The Ronin can now confirm that executive producer Jon Favreau is going to be the showrunner on the Star Wars series Rangers of The New Republic. While both Jon and Dave Filoni were originally announced in December as creators and executive producers on The Mandalorian spinoff, a showrunner wasn’t named. I’ve learned that the bulk of the work is going to land on Favreau’s shoulders which isn’t terribly surprising as he was previously the showrunner on last two seasons of The Mandalorian.
Rangers of The New Republic as revealed by Kathy Kennedy takes place in the same timeline of The Mandalorian and will likely include some characters we’ve already been introduced to. It’s possible that Gina Carano’s Cara Dune was wanted for a leading role in the show before she was fired by Lucasfilm.
There was a chance Jon and Dave could have outsourced the showrunner position given how many shows were announced back in December and Season 3 of The Mandalorian seemingly still hasn’t started production. Favreau is most likely going to continue his role as showrunner with Season 3.
It’s still unclear what the pecking order is with The Book of Boba Fett as Jon, Dave, and Robert Rodriguez are all executive producing but we should start learning more information about the series in the coming months. Rogue One’s Tony Gilroy took over as the showrunner on the Andor series and Army of The Dead’s Joby Harold is the showrunner on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Dave Filoni is assumed to be the showrunner of the Ahsoka series.
The Book of Boba Fett is the next series to air on Disney+ this December. Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi are currently filming in different countries. There are still plans to shoot Season 3 of The Mandalorian at some point but Pedro Pascal is going to be busy this summer shooting HBO’s The Last of Us in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The Book of Boba Fett and Andor are the next installments of Lucasfilm’s live-action Star Wars projects that will be airing exclusively on Disney+, both are apparently still shooting as Obi-Wan Kenobi just started in California. Andor is said to be skewing more in the realm of a spy thriller and could end up getting multiple seasons similar to The Mandalorian allowing them to explore this fantastic Rogue One corner of the universe.
Some photos from the set of Andor In England have made their way online and confirm that the Shoretroopers, introduced in Rogue One: A Story Story, will be making their return on the show. that takes place five years before the events of Rogue One. The well-designed troopers had previously appeared briefly on Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
You check out some of those set photos making the rounds at Making Star Wars.
Joining Diego Luna will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor, Dune, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. Originally, Alan Tudyk was announced to reprise his role as the smart-mouthed droid K-2SO, but had recently revealed to Collider that he was unlikely going to be involved with Season 1 due to changes made by Tony Gilory when he joined the project and rewriting episodes. He also inadvertently teased Andor would be getting multiple seasons.
TUDYK: “They’re shooting it right now, I’m not in it. But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I’ll end up in there.I’m going to be in the show. It’s just that the story that Tony [Gilroy] is telling doesn’t involve K-2SO until later on… I can’t be too specific, but I can definitely say that I’m not going to be in the first season.”
Given the show’s setting is five years before Rogue One, this could allow them to cover multiple seasons exploring the Rebellion spy.
Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) will be directing with a writing team that includes Tony Gilroy (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Stephen Schiff (The Americans).
As today is Star Wars day, May The 4th, I decided to rundown all the upcoming live-action projects in the works over at Lucasfilm and what we know about them.
THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT: Originally confused with the third season of The Mandalorian, the Boba Fett series will continue the adventures of Temuera Morrison’s Fett and Ming-Na Wen’s wonderful Fennec Shand. In a post-credit scene in Season 2 of The Mandalorian, the pair return to Tatooine and assassinate Bib Fortuna at Jabba’s Palace. It’s unknown officially if we’ll see Boba take a kingpin role within the criminal underworld or will be slightly more heroic.
A Boba Fett movie had been in the works with Simon Kinberg and Josh Trank, but the studio ultimately killed it and instead decided to make The Mandalorian allowing them to insert Boba Fett in the second season because of where the shows take place in the timeline.
