Tag: Lucasfilm

Posted on in Television News

Jango Fett’s Origin Explained In ‘The Mandalorian’

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR CHAPTER 14 OF THE MANDALORIAN

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).

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’: Diego Luna Says The ‘Cassian Andor’ Series Has Begun Filming In London!

It looks like another Star Wars series has begun production!

Rogue One actor Diego Luna mentioned on Jimmy Kimmel Live that filming on his untitled Cassian Andor prequel series has started in London (we have to assume he’s referring to Pinewood Studios UK). We’ll keep our fingers crossed he’ll finally have his wished granted and be able to touch Jabba.

Back in September, it was announced that Black Mirror’s Toby Haynes would be taking over as director as Tony Gilroy couldn’t do it. However, there is a chance Tony will be able to direct episodes later on. 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.

Since this series takes place before the ending of Star Wars: Rebels there is a good chance they could include the live-action incarnation of a character like Grand Admiral Thrawn that recently got a nod by Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian and we might eventually see the Imperial villain show up on Disney+ at some point. A series like Andor would be a perfect excuse to use him.

When the show is expected to drop on Disney+ remains a bit of mystery since they’re said to be currently shooting a Boba Fett project and Season 3 of The Mandalorian is going to be starting up soon. Ewan McGregor also said back in October that Kenobi would begin production sometime in March with Deborah Chow set to direct that series.

There are plenty of rumors concerning future Star Wars shows in development at Lucasfiilm with teases that Bo-Katan and Ahsoka Tano could land their own shows. Lucasfilm also announced an official one is coming from Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland that is reportedly going to be female-centric with martial arts elements.

SOURCE: JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE

Posted on in Television News

‘The Mandalorian’: Rosario Dawson Would Love The Opportunity To Reprise Ahsoka Tano

Last week’s episode of The Mandalorian finally brought Ahsoka Tano into the realm of live-action with Rosario Dawson playing this incarnation of the former Jedi. We learned that she is on the trail of Star Wars: Rebels villain Grand Admiral Thrawn and would suggest that she still has a path in future episodes or unofficially in her own spinoff series.

Dawson stat down with the official Star Wars website for an interview where she revealed she would love to return to the character.

DAWSON: “I mean, I would love that opportunity. I think it’s so cool that this show exists. I think it’s so cool that I got to show up and give information about this character, the Child, that everyone’s loved so much. You know, that she was not so much showing up as a cameo, but really being a storytelling device for new fans that have fallen in love with yet another new character that we’re getting to see grow. Little Grogu is just amazing.”

“It’s interesting watching The Mandalorian, realizing you’re not seeing lightsabers, you’re not seeing a lot of what we love about Star Wars. It was really amazing to be able to have that gift of being able to bring that into this series and into this space, and I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”

While it’s easy to see Lucasfilm/Disney moving forward with Ahsoka’s own show it’s also possible that things could be planted for future seasons of The Mandalorian, such as Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan trying to retrieve the Darksaber from Moff Gideon. It’s unknown if either Ahsoka Tano or Bo-Katan will return with only three episodes left to air on Disney+ but there is a good shot they could comeback for future seasons or spinoffs.

Rosario Dawson also recently commented to Vanity Fair in their lengthy interview about the claims of transphobia and a lawsuit filed against her family.

SOURCE: LUCASFILM

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’ Actress Erin Kellyman and Others In Negotiations For Lead Roles In Lucasfilm’s ‘Willow’ Series

Deadline reports that Lucasfilm’s Disney+ series Willow, a sequel based on the original 1988 film, is in negotiations with a trio of actresses to take lead roles in the fantasy series from Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan and co-showrunner Wendy Mericle with star Warwick Davis expected to reprise the role of Willow.

Erin Kellyman (The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Green Knight) is said to be up for the role of Jade, Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising, Bad Times At The El Royale) playing Kit and English actress Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals) as Dove.

They also included some character information which you can see below which sounds like the show will be mostly female driven.

