2019, the Game of Thrones showrunners, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, had been developing a trilogy of films that would have explored the origins of the Jedi.
Benioff and Weiss had ambitious plans to take the “Star Wars” universe in a new direction, one that would exist apart from the Skywalker family saga that comprised the franchise’s centerpiece nine-film series. The Star Wars period the pair was interested in exploring was how the Jedi came to exist. However, Lucasfilm executives and the creators begin to see their visions for the films diverge during meetings last summer.
This would have likely taken place way before eras like the Skywalker Saga, The High Republic or even The Old Republic.
However, the pair left Lucasfilm for a rather pricey deal with Netflix which seemingly squashed the project for the foreseeable future. There are new rumblings online that this project might get resurrected but it’s unofficial for the moment.
THE OLD REPUBLIC TRILOGY:BuzzFeed had once reported that Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Altered Carbon, Shutter Island) was developing a Knights of The Old Republic film that could eventually become it’s own trilogy.
A movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic — the beloved video game first released in 2003 — is currently being written by Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Shutter Island) for Lucasfilm, three sources close to the project told BuzzFeed News.
Kalogridis is close to finishing the first script of a potential KOTOR trilogy, according to the three sources.
While this was never confirmed, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy teased they’ve had internal discussions about projects in that era during a chat with MTV back in April 2019.
MTV: Knights of The Old Republic, a lot of fans wanna see that, is there any development of that?
KENNEDY: “You know, we talk about that all the time. Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall..”
There is also a film project that would see Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige get involved as a producer but there next zero official information about what and when that would be. I have to assume it’s either something already mentioned like Taika’s film or something that hasn’t been made public.
I’m sure with Disney keen to get more originals for Disney+ that we’ll likely hear about more live-action Star Wars shows in the near future.
The latest episode of The Mandalorian released back on Friday brought back Boba Fett with prequels actor Temuera Morrison playing the role and finally getting to wear the armor as well. Morrison previously playing Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the prequel films.
In Chapter 14, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni seemingly restored Jango Fett and Boba Fett (by proxy) status as Mandalorians after there had been hints from the animation side that they were frauds that happened to obtain the armor. This leading fans to proclaim that neither Fetts were “real Mandalorians”. This apparently has been patched-up with some dialog in the new episode with Boba Fett revealing that his father Jango Fett was a foundling just like Din Djarin and fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars.
DIN DJARIN: “You’re father was a foundling?
BOBA FETT: “Yes, he even fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars.
DIN DJARIN: “Then that armor belongs to you.”
The episode also attempts some image repair on the Boba Fett character making him an effective soldier rather than the joke he was in Star Wars: The Return of Jedi and even seems a bit heroic, this likely has a lot to do with his own series.
Does this mean that both Boba Fett and Bo-Katan will become regulars on the show given that The Mandalorian title could now end up referring to all three of these characters? That remains to be seen as Deadline reported last month that a secret Boba Fett series began shooting without word who was director or even writing.
I’m slightly curious if we’ll end up seeing Bo-Katan or even Boba eventually take over the series if Mando happened to get killed-off possibly in a duel with Moff Gideon as he wields the Darksaber.
When I first exclusively reported at HN Entertainment that The Mandalorian would get a Season 2 (the first Star Wars series to get multiple seasons) I suggested that Lucasfilm could use an anthology model allowing them to pivot to different Mandalorian characters in various seasons. Given that we have zero information about this Boba Fett series and Jon Favreau hoped to begin shooting before the end of 2020, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Fett project might actually be Season 3 of The Mandalorian (only my speculation).
Chapter 13 is written and directed by Dave Filoni which leads to our first and possibly only look at Rosario Dawson as the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano.
Our first sequence on Corvus is a battle between Ahsoka Tano and a group armed men from The Magistrate aka Morgan Elsbeth (played by Diana Lee Inosanto), during a duel at the end it’s reveal Morgan’s master is Grand Admiral Thrawn (introduced into canon via Star Wars: Rebels) and Ahsoka is trying to find him. The action sequences are pretty neat and there is a huge Princess Mononoke vibe in the episode, it’s also nice to see her cut through the grunts with lightsabers.
The village of Calodan also seemed to take some visual cues from The Labyrinth.
Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator) shows up as the Magistrate’s hired-gun, possibly ex-military according to Mando.
When Mando is assigned by The Magistrate to kill Ahsoka Tano for a berskar spear. He eventually meets up with her and she reveals The Child’s real name is Grogu along with a bit of his origin story that he was at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant being trained during the Clone Wars. The Child is not a clone of Jedi Grand Master Yoda as previously suspected by fans but one of the few young Jedi that were able to survive Order 66.
Ahsoka seemingly refuses to train Grogu seeing darkness in him and instead tasks Din Djarin to take The Child to an ancient Jedi Temple on Tython (a planet from The Old Republic video game) to see if his path is meant towards that of a Jedi.
Tython is a planet located within the Tython System of the Deep Core. It is the planet where the first society of Force-users in known history gathered, which would eventually become the Jedi Order. It is the starting world of the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular character classes.
The planet is also home to the Flesh Raiders and if they are on Tython it would be their first live-action debut as they were created for The Old Republic video game.
As she hopes another Jedi can be reached through placing The Child on the Seeing Stone at the top of the mountain and if he reaches out to the Force another Jedi will sense his presence to find/train him.
This feels like endless side-missions at this point and it’s getting to be a bit of headache but it’s nice to get some hard information about Baby Yoda. But it’s nice to hear we might be seeing another Jedi, although, I’m unsure it’ll be Luke Skywalker.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ahsoka ends up getting her own solo series from Dave Filoni or if this Thrawn thread is ever pulled because it does seem like this stuff will get wrapped in The Mandalorian. I think a live-action version of Thrawn showing up in something like the Cassian Andor series could be fun or elsewhere. Thrawn was a Legends character from the novels that got a second life when he was added in Star Wars: Rebels and officially joined canon.
Last Friday, Star Wars fans finally got to see the live-action version of Bo-Katan played by voice actress Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and it seemed to be setting up the character for bigger things given her connection to the Darksaber that is currently in the hands of Moff Gideon. Not to mention her own journey could be explored further.
Katee stat down with Entertainment Tonight (via The Playlist) for her first interview about The Mandalorian and revealed that Bo-Katan is expected to be important to the future of the series.
SACKOFF: “She’s been such a pivotal character in this world and she’s so important to this story in The Mandalorian and where it’s going.”
Although, she seems to allude that she won’t have scenes with Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano or even confirm that casting. Tano is the next person that Mando will have to track down in upcoming episodes. But this could be something to through people off the scent of what’s to come.
SACKHOFF: “I’ve never met Rosario [Dawson], so I don’t know anything about [her role]. I love the character from Clone Wars and Rebels, so I’d love to see [Ahsoka].”
Katee points out she isn’t into spoil things for the fans and likely isn’t looking to ruin things for people.
Not to say anything is sure but it’s possible that the series could be handed-off to a new leading Mandalorian character like Bo-Katan either getting her own spinoff (a rumor that was debunked by Deadline) or taking the lead role from Din Djarin in future seasons of The Mandolarian.
Katee can’t confirm spinoff plans but says she would be interested in continuing the character as long as they want her.
SACKHOFF: “That’s what is so great about the Star Wars Universe there are so many stories…I have no idea but I would love to play this character as long as she has a story.”
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how much more Bo-Katan we’ll be getting in Season 2.
THE RONIN 