At one time, Guillermo del Toro pitched a gangster project to Yahoo! during an interview featuring Jabba that was described as a Godfather saga in the Star Wars universe.
DEL TORO: “I would do the sort of Godfather saga that Jabba the Hutt had to go through to gain control. 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.”
It’s possible The Book of Boba Fett could end up being a revised version of that idea and we could see more of the criminal elements as The Mandalorian sort of abandoned low-level criminal threats when Grogu came into the picture and Imperial baddies became more the focus.
Producing will be Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni. They secured Emmy-winning production designer Andrew Jones (The Mandalorian) with filming taking place in California giving them access to The Volume/StageCraft. We are hearing the producing team will also act as directors on the series as well with at least 7-episodes.
It’s seemingly set to debut on Disney+ in December.
ANDOR: A prequel to Rogue One: A Story Wars Story, the project will focus on Diego Luna’s Rebellion spy character Cassian Andor. Production had been taking place in the United Kingdom with Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) taking on directing duties from Tony Gilroy after the pandemic made things difficult, who was also working on scripts. Gilroy famously was brought-on to write and direct extensive reshoots on Rogue One.
Joining Diego Luna will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor, Dune, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. However, it sounds like K-2SO won’t be appearing in the first season according to actor Alan Tudyk giving the impression that we’ll be getting a Season 2 of Andor. This was a little puzzling as he was announced as being a cast member originally alongside Luna and would suggest that his role was scaled-back in rewrites.
It’s supposed to debut on Disney+ in 2022.
OBI-WAN KENOBI: Like Boba Fett, Lucasfilm had been trying to develop a Kenobi feature film that was abandoned for a 6-episode series on Disney+ instead. The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow is directing with a crew such as cinematographer and production designer Todd Cherniawsky (Avatar, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Trek: Picard).
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
We’ll see at least four prequel actors return with Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, and Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru. The show’s new additions are Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Sung Kang (F9, Tokyo Drift), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Godzilla: King of The Monsters), Benny Safdie (Good Time), Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, and Simone Kessell.
While Obi-Wan is known as spending most of the time between Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope wondering Tatooine as a hermit, it sounds like the series will be a little more exciting than that and we’ll see other locations. Ewan McGregor has teased extensive training for lightsaber battles which would expose himself as a Jedi Knight if he did this publicly on Tatooine and also hinted Kenobi could be going off-world.
MCGREGOR: “There’s a hunger for this character to come back. The fans have been waiting long enough, you know? We start on Tatooine, and we go on a rollicking adventure.”
We’re expecting that a young Luke Skywalker will appear in the show given the era and that his Uncle/Aunt are confirmed.
The return of Darth Vader could mean we’ll see more action sequences with the baddie or Kenobi having to tangle with Inquisitors as it could explain the training McGregor has been undergoing, unless we’ll see flashbacks to battles during the Clone Wars. In Rogue One, one of the big highlights was seeing Darth Vader unleashed against a group of Rebels and the series could give Lucasfilm an excuse to shoot another action sequences with the Sith villain.
It’s not confirmed if Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn will show up in some capacity, but Liam has revealed he would be open to return for the Disney+ series. However, the rumor of Jar Jar Binks making a return was debunked by actor Ahmed Best on Twitter.
THE MANDALORIAN – SEASON 3: The finale of Season 2 ended with uncanny valley Luke Skywalker saving the group from the Dark Trooper droids and agreed to train Grogu. We also see Din Djarin beat Moff Gideon in a duel earning the Darksaber making him the new leader of Mandalore which should develop into some conflict with Bo-Katan.
Lead actor Pedro Pascal will be busy over the summer as he’ll be playing Joel in HBO’s series adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us, which will be filming in Calgary, Alberta, Canada making things a little complicated if he’ll be needed on set of The Mandalorian.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the show won’t return on Disney+ until late 2022 as The Book of Boba Fett seemingly took it’s production schedule last fall.
AHSOKA: A spinoff of The Mandalorian, as revealed in Ahsoka Tano’s episode the former Jedi is searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn. While there has been plenty of fan speculation that other characters from the animation side will appear in the show that has yet to be confirmed.
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.
RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC: Like Ahsoka, the project takes place within the same timeline of The Mandalorian and will likely feature a handful of characters we’ve already been introduced to. Cara Dune would have been shoe-in before Lucasfilm fired Gina Carano, but we don’t know if they’ll recast the role or pivot to a new character instead.
Set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, this new live-action series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will intersect with future stories and culminate into a climactic story event.
I have to imagine that Bill Burr’s sharpshooter Migs Mayfeld and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Captain Carson Teva could be part of the show’s lineup. Paul’s CBC comedy series Kim’s Convenience recently ended allowing him to commit to other shows like Rangers of The New Republic.
THE ACOLYTE: The Disney+ series from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland is said to be taking place during The High Republic, the new era of Star Wars that will be explored heavily in new publications of both novels and comic books.
The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
LANDO: Referred to as an “event series” suggesting it will be a one-off like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lando will be developed and written by Dear White People’s Justin Simien. Justin had recently been hired to direct Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie based on the theme park ride and it’s unclear if they’ve signed-on Donald Glover to reprise the role as he’s got a bunch of projects in the works thanks to his deal with Amazon, including a Mr. & Mrs. Smith series with Solo: A Star Wars Story co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
ROGUE SQUADRON: In December, it was officially announced that the next big movie, Rogue Squadron, is set to be released on December 2023 and will be directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman, Monster). Jenkins will be the first female director to helm a Star Wars film.
The next Star Wars feature film will be Rogue Squadron — directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman franchise). The story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy.
JENKINS: “[In the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie] we’re doing something original with great influence from the games and the books. There’s a lot of things being acknowledged and understood about the greatness of all of those things, but yes, it’s an original story and I’m so psyched to do it.”
Other feature films in the works include one from director Taika Watiti (Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Rangrok) that seemingly lost co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night In Soho) as her name was missing from Lucasfilm’s press release from December.
Rian Johnson continues to state in interviews that his original Star Wars trilogy is happening even though he recently signed-on to direct two Knives Out sequels for Netflix and is working with Natasha Lyonne on a new mystery series called Poker Face for Peacock.
Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is also said to be producing his own feature with Michael Waldron (Rick & Morty, Loki, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness) writing it.
In 2020, it was revelaed by The Hollywood Reporter that J.D. Dillard (Devotion, Sleight) and Matt Owens (Luke Cage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) would be co-writing a movie, but we haven’t any real updates on the project. Dillard is currently shooting the Korean War pic Devotion starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell. He was also in talks to direct a remake of The Fly.
Lastly, an unconfirmed report from BuzzFeed claimed that the studio tasked screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Altered Carbon, Shutter Island, Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Alita: Battle Angel) to pen an adaptation of Knights of The Old Republic (a potential “trilogy”) and studio head Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to MTV News it’s an era they’ve been talking about exploring internally. I’m curious with the talk of video game remake in the works if they’ll attempt to expand upon The Old Republic in a similar manner as they are with The High Republic.
At the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, it was announced that The Book of Boba Fett would be a new Star Wars series coming to Disney+ and this led to Lucasfilm revealing that The Mandalorian Season 3 would be delayed. There had been confusion as the Fett project seemingly took over the production schedule that was likely meant for The Mandalorian.
The spinoff project would see Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen reprise their respective roles of Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. It’s also being produced by Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni with the assumption they’ll end up directing episodes.
Well, it sounds like a familiar Mandalorian might be popping-up in the show after all.
Earlier in the week, Cinelinx reported that Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin is expected to appear in some capacity on the Disney+ series. Although, details are a bit scarce along with the how much we’ll end up seeing him.
The Book of Boba Fett has just about wrapped filming (if it hasn’t already) and details on the story/set have been ridiculously tight. That said, I’ve heard word from a couple of independent sources that at least one other familiar “face” from The Mandalorian will make an appearance: Din Djarin.
There is an expectation that The Mandalorian Season 3 won’t be filming anytime soon as with The Book of Boba Fett finishing up filming, Obi-Wan Kenobi is officially set to begin production in the California production space sometime this month. Pedro Pascal is also locked-in to shoot HBO’s The Last of Us series over the summer in Calgary.
It’ll be interesting to see how exactly Mando figures into The Book of Boba Fett and if it will to plant seeds for other projects set in the Mandalorian timeline.
In Season 2 of The Mandalorian, Mark Hamill reprises the Luke Skywalker in an action-focused cameo. That scene had a de-aged version of Mark Hamill and used good amount of CGI to accomplish. If there was ever a Luke Skywalker series or if the Jedi had a bigger role in the future for other shows that might become too expensive for Lucasfilm to do on a regular basis. A more cost effective move would be hiring another actor.
We’ve seen for ages that Marvel actor Sebastian Stan would make a good Luke Skywalker because he is the spitting image of Hamill. This led to Mark Hamill informally giving his approval on social medial.
Stan was recently on Good Morning America promoting his Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and was asked about the possibility of playing Skywalker in the future.
STAN: “If Mark Hamill called me, personally, to tell me he feels inclined to share this role with me, then I will believe it. Until then, I won’t believe it.”
Sebastian Stan on rumors of him playing a young Luke Skywalker in #StarWars: "If @HamillHimself calls me personally to tell me that he feels inclined to share this role with me then I'll believe it." 👀https://t.co/i9rZzYvW4spic.twitter.com/MvftVLlcLk
We still don’t know if Lucasfilm has plans for Luke Skywalker beyond the cameo in The Mandalorian but since Stan is already in the Disney+ family there is a possibility they could at least ask him about it. While Kevin Feige confirmed there are ideas for a second season of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, there doesn’t seem to be a commitment for multiple seasons at this point and that might have to do with Captain American 4 being on the table as a follow-up to the series.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is already opening the door for a new Luke Skywalker actor as the the project is expected to have a young version of him as we’ll see the return of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru with the setting taking place 10 years after Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith.
Last Friday saw the first episode drop for Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The superhero series is expected to lead to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson taking up the Captain America mantle. But we’ll have to watch all six episodes to discover if that is the actual plan or not.
Now, Disney via the official Marvel website is claiming the premiere episode had more eyeballs than with WandaVision or the massive-hit The Mandalorian. However, they failed to get into numbers or provide any data to support their claim.
Disney+ Original series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier from Marvel Studios ranked as the most watched series premiere ever on Disney+ during its opening weekend, Friday, March 19 – Sunday, March 22, and the most watched title overall for the same time period on a global basis, including in Disney+ Hotstar markets. The premiere of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier joins the premieres of Marvel Studios’ first live-action series, WandaVision, and the season two premiere of The Mandalorian from Lucasfilm as the three most-watched Disney+ Original series opening weekends to-date.
Variety cites Samba TV data on the debut of both Falcon and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the latter seemingly squeaking ahead of WandaVision’s debut in January.
While Disney Plus did not include any audience figures for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” in its announcement, TV software and data analysis firm Samba TV announced earlier in the day that roughly 1.7 million households watched the show, edging past the 1.6 million households that watched the debut of Marvel Studios’ “WandaVision.” (As a point of comparison, Samba TV estimates that 1.8 million households watched at least five minutes of the four-hour “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” on HBO Max over the same time period; HBO Max has not made any announcements regarding the Snyder cut’s viewership.)
None of this can be independently verified as Disney+ isn’t sharing their data to compare with numbers from Samba TV.