According to circulated casting information for the series, it revolves around a group on a mission to save a kidnapped prince. The members of the team include Dove (Bamber), whose backstory resembles that of Willow from the movie. Dove is an unassuming kitchen maid who proves that she is the “chosen one” as she embarks on the journey. She is joined by Kit (Spaeny), the princess whose twin brother was abducted. She is destined to be a leader and ultimately the queen. Kellyman plays Jade, a servant who is Kit’s best friend and moral compass. She is on her way to becoming the best young warrior in the kingdom. Also part of the group is a guy who echoes Val Kilmer’s character in the movie. A thief and liar, he joins the quest in exchange for getting out of prison.

Erin did her scenes in Solo: A Star Wars Story alongside Willow lead Warwick Davis.

Disney officially announced the series was moving forward last month in a press release.

Filming will be taking place in Wales with Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) set to direct the pilot.

WILLOW – Enter the world of “Willow.” Journey to the far corners of your imagination, to a land of myth and magic, where dream and reality live side by side … to a place that never existed, a time that never was. It is a world where a young man named Willow lives out an adventure that explodes beyond the boundaries of his own hopes and fears.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

SPOILERS: ‘The Mandalorian’ Chapter 13 Recap – The Child’s Name and Origin Finally Revealed!

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE MANDALORIAN CHAPTER 13

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.

Posted on in Television News

Mercedes Varnado Only Shot A Single Episode of ‘The Mandalorian’ and Won’t Be Reappearing As Koska Reeves In Season 2

With Mercedes Varnado aka Sasha Banks’ debut as a Mandalorian cohort of Bo-Katan (played by Katee Sackhoff) there was some assumptions that there characters could play a bigger role in Season 2 of The Mandalorian. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

According to Mercedes herself while speaking with Comic Book, she only shot a single episode which means her character Koska Reeves won’t be showing up again, at least in this season. She does sound keen on reprising the role just as much as Katee.

VARNADO: “I can only hope that the fans get to know more, I’m only in this episode. It’s awesome but we can only hopee for more stuff. So, if I can pray and manifest anything, I just hope myself and Katee, Bo-Katan, can hopefully get the Darksaber one day. But we’ll have to see, I don’t know.”

I’m not entirely sure if this means we won’t see Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan again in this season but it is a possibility. We’ll have to see if the trio will get a bigger stage in Season 3 or in spinoffs.

Chapter 13 is set to drop this Friday on Disney+.

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK

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Katee Sackhoff Denies Involvement With ‘Star Wars’ Spinoff Series Featuring Cara Dune – “I Have Absolutely No Idea What You’re Talking About”

Capping-off Deadline’s debunking last week of the fan rumor that Katee Sackhoff and Gina Carano would be co-starring in a spinoff series from The Mandalorian with the pair reprising their roles of Bo-Katan and Cara Dune.

Katee is now flat-out denying it’s existence as well during an interview with the outlet stating the following.

SACKHOFF: “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, that’s legitimately the truth.”

She added what makes the character interesting to her.

SACKHOFF: “She’s a warrior and she has struggled tremendously with being a leader. For her, I think there is a struggle and a story about who she becomes in peace, if that were to ever be accomplished and what kind of ruler she would be. She’s never really, that we’ve seen, gotten that opportunity, and whether or not she’s ready for that. Just because she thinks it’s her rightful place, doesn’t mean she’s ready or equipped to rule Mandalore.

While speaking with Entertainment Tonight she hinted Bo-Katan important part of The Mandalorian.

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.”

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Daisy Ridley Sounds Hesitant To Continue Rey’s Journey After ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ – “I Just Feel Like That Was Rey’s Perfect Ending”

Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley recently spoke with IGN to help promote her upcoming action film Chaos Walking, co-starring Tom Holland, revealing that she isn’t terribly keen on reprising Rey Skywalker in either future films or a streaming series. Suggesting they pretty much left her in a good place at the end Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Daisy seems happy with how it all ended.

RIDLEY: “I think for me the beauty of Episode IX is it ends with such hope and such potential. I just feel like that was Rey’s perfect ending. The big battle was in Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. I think really she’s probably running around the forest somewhere having a great time [following the events of The Rise of Skywalker].”

