An excerpt from a new interview from George Lucas has been making the rounds online (via Reddit) that comes from a new book titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 has the franchise creator talking-up ideas he had for the sequel trilogy that ultimately weren’t used by Lucasfilm/Disney. Lucas first mentioned that Disney wasn’t interested in his ideas during his infamous interview where he called them “white slavers”.
He alludes that he wanted Luke Skywalker to restart the Jedi with what seems to be 50-100 Jedi that survived the events of Order 66 from Revenge of The Sith, it sounds like a much larger amount than we would have expected.
LUCAS: “It starts out a few years after Return of The Jedi and we establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld, there are offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi. He puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left. The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two and three-year-olds, and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi”
“By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.”
I’m slightly curious if this germ of an idea is why Disney wanted to explore a Jedi characters like Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Kanan Jarrus in Rebels both survivors of Order 66. I’m also curious if they try to reuse it in the Disney+ shows.
Ultimately, the version of Luke Skywalker we saw wasn’t this version as Lucas alludes wanting to have a new Jedi Order established, which never happened in the films we got.
Leia’s final journey was more than likely hindered because of her sudden death while Colin Trevorrow was still working on Duel of The Fates and they had to make creative choices to work around that tragedy.
One of the biggest issues a lot of fans of myself with the prequel trilogy is that it never really had a menacing villain and once they killed off Darth Maul, who at the time felt like was going to become the next Darth Vader was dispensed so quickly it felt like a horrible mistake on the part of George Lucas. Neither Darth Sidous and Count Dooku really measured up “great villains” feeling like Maul was wasted potential.
Well, it sounds like Lucas had plans on bringing him back for his version of the sequel trilogy that was never used by Lucasfilm/Disney.
During a interview for a new retrospective book on the prequels titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, George states that he wanted to use both Darth Maul and Darth Talon (Legends/Expanded Universe character) as the villains in the new trilogy with the latter becoming the new Vader of those films.
What looks like a page from the book with these details leaked on Reddit.
LUCAS: “Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy.Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”
Darth Maul got a bit of redemption from his wasted use in The Phantom Menace in The Clone Wars and Rebels becoming more of a developed character. Then reappearing in a brief cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story as a crimelord in Crimson Dawn, which seemed to mirror what Lucas had in mind for the new trilogy. Despite unverified rumors it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see the character return in the live-action realm anytime soon given that Darth Maul actor Ray Park may have posted revenge porn on his Instagram account.
The inclusion of Darth Talon is interesting since we’ve seen her pop-up in a lot of places in the Star Wars mythology and development.
Darth Talon from Star Wars: Legacy published by Dark Horse Comics
Darth Talon originally came from the Dark Horse Comics run but under Disney wouldn’t be part of canon anymore allowing Lucasfilm to use the character however they’d like. There had been development on a Darth Maul game titled Battle of The Sith Lords that included Talon in concept artwork but the project was ultimately killed after Disney acquired the company.
Darth Maul & Darth Talon concept artwork from Battle of The Sith Lords
Her journey didn’t seem to end with Disney there as unused concept artwork from Star Wars: The Force Awakens confirms that someone at Lucasfilm considered using Darth Talon in the new films but for whatever reason J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy decided against it.
Darth Talon concept art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Asajj Ventress, a key figure in The Clone Wars happened to be based on a rejected Sith design from the prequels but got second life in the animation side of things. It sounds like Lucas wanted the same thing for Talon on the live-action side, but it was never fully realized.
I’d personally love to see Talon get her own series which could be in the cards as Disney+ seems to be keen to develop various Star Wars shows.
Yesterday, Deadline broke a rumor that filming on an unannounced Boba Fett series could begin as early as this week.
They also added some new details concerning the untitled female-centric series coming from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland. Stating that it will be an action thriller that will have martial arts elements taking place in “an alternate 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.
While we’ve seen Jedi and gunslingers, we really haven’t seen a martial arts type project before. Star Wars: The Force Awakens featured The Raid 1-2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 actors Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman as the group Kanjiklub. All three known for martial arts films. It’ll be interesting if they’ll be pursuing those kinds of actors for this new “action” series.
Martial arts star Donnie Yen’s also had a supporting role as Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
It remains to be seen where this timeline will land. I know fans like myself would enjoy a setting in The Old Republic and could be one of the better untapped sectors of the Star Wars Universe.
In Chapter 10, directed by Ant-Man’s Peyton Reed, we see Season 1 actress Misty Rosas return after playing Kuiil (voiced by Nick Nolte) to take a new role of the Frog Lady fare and Richard Ayoade’s droid bounty hunter makes a brief return too.
Mando encounters some tie-fighter pilots leading to him wrecking the ship and stranding the group on an icy planet.
We also see a huge call-back to the white spiders created by artist Ralph McQuarrie for The Empire Strikes Back (seen above) and excellently used on this snowy planet, the new episode also homages both James Cameron’s Aliens and John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing. They were also used in Star Wars: Rebels and given the name of Krykna.
Between tackling the Krykna in this new episode and the Krayt dragon on Tatooine in Chapter 9, it is starting to feel like the visual effects budget has been greatly increased from Season 1.
Here is a new batch of concept artwork from Chapter 10.
Deadline is claiming that a Boba Fett miniseries is set to begin shooting this week before Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
A project that has yet to be confirmed officially by Lucasfilm or Disney.
I hear possibly a Boba Fett miniseries, would film first, starting next week, with The Mandalorian Season 3 following after a monthlong break.
We previously got confirmation that actor Temurea Morrison would be taking the Boba Fett role in Season 2 of The Mandalorian, as his New Zealand agency confirmed the part in an official CV document.
Information on this Boba Fett series is limited given that Lucasfilm hasn’t even announced it officially or who is working on it. We also don’t know if it will be following Morrison or a younger incarnation of the character before the events of the original trilogy. Daniel Logan played a younger version of Boba in the prequels and could be the right age for a series.
Josh Trank and Simon Kinberg had been developing a Boba Fett movie for Lucasfilm before the project dissolved after the hiccups at 20th Century Fox making Fantastic Four. Lucasfilm attempted a second incarnation of the Fett movie but development there stalled again leading to the studio to pivot to The Mandalorian series instead along with the other spinoff films like Solo: A Star Wars Story.
This path would seemingly echo how Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi film turned into a limited series for Disney+ with The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow set to direct that show after film development didn’t stick.
Boba Fett is established as a clone of Jango Fett (played by Temurea Morrison) and first appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special in the animated sequence, then appeared in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi (also in Special Edition of A New Hope years after it’s original release). A younger live-action incarnation of Boba Fett (played by Daniel Logan) was last seen in Star Wars: Attack of The Clones.
Who exactly is directing or writing this Boba Fett project is unknown.
It was posted by Production Weekly that the working title of Season 3 of Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian will be Buccaneer.
The title is a pirate term which could suggest that a beloved Clone Wars/Rebels character like Hondo Ohnaka might be showing up in Season 3, but that is more speculation given how other animation characters are said to have live-action counterparts appearing in Season 2.
However, it is worth noting that Hondo happens to be a character at Galaxy’s Edge (means he is alive in The Mandalorian era and beyond) and there is an obvious reason to link a theme park character to the popular series.
It could also be a nod to the criminal group Dharus Buccaneers.
There are plenty of pirate gangs and criminal syndicates in Star Wars but we really haven’t seen them in full display as The Mandalorian (so far) has been mostly exploring the world of bounty hunters and Imperial forces with limited interaction with the criminal side of the galaxy.
Back in August, The Ronin reported that Jon Favreau is returning as writer, producer, showrunner, and director. He’s expected to direct at least one episode in Season 3 as he recently directed the Season 2 premiere. We also confirmed that Emmy-winning production designer Andrew Jones would be returning.
There is also an assumption that Dave Filoni will be back as a director too.
Favreau has suggested to Variety that filming could begin before the end of the year.
Executive producer and showrunner Jon Favreau told Variety that The Mandalorian is “on schedule” to start production on Season 3 of the series “before the end of the year” — after Pascal wraps shooting in Europe on the feature film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage.
Despite fan rumblings of actor Pedro Pascal being replaced as Din Djarin aka Mando that doesn’t seem to be happening given how credible sources haven’t supported that chatter and Pascal has been heavily promoting the series (even on his own time).
The working title was first brought-up by Skyler from The DisInsider back in October via Twitter and is now seemingly confirmed by Production Weekly’s update.
The working title for The Mandalorian season 3 is BUCCANEER!
The Mandalorian and the Child continue their journey, facing enemies and rallying allies as they make their way through a dangerous galaxy in the tumultuous era after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. “The Mandalorian” stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers and Giancarlo Esposito. Directors for the new season include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez. Showrunner Jon Favreau serves as executive producer along with Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson, with Karen Gilchrist serving as co-executive producer.
A series sequel based on the 1988 Ron Howard and George Lucas fantasy film Willow has been in the works for a while now from Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan. Disney has announced they’ve finally greenlit the sequel series for Disney+.
They also confirmed that production will be returning to Wales where the original film was shot.
Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu will handle the the first episode and he commented on the news via Twitter. Ron Howard will return to executive produce the series with Jonathan Kasdan and Wendy Mercile set as the showrunners.
Ok Ive been hiding this for a while now…but…IS THIS REAL LIFE???!!! Do I really get to work with this team on this story????? I mean I literally named my daughter Willow…literally. ‘Willow’ Sequel Series Officially a Go, Jon M. Chu to Direct https://t.co/L8fh0nJhe7#Willow
The magical world of George Lucas’ “Willow,” the epic fantasy adventure set in an age of swords, sorcery, myths and monsters, will be returning in a Disney+ series slated to begin production next year.
Jon M. Chu (“In The Heights,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) is set to direct the pilot, and will serve as executive producer along with showrunners Jonathan Kasdan (“Solo”) and Wendy Mericle (“Arrow”). Jonathan Kasdan wrote the pilot.
The series, which is Lucasfilm’s first venture into non-Star Wars storytelling since 2015, takes place years after the events of the original “Willow” film. It introduces all-new characters to the enchanted realm of fairy queens and two-headed Eborsisk monsters, and welcomes back its namesake hero, Willow Ufgood, performed once again by the unmatchable Warwick Davis.
Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Jon M. Chu, Jonathan Kasdan, Wendy Mericle, Ron Howard and Imagine Television will serve as executive producers, with Roopesh Parekh and Hannah Friedman as co-executive producers. Additionally, Bob Dolman will serve as consulting producer with Julia Cooperman as producer.
The production plans to return to the dramatic and enchanted landscapes of Wales, where much of the original film was shot.
You might remember that Chu was lobbying a while back to direct a Rose Tico series starring Kelly Marie Tran.
The Willow series is said to be a direct sequel to the original film and is expected to focus specifically on Warwick Davis’ titular character Willow Ufgood. It remains to be seen if they’ll attempt to resurrect any of the other characters from the original film.
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.
In a new interview with Variety, showrunner Jon Favreau states that Season 3 of The Mandalorian is seemingly on schedule to begin filming before the end of the year as soon as Pedro Pascal finishes up a film he’s working on in Europe.
Executive producer and showrunner Jon Favreau told Variety that The Mandalorian is “on schedule” to start production on Season 3 of the series “before the end of the year” — after Pascal wraps shooting in Europe on the feature film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage.
The Ronin previously confirmed that production designer Andrew Jones is already set to return for Season 3.
Jon talked up about focusing on characters and flushing them out being a high priority along with not rushing things.
FAVREAU: “I love the world of Star Wars because, on the one hand, there’s a familiarity with this sub-genre, but there’s also a tremendous amount of flexibility of which way you can go and genres you could explore within that sub-genre. As we’re meeting new characters, and as we’re starting to hit our stride, from a production standpoint with how this technology can be used, we are beginning to explore where we could go.”
“And we could start to expand what we’re doing and our ambitions about what characters we want to follow.”
“I learned a lot from my experience over at Marvel, where it was very organic, how it would evolve. You’re paying attention to a larger story arcs and characters that could come together, but also smaller stories of individual characters that could go off [on their own thing]. The key here is keep maintaining the quality and never scaling to the point that we’re losing sight of what’s important to us and what people like about the show.”
When asked if they were keen on the idea of making a feature film Jon says they’re in “no rush” but is open to the idea.
FAVREAU: “The line is blurring now. Things that you would have only seen in the movie theater, you’re seeing on streaming, and I think it could go the other way as well.”
“But we’re definitely open to it and excited to see where the story leads us and have that flexibility — because there’s no rulebook now.”
Actor Pedro Pascal, who will be returning to shoot Season 3 despite rumors he’ll be replaced, is also game to do a movie.
PASCAL: “I think that the work is so beautiful that I would love for that to be held by a big screen experience. But it seems to work so well that also I’m not sure it’s something that I would want corrupted by any kind of change, you know? I mean, I certainly know that the challenge can be met. It’s not like these people don’t have the experience. If anybody can do it, they can!”
Giancarlo Esposito recently suggested The Mandalorian would be getting a fourth season before that has been officially announced which could suggest they plan on going pretty far with their Mandalorian run on Disney+. There have also been plenty of unconfirmed rumors about this season leading to multiple spinoff series but that has yet to be supported by industry trades or announced by Disney/Lucasfilm.
Season 2 of The Mandalorian begins airing on Disney+ starting on October 30th.
Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company announced a new initiative to get more content going for its streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu from its sports, television, and film divisions. The new division will be called The Media & Entertainment Distribution group led by Kareem Daniel.
It sounds like they’ll be dedicating a lot more resources and money than they have previously as means to compete with competitors like Netflix and Amazon. However, this announcement says nothing about them throwing their 2021 theatrical slate on Disney+ and never mention a thing about ending theatrical releases altogether only pushing to place more content on their streaming services.
We will get more details on these plans on December 10th.
During an interview with CNBC, Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek was quick to point out that they aren’t looking to stop the theatrical experience and would be announcing further details.
Also, specifically downplayed COVID-19’s role in the decision.
CHAPEK: “I would not characterize it as a response to Covid. I would say Covid accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway. Because essentially what we want to do is separate out folks who make our wonderful content based on tremendous franchises from the decision making in terms of prioritization is on how it gets commercialized into the marketplace. And what we want to do is leave it to a group of folks you can really see objectively across all of the constituents we have and various considerations we’ve got and make the optimal decision for the company as opposed to having it predetermined that a movie is destined to theaters or that a TV show is destined for ABC. So what we really want to do is provide some level of objectivity and really make it a decision that benefits the overall company and its shareholders.”
When pressed on Disney’s commitment to the theatrical model Bob said the following that gives the impression they’re not giving up on the theatrical model just yet.
CHAPEK: “We’ve benefited from a tremendous relationship with theatrical exhibition for many many many years as dynamics change in the marketplace though we want to make sure that we are giving consumers who want to go to theaters to experience everything that a theatrical release can give them, we want to continue to give them that option but at the same time there are a lot of consumers that want to experience a movie in the safety, comfort, and convenience of their own home for whatever reasons they do.”
To me, it sounds like either they are going to pursue a shorter theatrical window or a mixed model of day-and-date which obviously the theater industry wouldn’t be terribly pleased about on either front.
Here is the official press release from the Walt Disney Company website that gets a little more into the weeds about what all this means.
In light of the tremendous success achieved to date in the Company’s direct-to-consumer business and to further accelerate its DTC strategy, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) today announced a strategic reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses. Under the new structure, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the Company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global Media and Entertainment Distribution organization. The new Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be responsible for all monetization of content—both distribution and ad sales—and will oversee operations of the Company’s streaming services. It will also have sole P&L accountability for Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.
The creation of content will be managed in three distinct groups—Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports—headed by current leaders Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice, and James Pitaro. The Media and Entertainment Distribution group will be headed by Kareem Daniel, formerly President, Consumer Products, Games and Publishing. All five leaders will report directly to Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. Disney Parks, Experiences and Products will continue to operate under its existing structure, led by Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, who continues to report to Mr. Chapek. Rebecca Campbell will serve as Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer. Bob Iger, in his role as Executive Chairman, will continue to direct the Company’s creative endeavors.
“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Mr. Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content—while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”
Under the new structure, the Company’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the Company’s streaming services:
STUDIOS: Messrs. Horn and Bergman will serve as Chairmen, Studios Content, which will focus on creating branded theatrical and episodic content based on the Company’s powerhouse franchises for theatrical exhibition, Disney+ and the Company’s other streaming services. The group will include the content engines of The Walt Disney Studios, including Disney live action and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT: Mr. Rice will serve as Chairman, General Entertainment Content, which will focus on creating general entertainment episodic and original long-form content for the Company’s streaming platforms and its cable and broadcast networks. The group will include the content engines of 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television; ABC News; Disney Channels; Freeform; FX; and National Geographic.
SPORTS: Mr. Pitaro will serve as Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, which will focus on ESPN’s live sports programming, as well as sports news and original and non-scripted sports-related content, for the cable channels, ESPN+, and ABC.
The Media and Entertainment Distribution group, led by Mr. Daniel, will be responsible for the P&L management and all distribution, operations, sales, advertising, data and technology functions worldwide for all of the Company’s content engines, and it will also manage operations of the Company’s streaming services and domestic television networks. The group will work in close collaboration with the content creation teams on programming and marketing.
It’ll be interesting to see if Disney+ will start mining IP from the 20th Century Studios side of things soon as Disney+ series and limited series focused on properties like Avatar and Planet of The Apes could be extremely successful. In the press release they suggest that they could end up making episodic projects based on 20th Century properties.
A live-action Flash Gordon series stands out as a property that Disney really could do justice with on Disney+ and be a counter of sorts to their Star Wars shows as it could be way more swashbuckling than the Lucasfilm property that was inspired by it. Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit) is attached to direct an animated Flash Gordon film and at one time 20th Century was developing a live-action feature as well from directors Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Stardust, Layer Cake) and Julius Avery (Overlord) involved at different points.
I wouldn’t even put it past Disney to reboot John Carter eventually given the Volume/StageCraft would allow them to make a series more cost effective that world like Flash Gordon is different enough from Star Wars it would be worth pursuing.
Of course, this could mean a major influx of more shows from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar universes but might also see Hulu getting a bump of adult content as well with franchises like Alien (Noah Hawley pitched an Alien series to FX) and Predator just collecting dust while they could be helpful to get more eyeballs on Hulu. HBO Max had recently crowed about Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves being the most popular original on their service when announcing they were moving forward with a Season 2 order.
Matthew Vaughn has also been talking up the idea of a Kingsman spinoff series that could fit nicely at Hulu.
Disney certainly has a massive gap in the adult market and places like Canada don’t have access to Hulu and that really needs to change if they want to compete with Netflix/Amazon on an international level as those services offer content to both kids and adults alike. Cornering the kid market just won’t be enough for Disney if they want to grow their streaming presence.
I guess we’ll have to wait for December 10th to get more concrete answers about what all this actually means for content that is already in the can or is about to begin filming.
Ewan McGregor previously chatted with Entertainment Tonight to promote Apple TV+’s Long Way Up, where he revealed that production on Kenobi has been pushed to the spring and is indeed being planned as a single standalone season.
MCGREGOR: “Spring next year we start, I’m really excited about it. It’s gonna be great, I think. As I understand, it’s a standalone season. We’ll see. Who knows?”
This is now an update from Ewan.
Appearing on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show he stated cameras would begin rolling in March, giving an actual start month for the Star Wars series. Originally, they had planned on starting in January.
MCGREGOR: “Yeah, it’s the Obi-Wan Kenobi story I suppose…we start shooting it in March next year.”
While speaking with ACE Universe back in June he confirmed that they would be implementing the StageCraft technology used on The Mandalorian. This could suggest they will be using the new setup at Pinewood Studios UK.
MCGREGOR: “[The prequels] were all blue screen and green screen and it was hard to imagine, but nowadays I think things have moved on so much, and I think a lot of what you see is gonna be what we see on the set. I don’t know if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes of The Mandalorian series, but they employ that incredible screen…it’s pretty amazing. It makes you feel like you’re in the place, it’s going to feel realer for us, as actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.”
The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow is directing with recent script rewrites from Army of The Dead’s Joby Harold.
While we’ve had a string of casting announcements for Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor series there haven’t been any for the Kenobi series and with a March start we will likely start hearing some news on that front in the very near future.
THE RONIN 