In the last season of The Mandalorian, we saw Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano on a mission to find Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Legends villain that become part of Star Wars canon after appearing in Star Wars: Rebels. This leading many to assume that a live-action incarnation is likely coming in the very near future.
A big fan-cast contender has been Sherlock and Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who has played villains in the past such as Star Trek’s Khan in the J.J. Abrams movies, The Hobbit’s Smaug The Dragon, and Marvel Comics supervillain Dormammu in Doctor Strange.
While speaking with Collider, Benedict was asked about his interest in the hypothetical role of Thrawn but seems to be turned-off to the idea of being in a makeup chair. A grueling makeup job could easily be a reason someone might want to avoid a role like Thrawn, while others might jump at the chance.
CUMBERBATCH: “That’s a straight no from me, right now. There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that.”
Despite the tease in The Mandalorian, we still don’t know when and where Thrawn could end up appearing officially. Benedict Cumberbatch is currently shooting Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and is also attached to appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home as well.
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.
Despite previous casting rumors for The Last of Us, Deadline has revealed that HBO has hired Game of Thrones alumni Pedro Pascal as Joel and The Hollywood Reporter adding that fellow Thrones actress Bella Ramsey for the role of Ellie. Based on the Naughty Dog video game, The Last of Us focuses on Joel and his young companion Ellie has they navigate a post-apocalypse United States.
Twenty years after a fungal infection obliterated most of the U.S. population and turned the victims into infected monstrosities, Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie to the Fireflies to help reverse engineer a cure. However, this isnt easy for either of them, since Joel has been left almost permanently bitter after the death of his daughter, and Ellie is distrusting of him.
The series is being developed by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Pedro Pascal is the lead of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and his commitments to The Last of Us likely explains why Season 3 is seemingly going to be delayed. The Book of Boba Fett is reportedly shooting in California and Ewan McGregor confirmed Obi-Wan Kenobi will begin shooting there in late spring.
Deadline also pointing out that Pedro will be making the HBO series before moving on to The Mandalorian, however, it’s unknown when Lucasfilm will start shooting or if they’ll start without him.
He will continue on the Star Wars series, where he is used sparingly because of the nature of his character, though The Last Of Us has him in first position.
Lucasfilm just announced they had fired actress Gina Carano for an antisemitic post on social media and pausing production for a little bit might be a good call.
Yesterday, it was finally announced by Lucasfilm (owned by Disney) that they have severed the employment of The Mandalorian actress and former UFC fighter Gina Carano.
This comes after a massive online campaign with the hashtag #FireGinaCarano being sparked after an antisemitic post was revealed and circulated on Twitter. I guess comparing her social media backlash to the six million Jews who were persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis was apparently a step too far for Disney and Lucasfilm.
It’s worth noting that Jon Favreau, essentially her boss on the series, is Jewish.
Here is what a Lucasfilm spokesperson had to say via The Hollywood Reporter.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
She’s also been dropped by her agency.
Carano has also been dropped as a client by UTA, an agency spokesperson confirms.
This late move is coming after the actress rightfully saw public backlash for posting similar antisemitic imagery, sharing/liking anti-vaxxer and anti-mask postings along with initially teasing the trans community for asking people to use pronouns in their bios as a form of support. Her co-star Pedro Pascal had only this week announced support for his sister Lux Pascal, who has come out as trans.
The public “backlash” led the actress to announce she would be joining the Alt-Right social media platform Parler.
It’s unknown at this time if Lucasfilm will recast the role of Cara Dune or stop using the character altogether because of Carano’s association. I had mused during the start of Season 2 airing on Disney+ that Lucasfilm might have opted to kill-off her character to end the relationship.
However, The Hollywood Reporter mentions they had scrapped plans to announce a spinoff series for her character Cara Dune during the December presentation after her November tweets sparked outrage and might have still considered adding her to Dave Filoni’s series Rangers of The New Republic before the final straw.
THE RONIN 
