‘The Mandalorian’ & ‘Kenobi’: What’s Next For Disney’s ‘Star Wars’?

Ewan McGregor The Mandalorian Kenobi Disney Star Wars

With The Mandalorian season two, a Cassian Andor spin-off and an Obi-Wan Kenobi solo series, what else is ahead in the next era of Disney’s Star Wars?

Now that the iconic Skywalker Saga has finally concluded, Star Wars fans are already looking forward to new characters and adventures in the future as Disney continues to work on expanding its universe. Disney Plus recently delivered the first live-action Star Wars series, and with the streaming service offering new ways of storytelling while also bringing fresh perspectives into the universe, it looks like there’s a lot more to come from a galaxy far, far away.

The Mandalorian

With the first season of The Mandalorian being an instant hit among fans, it was no surprise when Disney confirmed the show would return for a second just one day after the premiere episode. It was also recently announced that pre-production on a third season has already begun. Luckily, the second season had already finished shooting before the current global situation, so it should still be on track for its October 2020 release. The impressive finale of the first season saw Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin take on a mission to reunite Baby Yoda with his own people. Djarin will once again be joined by Gina Carano’s Cara Dune as they go up against Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon. Fans last saw the villain wielding the Darksaber, and Esposito even teased plenty of “epic lightsaber action” in the future of the show.

Kenobi

In August 2019, it was announced that Ewan McGregor would star in his own Kenobi series for Disney Plus. The Star Wars Show confirmed the series will take place eight years after Revenge of the Sith, placing it relatively near Solo: A Star Wars Story. McGregor isn’t worried that the Kenobi series has been delayed, even debunking those rumors about creative differences on the show. The star explained they’ve simply pushed the shoot to the beginning of 2021 so the Kenobi writers can spend more time honing the scripts.

Cassian Andor

Diego Luna will reprise his role as Cassian Andor in his own solo series. The star was keen to assure fans that the show won’t undo the character’s death and will instead follow Cassian’s life in the early days of the Rebel Alliance. Rogue One co-writer Tony Gilroy recently replaced Stephen Schiff on writer duties and is probably best known for writing the first four films in Matt Damon’s Bourne series. Gilroy will write the pilot episode and also direct part of the series. Alan Tudyk’s sarcastic Imperial droid K-2SO is also confirmed to return.

Untitled Series

Recently, it was revealed that Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland is developing a new Star Wars series for the streaming service. Although not much is known about the show, Variety claimed it’ll focus on a female-centric cast while exploring parts of the timeline fans haven’t seen in live-action. This would be the perfect opportunity to adapt characters like Doctor Aphra from the recent Marvel Star Wars comics on-screen, but since the criminal archeologist works for Darth Vader, this isn’t exactly a new part of the timeline. It’s probable that the Headland’s series will take place before the main saga, especially with The High Republic on the horizon.

Rian Johnson

The Last Jedi is arguably the most divisive movie in the entire franchise, but Rian Johnson clearly impressed Disney and Lucasfilm as they handed him his own trilogy of movies back in November 2017. Even though there were rumors the trilogy had been cancelled because of the backlash against the director, Rian Johnson himself confirmed he’s still talking to Lucasfilm. The Knives Out director has mentioned that his pitch involved travelling to new places and meeting a whole new cast of characters in the universe.

2022 and The High Republic

Although Disney is taking a small break to let the franchise breathe after the end of the Skywalker saga, the next adventure on the big screen will arrive on December 16 2022. Game of Thrones showrunners D. B. Weiss and David Benioff wanted to explore the High Republic era of the universe before they parted ways with Disney and Lucasfilm. The pair explained they couldn’t give the film the attention it deserved, so felt it was the right decision to step away. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was originally meant to reveal the director of the 2022 film in January, but no announcement was made.

Disney’s next big galactic event, titled Project Luminous, will focus on the High Republic era in books and comics. The stories will feature “the Jedi Knights of the round table” and will see the universe in peacetime, but with new adventures for readers to jump into as well as fresh villains threatening the era. The first book in the new interconnected series is Light of the Jedi by writer Charles Soule, and is set to arrive on August 25 of this year. MakingStarWars recently claimed that the High Republic will be the focus of the 2022 movie, supposedly with a much younger version of Master Yoda, but this remains unconfirmed.

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Here is the official synopsis for The Mandalorian:

After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog, and Nick Nolte. The Star Wars series was written by Jon Favreau, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist is also on board as a co-executive producer.

Dave Filoni directed the first episode of The Mandalorian and additional episodes of the Star Wars series were helmed by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard, Dope director Rick Famuyiwa, and Jessica Jones director Deborah Chow.

The Mandalorian season one is now available exclusively on Disney Plus. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest news on The Mandalorian and other Star Wars projects.

Eammon Jacobs

Eammon Jacobs

British dork who can be found online raving about how good Tron: Legacy is.