“I feel totally, totally satisfied with how that story finished. I just don’t know what else she could do that I didn’t have to do. Also, there are so many amazing characters in Star Wars, that it’s sort of an amazing thing. I was watching the new episode of Mandalorian, and it’s just like the places it can go beyond even where it is now is so exciting.”

Considering the brutal harassment Ridley got from “fans” alongside co-stars John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran it’s no wonder that she’d rather just move on with her acting career. It’s also worth mentioning that Lucasfilm hasn’t given any signs they even want to continue the Rey Skywalker Saga in live-action form anytime soon. Instead, they seem to be focusing on television for the moment with brand new films on the horizon that most likely will move away from the Skywalker timeline altogether.

John Boyega has given less fluffy answers on the topic of a potential return to the franchise feeling like Finn was mistreated in the subsequent films and dismissing the idea of reprising the character for a live-action series on Disney+ which is understandable.

SOURCE: IGN

Posted on in Film News

Will The Long Delayed ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Finally Begin Filming In August?

Development on a fifth and possibly final Indiana Jones film starring Harrison Ford has been in the works for five years at Lucasfilm. The project has been delayed for ages now after a string of release dates went from July 19th, 2019 to July 10th, 2020 to July 9th, 2021 to the most recent date being July 29th, 2022.

You might remember that Steven Spielberg exited the film and Lucasfilm eventually hired Logan director James Mangold. It’s expected that Mangold is working on the script after screenwriters David Koepp (Jurassic Park) and Jonathan Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Willow series) have moved on.

It’s possible that they might finally inching closer towards filming. A new production grid for the untitled Indiana Jones 5 is making the rounds online and one of the places it landed yesterday was Daniel Richtman’s Patreon page.

However, we have to note there were at least two other production grids that suggested that filming would begin in 2019 and 2020 that never actually happened due to script issues. I wouldn’t be terribly quick to say this is lock without confirmation from the studio and casting begins but could give some insight when Lucasfilm hopes to get filming started next year.

They’ll also have to contend with lingering COVID-19 that won’t be entirely gone in the summer of 2021 (even with a vaccine in circulation) and potentially risking the heath of the nearly 80 year old Harrison Ford. Disney and Lucasfilm taking another mulligan until 2022 wouldn’t be the most shocking development.

Back in February, Ford himself told CBS Sunday Morning that they would begin shooting this year and those plans didn’t come together.

FORD: “Trying not to look silly, running around in tight pants and high boots… I’ll give you a more appropriate answer considering that I’m gonna start doing Indiana Jones in about two months. I’m always delighted to come back to these characters. When we have the opportunity to make another, it’s because people have enjoyed them, I feel obliged to make sure that our efforts are as ambitious as they were when we started.“

Last we heard from Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, Indiana Jones 5 is indeed a continuation.

KENNEDY: “Oh, Harrison Ford will be involved, yeah. It’s not a reboot, it’s a continuation…He can’t wait he absolutely is.”

In the past, Harrison Ford has debunked the talk of Chris Pratt (mixing him up with Chris Pine) taking over the role in a reboot stating to the Today Show the character is expected to die with him.

FORD: “Nobody is going to be Indiana Jones, don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones. When I’m gone, he’s gone. It’s easy. This is a hell of a way to tell Chris Pine this. I’m sorry, man.”

Back in 2016, screenwriter David Koepp revealed to Collider that franchise creator George Lucas wouldn’t be part of the story/script process.

It’s unclear if we’ll be seeing supporting characters like Wan Li aka Short Round or Henry Jones III aka Mutt appear in the final installment. I’d personally like to see them attempt to develop a new protege character and place Indy in the Henry Jones Sr. role as seen in The Last Crusade.

SOURCE: DANIEL RICHTMAN/PRODUCTION WEEKLY

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Katee Sackhoff Says Bo-Katan Is “Important” To The Story and Future of ‘The Mandalorian’ Series – Game For A Spinoff

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.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT