Tag: Star Wars

Posted on in Film News, News

Guillermo del Toro Reflects On Developing His Never-Made ‘Star Wars’ Movie As “Good Practice”: “We Had The Rise & Fall Of Jabba The Hutt”

Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”) could fill a room with all the unmade projects he’s either developed or has been courted for over the years. Some of those projects include a feature film version of H.P. Lovecraft‘s “At The Mountains of Madness” starring Tom Cruise (A seminal sci-fi horror tale that inspired the likes of “The Thing” and the “Alien” franchise), the sequel to “Pacific Rim,” a series at Marvel/ABC focused on “The Hulk,” and the most infamous being “The Hobbit” movies that passed to Peter Jackson, reluctantly.

Last month, we learned of another big studio project that he was developing with his “Blade II” screenwriter, David S. Goyer, that didn’t get made either. That is a feature film set in “Star Wars” focusing on “the rise and fall” of Jabba The Hutt in the criminal underworld. While del Toro had mused in previous interviews about making a “Godfather”-type story within that universe, it wasn’t until Goyer mentioned that they had actually tried to get it made and had worked on the script at Lucasfilm for it.

Guillermo del Toro raises some Hellboy | Georgia Straight Vancouver's source for arts, culture, and events

Now, del Toro is reflecting on that experience while chatting with Collider at a Q&A that was held this week and isn’t terribly upset about it not really coming together.

“I believe a movie is going to happen when the Blu-Ray comes out, that’s when I know things are going to happen. In the last moment, things go away. I’ve had it happen many many times. We had the rise and fall of Jabba The Hutt. So, I was super happy, and then it’s not my property, it’s not my money. It’s one of those thirty screenplays that goes away. Sometimes I’m bitter, sometimes I’m not. I always turn to my team and say ‘Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world, we designed great stuff, we learned.’ So, you can never be ungrateful with life. Whatever life sends you there is something to learn from it.”

If you consider what happened within “The Book of Boba Fett,” it might have made a “Jabba The Hutt” project a little redundant as you likely would have seen similar elements. It’ll be interesting to hear if “Fett” got the Jabba thing erased or if they used things developed by del Toro/Goyer in that series produced by Robert Rodriguez. However, given how inventive the Lucasfilm creature shop has been since “The Force Awakens” the potential of an alien creature-focused “Star Wars” movie with del Toro behind feels like such a loss for fans of both “Star Wars” and the filmmaker himself.

Next up for del Toro is a retelling of Mary Shelley‘s “Frankenstein” at Netflix with a cast that consists of Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Andrew Garfield, and Christoph Waltz. Filming on that according to the director is aiming to start sometime in February.

Anyway, you can watch del Toro’s thoughts on that experience in video form below.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News, News

Robert Rodriguez Would Love To Revisit ‘Desperado’ Franchise But Worries About Glorifying Gun Violence

Director Robert Rodriguez has been keeping himself extremely busy over the last decade with his kid films on Netflix such as the recently released “Spy Kids” reboot “Spy Kids: Armageddon,” tackling the “Star Wars” universe with “The Mandalorian” and his own spinoff series “The Book of Boba Fett,” the Ben Affleck thriller “Hypnotic,” and had worked with James Cameron by helming his ambitious cyberpunk adventure pic “Alita: Battle Angel,” a live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese manga series.

During a recent chat with The Wrap, Rodriguez states that he would be interested in returning to his El franchise, which consists of “El Mariachi,” “Desperado,” and “Once Upon A Time In Mexico.” That action-packed trilogy focused on a gun-toting Mexican folk hero, a former musician, going up drug cartels and corrupt military leaders. However, the director is a bit uncomfortable with the idea of glorifying gun violence given the current climate of shootings and other real-life violence connected to the cartels.

Rod-Tino Tuesday: Once Upon A Time In Mexico – Couch Cruisin'

“I would love to revisit the ‘Desperado’ series. I thought it was way ahead of its time. It’s really hard to do today, for me, anything with guns. Gun violence has gotten out of control. Even those are those are very tongue-in-cheek and kind of fun. It’s just hard to do. There’s always some terrible shooting and you just go, I don’t know if I can responsibly do anything with guns. I really love those films, they are so fun. They’re like ‘Spy Kids’ for grownups, with guitar cases that fired missiles and gadgets galore. It was still made by a kid. Still, the glorification of it would be hard for me to pull off responsibly.”

There is certainly some shared DNA between those fun shoot-em-up films and the four “John Wick” movies from Chad Stahelski, they both make a point to establish they’re not set in a grounded cinematic universe. Something that “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” fully leans into as it comes off more like an action film mixed with a fairytale with over-the-top characters and ridiculous plot points. Not unlike his two extremely violent “Machete” films that are glorious love letters to the exploitation genre.

Speaking of Machete, we’re still waiting on Rodriguez to round out his trilogy with “Machete In Space.”

There was also a brief update/comment on the status of the “Battle Angel” sequel. While there haven’t been any formal announcements from Disney/20th Century Studios concerning “Alita 2,” Rodriguez reiterates that he’s still been keeping in contact with Cameron about the potential sequel and is hopeful that the studio is willing to make it as post-acquisition 20th Century is making more of their own movies again.

“Yeah, Jim and I always talk about how we’d love to do another ‘Alita.’ That studio [20th Century] was bought by another studio [Disney]. They’re starting to make movies now. But that for a while 20th Century wasn’t making any of their movies. I think now you’re seeing a few rolling out. We would love to.”

Previously, there had been some indications that deals or ideas had been thrown around behind the scenes as “Alita: Battle Angel” ended on a cliffhanger revealing Edward Norton as Nova, the next big villain Alita would have to face. Originally, when Cameron was attached to direct the plan was to shoot and release a trilogy of films. The global box office take of $405 million on a budget of $170 million wasn’t exactly on the scale of “Avatar” but seemingly was still enough for the studio to consider at least making one more installment given the mostly positive reception from audiences that did end up seeing it.

Then again, it’s hard to ignore all of the would-be film projects Rodriguez has developed over the years that simply never crossed the finish line such as “Barbarella,” “Red Sonja,” “Fire & Ice,” “Escape From New York,” a revival of the animated anthology film “Heavy Metal” spearheaded by Tim Miller/David Fincher, and his live-action “Jetsons” movie. We’ll simply have to be patient to see what he does next.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in Film News, News

Gareth Edwards Clarifies Involvement In ‘Rogue One’ Reshoots, Shot Darth Vader Action Sequence

Director Gareth Edwards is finally back with a new feature film, “The Creator,” after the haphazard production of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” While on the press tour for the futuristic film about artificial intelligence, Edwards is trying to clear the record about what exactly did or didn’t happen during the filming and subsequent reshoots for the “Star Wars” film. Tony Gilroy famously was brought on to help with the extensive reshoot, and ultimately, led to him landing the chance to flesh out Rebellion spy Cassian Andor’s backstory with the acclaimed Disney+ series “Andor.” When Gilroy was brought on there had been rumblings that Edwards was replaced completely and stopped working on the film, according to the director that just isn’t true.

Speaking with the KCRW’s The Business Podcast (via GamesRadar), the British filmmaker denied speculation/rumors that he had been thrown off “Rogue One” by Lucasfilm. Countering that narrative by stating it was a collaborative situation until the “last minute” and hammering home that point by revealing the last thing they had shot was the Darth Vader hallway action sequence, which Edwards says he shot himself.

“The stuff that’s out there on the internet about what happened on that film… there’s so much inaccuracy about the whole thing, and Tony [Gilroy] came in and he did a lot of great work for sure, no doubt about it. But we all worked together till the entire last minute of that movie…”

 “The very last thing that we filmed in the pickup shoot was the Darth Vader corridor scene,” Edwards added. “I did all of that stuff.”

After watching “The Creator,” a film with a lot of over-the-top violence with a focus on the visuals, it’s hard to argue with the man.

If you don’t remember the final events of the billion-dollar hit, the sequence in question saw Darth Vader being let loose on a group of Rebel soldiers/crew members as the Sith Lord is trying to get the Death Star plans back before they ultimately reach Princess Leia and directly into the start of “A New Hope,” the first film in the original trilogy. Some corners of the internet tried to push the idea that Dave Filoni (Only known for shooting animated scenes at this point in his career) had secretly directed the scene, not the case.

The action scene got such a segment of the “Star Wars” fandom pumped, and a handful of fans (alongside some blogs) began a small online campaign for Lucasfilm to make a solo Vader project simply based on that scene alone (Not exactly a great basis for a spinoff but okay). With that in mind, we did see prequel actor Hayden Christensen reprise the role of Anakin Skywalker in both “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (playing Anakin and Vader) and having some cameo scenes in the new series “Ahsoka” as well. Perhaps, the reaction to that sequence helped convince the studio to at least bring back Anakin/Vader? It’s a strong possibility given that it does seem that Lucasfilm does use internal polling to figure out what characters they should bring back or which ones could make the jump to live-action/canon.

“The Creator” is out in theaters and we recommend you check it out on the biggest screen available to you.

SOURCE: THE BUSINESS PODCAST

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Star Wars’: David S. Goyer Wrote A Jabba The Hutt Movie Script For Guillermo del Toro & Jedi Origin Film Set 25,000 Years In The Past

The volume of unmade “Star Wars” projects keeps growing as we’ve now learned of TWO other films that had been in development by screenwriter David S. Goyer (“Blade,” “Batman Begins”). The longtime comic book film writer has now dished to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (See video below) that he not only was involved with a “Star Wars” film for Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”) “four years ago” but also another film that would have explored the origins of the Jedi set 25,000 years before the events of the original film from 1977.

The latter movie sounds a lot like what the “Game of Thrones” showrunners D.B Weiss and David Benioff had been reportedly developing at Lucasfilm before their own exit and what currently writer/director James Mangold (“Logan”) is trying to put together with his own take on the early days of The Force/Jedi.

Goyer and del Toro had previously worked together on the first big Marvel Comics sequel, “Blade II.”

There was once a time when del Toro had mused in an interview with Yahoo! back in 2015 about potentially tackling a Jabba The Hutt movie comparing it to a gangster film within the “Star Wars” universe by citing the “Godfather” saga as his inspiration.

“I would do the sort of ‘Godfather’ saga that Jabba the Hutt had to go through to gain control,” he said. “One, because it’s the character that looks the most like me, and I like him. I love the idea of a Hutt type of mafia, a very complex coup. I just love the character.”

However, given the poor reception of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” gestating plans for other spinoff films that had been in the works such as Kenobi and Boba Fett feature films were scrapped. Later on, they were both resurrected as Disney+ miniseries. It’s possible whatever del Toro/Goyer was cooking up ultimately got shelved when the studio decided to focus on their streaming series.

UPDATE: Guillermo has confirmed on Twitter that it was indeed his Jabba project.

I’m not exactly sure what Lucasfilm was thinking by turning down a Jabba film from a recent Oscar-winning filmmaker, but you have to imagine that now with this information out in the wild people are going to be questioning that choice on the stuido’s part.

You can watch/listen to that exchange below.

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Lando’ Co-Writer Stephen Glover Says ‘Star Wars’ Series Morphing Into Feature Film: “The Idea Right Now Is To Do A Movie”

Back in July, it was revealed that Justin Simien (“Haunted Mansion,” “Dear White People”) would no longer be developing the Lando Calrissian spinoff series, “Lando,” for Lucasfilm. Instead, the creative reins of the project would shift over to star Donald Glover (“Solo: A Star Wars Story) and his brother/writing partner Stephen Glover (“Atlanta”). It was sort of a shock that the studio was still pursuing the “Star Wars” project and potentially a welcome shift in development, as the Glovers are on quite a creative roll with their acclaimed FX series “Atlanta” getting a lot of attention.

Now, Stephen is suggesting during a podcast appearance on Pablo Torre Finds Out (See video below) that the project is no longer even a series but is pivoting towards becoming a feature film instead.

“It’s not even a show…I’m sure the nerds will figure it out anyway. They’ll read my lips or something…No, the idea right now is to do a movie. Right now because of the strike it’s kind of like ‘telephone,’ all the information coming out,” Glover said.

Could this be a way to attract “Solo” co-stars like Alden Ehrenreich and Emilia Clarke to reprise their roles after a shaky box office reception? I guess we’ll have to wait and see who exactly ends up appearing in this new movie incarnation.

Previously, both “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “The Book of Boba Fett” started out as movies in development only to be snuffed out and resurrected as Disney+ original limited streaming series. However, given Lucasfilm’s current track record with slow crawl development on their recently announced feature films, we might not be getting “Lando” until 2030 or beyond (kidding, of course).

Lucasfilm’s growing number of films in development consists of one from Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”), a force/Jedi origin film from James Mangold (“Logan”), Shawn Levy (“Deadpool 3”) is attached for another, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) is tackling a film set 15 years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker” with Daisy Ridley attached to reprise her role of Rey Skywalker, and Dave Filoni (“Ahsoka”) is going to be making his big jump from TV to the big screen with another mysterious film set during the timeline of the streaming shows which is years after “Return of The Jedi.” It’s really hard to too excited knowing that a lot of these movies could have a similar fate to “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron” where there is a moment of excitement from it’s announcement to a thud when it just gets tossed into limbo.

We should all be cautiously optimistic for the moment until cameras actually roll on it because there seem to be a lot of “Star Wars” films announced to be in “development” but not many are actually getting made. With the WGA strike way past the 100-day mark, it would suggest that not a whole lot of writing has been happening with many of these projects in recent months.

SOURCE: PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT PODCAST

Posted on in Film News, News, Television News

Shawn Levy Shares Updates On His ‘Star Wars’ Movie & ‘Real Steel’ Series At Disney+

While producer/director Shawn Levy (“The Adam Project,” “Stranger Things”) is attending the Toronto International Film Festival to promote the Netflix series “All The Light We Cannot See,” he’s been talking up other projects in the works such as his big “X-Men” film under Marvel Studios, “Deadpool 3.” He confirmed that filming was only at the midway point before there was stoppage but that’s not the only massive project he’s cooking up at Disney that has been placed on pause.

Speaking with Collider, Levy gave some minor updates on the status of both his Disney+ series sequel to the Hugh Jackman-led sci-fi sports film “Real Steel” that was announced early last year and his mysterious “Star Wars” movie for Lucasfilm. Levy assures fans of the film that the sequel show is very much “alive” but just like with the film development halted when the WGA strike kicked in (AMPTP refuses to make a good-faith counteroffer to the unions and get everyone back to work by making a fair deal) and the “Star Wars” film is also in a similar situation. It’s still happening, but on hold until the strikes are resolved.

“We were just starting the process of developing my movie, and the writer strike happened. So we are in that holding pattern that so much of our industry is in,” Levy told Collider of the status of his new “Star Wars” movie. And on the ‘Real Steel’ series he said, “Same, I could literally say, ‘See above.’ Same. Still, as I told you, I want it as badly as the lovers of ‘Real Steel’ want it, so alive, but paused.”

Exclusive Interview: We Chat with Real Steel Director - Shawn Levy - HeyUGuys

Back in 2022, the director was quick to suggest to Collider how protective he is of the property and if they weren’t to get a good idea going, Levy would rather just not make the show.

“But I will say that we heard a lot of pitches. And I realized, over the course of those pitches, that I am fiercely protective of ‘Real Steel.’ I’d rather make no show than the wrong show. And I finally heard a take that takes the lore of the movie and does some really exciting things with it. I’m finally getting really excited about where we’re headed.”

The Amblin project focused on fighting robots didn’t exactly become a huge earner at the box office, $300 million on a production budget of $110 million. However, a series revival might be a bit more attractive given that Jackman’s co-stars would eventually get their own Marvel Comics roles with Evangeline Lilly playing an incarnation of The Wasp and Anthony Mackie (doing a lot of TV lately) originally taking the role of The Falcon only to eventually take the Captain American mantle from Chris Evans.

I think the biggest question going on here is, does Hugh Jackman want to make a limited series? Answering that might be slightly easier with Levy and Jackman reuniting for “Deadpool 3” where the director could eventually convince the Aussie actor to do it. Pending on a really good reason to make a follow-up.

When it comes to “Star Wars” it feels like Lucasfilm/Disney is more interested in making announcements about future films than actually completing them. Some of those growing feature films consist of one from Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”), a force/Jedi origin film from James Mangold (“Logan”), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) is tackling a film set 15 years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker” with Daisy Ridley attached to reprise her role of Rey Skywalker, and Dave Filoni (“Ahsoka”) is going to be making his big jump from TV to the big-screen with another mysterious film set during the timeline of the streaming shows which is years after “Return of The Jedi” (Expected to potentially see the return of Luke, Leia, and Han in some sort of form). It will be surprising if any of these movies crossed the finish line given how many have been scrapped or retooled into Disney+ shows like “Kenboi” and “The Book of Boba Fett.”

“Ahsoka” is currently airing on Disney+ with other live-action shows such as “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” and The High Republic-era series “The Acolyte” (will be littered with Jedi characters) on the horizon.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News, News

Simon Kinberg Reveals ‘Boba Fett’ Movie Would Have Been Tonally Similar To ‘Logan’ & Hopeful His ‘Logan’s Run’ Remake Still Happens

Lucasfilm is starting to get just as well-known for not making “Star Wars” live-action projects as much as completing them. One of the more interesting projects that got snuffed out early on was a film that screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg (“Dark Phoenix”) and director Josh Trank (“Chronicle”) were said to be developing before Trank’s working relationship with Kinberg dissolved on their remake of “The Fantastic Four.” The fallout from those events seemed to have led Lucasfilm to pass on the film opting to instead move forward with things like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” it was always said their film was the original film incarnation of a solo “Boba Fett” film.

During a recent interview with Polygon to promote the Apple TV+ series “Invasion,” Kinberg revealed that the project he had been writing for Lucasfilm was indeed a feature film focused on Boba Fett, a longtime rumor that seemingly has now been confirmed by the man himself. Also, detailing how exactly he got involved with the film side of things as he would eventually co-create “Star Wars: Rebels.”

“Very early on, like, at the inception of Kathy Kennedy coming aboard to join George Lucas in what would be the new Lucasfilm and the new Star Wars movies, they hired me, Lawrence Kasdan [screenwriter of Empire Strikes Back], and Michael Arndt [Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire] as kind of mini writers room. We went up to Skywalker Ranch and spent a couple of weeks up there talking about what the potential new movies could be. And so initially, I think the ask was: Just come up and break ideas and stories and brainstorm with two other people. Then Michael, Larry, and I each talked about writing a different Star Wars movie. Michael wrote J.J.’s first Star Wars movie, then Larry Kasdan rewrote it. Larry wrote the Han Solo movie, and I was gonna write a different one,” Kinberg told Polygon of how he got involved with the franchise and confirmed that “Boba Fett” was that “different one.”

What does 'The Book Of Boba Fett' mean for the future of Star Wars?

Kinberg also mentioned briefly that he was hoping to get a tone similar to the Wolverine solo pic, “Logan,” which he produced during his time as a major steward of the “X-Men” franchise.”

I mean, it’s all pretty sci-fi, but I think “hard” is the right word. Tonally like ‘Logan.’ On the edge of R-rated, though I don’t think you’d have a ‘Star Wars’ movie that could be R-rated.”

“But at any rate, I think over time, my role morphed as a friend of the court. And so it ranged from being a consultant on the movies, give thoughts, notes, sometimes actual pages for scripts, and obviously co-creating ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ and really staying with that show that I loved. Part of what was so exciting about Rebels was that we were getting to do something that those movies I just mentioned didn’t entirely do, which is create a brand-new set of characters.”

Of course, Boba Fett wouldn’t get his solo film but instead, we started out with a cameo from actor Temuera Morrison stepping into the armor for the second season of “The Mandalorian” only for the character to land his own solo series on Disney+ called “The Book of Boba Fett” that saw the bounty hunter return to Tattooine to became a criminal syndicate leader.

Logan's Run': Michael York Revisits Iconic Film for 45th Anniversary – The Hollywood Reporter

Lastly, Kinberg was asked to give an update on his “Logan’s Run” remake and if that is still hoping to get made, a project that has been in development for ages now at Warner Bros. since his attachment back in 2018. There were a good amount of directors previously involved such as Bryan Singer, Nicholas Winding Refn (“Drive”), and Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick) to name a few. Some heavyweight screenwriters such as Alex Garland and Christopher McQuarrie were once tapped to give the script a once over as well.

“I hope so! I think there’s enough specificity to ‘Logan’s Run’ concept in terms of the age clock that makes it pretty different,” Kinberg said.

Based on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson the 1976 film starred British actors Michael York and Jenny Agutter as young members of a dystopian future in 2274 that looks to cull anyone from the population that turns 30 via a ritual event referred to as “Carrousel,” where members of the population who have turned 30 essentially kill themselves for the enjoyment of the others. The people assigned to capture/kill anyone who runs from this gruesome fate are called The Sandmen. When one of the Sandmen becomes a runner himself alongside Jessica 6 (Agutter) they both discover throughout a dangerous adventure the true nature of their society and that, in fact, people can become old.

SOURCE: POLYGON

Posted on in Film News, News

Giancarlo Esposito Teases Early Talks With James Gunn About A Movie Role In The DCU

Actor Giancarlo Esposito has been getting multiple second-winds thanks to his renewed popularity from shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” allowing him to continue exploring various genres such as sci-fi fantasy with playing a minor Imperial villain in “The Mandalorian” series (Each season having varying levels of screentime). But he seems to be embracing calls from the internet to take on comic book roles within the worlds of Marvel and DC.

While speaking with a crowd at Comic Con Panama, the actor revealed (See video below via Mint Doom on Twitter) that he’s had an early chatter with DC Studios co-head James Gunn about potentially joining the newly reset DCU, which had officially kicked off earlier this month with “Blue Beetle.” However, a character wasn’t declared nor were the subjects discussed in that talk assumed to have taken place before the strikes.

“I have been talking to James Gunn about the possibility of being in a movie – so who knows?”

What we do know is that Gunn is on the hunt for actors to play multiple roles in “Superman: Legacy,” but the names being mentioned for someone like Lex Luthor have been attributed to actors like Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and previous Clark Kent hopeful, Nicholas Hoult. Fans might want to pigeon-hold the actor to only being right for villains, but Esposito seems to be keen to rebuff that notion. Planet).

In the past, Esposito has mused about a personal desire to play more heroic comic book characters such as Professor Charles Xavier from the “X-Men.” While fan sites/accounts have made massive leaps about Esposito taking certain roles, none of that has actually been backed up by more credible sources like the studios themselves or trades. More or less when the actor has on occasion brought up characters, it has been his personal reaction to internet fan-castings and not likely something he’s actually been offered.

Things like this might not even materialize into a role and could simply be a meeting of the minds that goes nowhere. Then again, we could see him being a good fit as a more cheerful version of, Perry White, Clark and Lois’ boss at the Daily Planet. There are also multiple other high-profile DCU projects in the works as well such as “The Brave & The Bold,” a second season of “Peacemaker,” an animated project focused on the “Creature Commandos,” and even more on the horizon.

SOURCE: GIANCARLO ESPOSITO AT COMIC CON PANAMA

Posted on in News

‘Ahsoka’: Ivanna Sakhno Joins Rosario Dawson In ‘Star Wars’ Series

In December 2020, it was announced by Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy that they would be giving Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano her own live-action series on Disney+ and Dave Filoni would be writing alongside producing with Jon Favreau.

After making her long-awaited live-action debut in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano’s story, written by Dave Filoni, will continue in a limited series starring Rosario Dawson and executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.

Deadline has revealed that Ukrainian actress Ivanna Sakhno (Pacific Rim: Uprising) is the latest addition to the upcoming Star Wars show and will play a new character created by Dave Filoni.

Last week, Aussie actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo reportedly joined the cast taking the live-action role of Sabine Wren. Hayden Christensen is also back for the upcoming Ahsoka series. The assumption here is that he’ll potentially play the force ghost incarnation of Anakin Skywalker as Ahsoka Tano’s appearance in The Mandalorian took place many years after the death of Darth Vader/Skywalker.

Ahsoka and Anakin have a long-established relationship in the animation side of Star Wars canon as she was the apprentice of Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars before Tano exited the Jedi Order. In Star Wars: Rebels, they were reunited as they came to blows as Skywalker had been transformed into the Sith Lord, Darth Vader.

The beloved Star Wars character was on a mission to find Grand Adrimal Thrawn in her episode of The Mandalorian, which suggests that we’ll be getting live-action incarnations of both Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. Although, actors have yet to be announced by Lucasfilm despite rumblings of certain actors being selected.

Filming isn’t expected to begin until next year which would suggest a 2023 debut on Disney+.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in News

Natasha Liu Bordizzo To Play Sabine Wren In ‘Ahsoka’ Series

In December 2020, it was announced by Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy that they would be giving Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano her own live-action series on Disney+ and Dave Filoni would be writing alongside producing with Jon Favreau.

After making her long-awaited live-action debut in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano’s story, written by Dave Filoni, will continue in a limited series starring Rosario Dawson and executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.

Over the summer it was first revealed by THR that the Star Wars: Rebels character Sabine Wren would join the series.

Now, Dawson is leading a live-action Ahsoka spinoff for Disney+, with sources saying Lucasfilm is looking for an actress to star opposite Dawson as Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren.

Lucasfilm has now found their actress, as Deadline reports that Aussie actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo will play the live-action version of Sabrine Wren. The young actress co-starred with Rogue One’s Donnie Yen and Shang-Chi’s Michelle Yeoh in Netflix’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny back in 2016.

Hayden Christensen is also reportedly back for the upcoming Ahsoka series. The assumption here is that he’ll potentially play the force ghost incarnation of Anakin Skywalker as Ahsoka Tano’s appearance in The Mandalorian took place many years after the death of Darth Vader/Skywalker.

Ahsoka and Anakin have a long-established relationship in the animation side of Star Wars canon as she was the apprentice of Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars before Tano exited the Jedi Order. In Star Wars: Rebels, they were reunited as they came to blows as Skywalker had been transformed into the Sith Lord, Darth Vader.

The beloved Star Wars character was on a mission to find Grand Adrimal Thrawn in her episode of The Mandalorian, which suggests that we’ll be getting live-action incarnations of both Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. Although, actors have yet to be announced by Lucasfilm despite rumblings of certain actors being selected.

Filming isn’t expected to begin until next year which would suggest a 2023 debut on Disney+.

SOURCE: DEADLINE