Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

Well, a lot going on here.

Rangers of the New Republic, a new Original Series set within the timeline of @TheMandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/YKlWJpvhAW

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

Ahsoka, a new Original Series, starring @RosarioDawson and set within the timeline of @TheMandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/ZojpCkhPS7

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

“Everything I did, I did for the Rebellion.” Andor, an Original Series set in the Star Wars universe, is streaming in 2022 on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/q2IT2qzEeR

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020

Hayden Christensen returns as Darth Vader, joining Ewan McGregor in OBI-WAN KENOBI. The Original Series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith, and is coming to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/9WR2npRUkk

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020

A sneak peek at Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an all-new animated Original Series from Lucasfilm Animation, coming soon to #DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/V0jQc4XNIe

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020

Star Wars: Visions, an Original Series of animated short films, celebrates the @StarWars galaxy through the lens of the world’s best Japanese anime creators. Coming in 2021 to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/syUmiL7SdI

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

The galaxy’s favorite scoundrel, Lando Calrissian, will return in Lando, a brand-new event series for @DisneyPlus. Justin Simien (@JSim07) is in the early stages of developing the project.

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

Leslye Headland brings a new @StarWars series to @DisneyPlus with The Acolyte. “The Acolyte” is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

Lucasfilm Animation is teaming up with Lucasfilm’s visual effects team, Industrial Light & Magic, to develop a special @StarWars adventure for @DisneyPlus, A Droid Story. This epic journey will introduce us to a new hero guided by R2-D2 and C-3PO.

— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020

dear fucking god

Plus Taiki Waititi's thing and Patty Jenkins is doing this:

pic.twitter.com/e3N00xCr5i

— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 10, 2020

sadlol

All of the upcoming Star Wars/Lucasfilm projects #DisneyInvestorDay pic.twitter.com/ipP8uTxdbT

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) December 10, 2020

I'm skeptical they'll manage to give each of these a distinct feel rather than following the proven Mando formula. I think I'd be more excited if there was one or two series in development rather than a half dozen.

Remember when 15 or 16 years would pass without a new Star Wars thing, that was pretty tight in retrospect

Well, depending on the media. That Timothy Zahn book in 1991 kickstarting the run of novels and the various 90s computer games were keeping interest pretty high.

I remember as a young fan in the 80s/early 90s being convinced there'd never be another proper Star Wars thing...

xpost

average convo in a Gen X household in Dec

"bought $100 worth of Star Wars toys"

"oh, the kids will love that..."

"right....the kids..."

I hope, completely and unironically, that the Rangers of the New Republic series does nothing but remake old CHiPs episodes, and somehow stars Estrada, Wilcox, Dorn and Chris Pine's dad.

Yyyyyyyyeah, mandalorian is one thing as a fun retro treat but fuck if I’m clearing out a fucking mall size space in my memory palace for this avalanche of trademarks.

misread one of the projects as Star Wars: The Bad Bitch

wait the Obi-Wan show is gonna have Hayden Christiansen as Darth?

wtf - JEJ is still gonna do the voice, presumably, so....are they just paying him to walk around in the costume?

xp Me too

Supposedly he's retired from doing the voice, but I don't know if that was just a rumor or not. At the least there's been no handoff as with Chewie yet.

oh god if Hayden does the voice

Darth "Stoned" Vader

this is a controversial opinion, but I think this is too much star wars

A Lando show is just too good, man i loved me some Solo.

Star Wars: The Bad Bitch

yeah gonna be a lot of demands for this now - Sy Snootles finally getting her due

this is like when as a teenager I went to a bookstore in the 90s and saw dozens of star wars books. Suddenly something I like becomes way too much and not something I want to keep track of.

The Star Wars franchise should just be non-stop announcements of things that are never delivered.

every single one of these things is going to feature a puppet baby version of a preexisting character

Baby Palpatine

I can't believe this shit

Man, even as a huge fan of Star Wars, this is too much. And I really miss the days when this was all slowly revealed, not spat out in one massive investor call data dump.

Baby Jabba

Baby Palpatine

This would ... rule?

I'm pretty cool with just continuing to treat the pre-Disney material and the Filoniverse as the only SW stuff worth paying attention to. Granted, wrt the latter that would still have me on the hook for half of these new shows.

I feel like there's a very real chance "The Acolyte" will have baby Sheev.

there's gonna be a movie about how Sheev conceived his son

called Palp Fiction

*Friction

Sheev's Gotta Have It

Droid Six

The Emperor's New Groove

Imperial Bedroom

Sidious Kinky

holy shit a+

Why would anyone come onto a thread to express negative thoughts about Disney properties

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/3f/33/c63f33f578bb17f7be8f96d6f9822b61.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yix_9g_Ob74

Kind of interesting article (with a minor spoiler about future plans, if you haven't finished The Mandalorian yet): https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/disney-star-wars-marvel-studios-1234866986/

I'm just going to post this now because I can see that I'm going to get a lot of requests -

Yes, Rian's SW trilogy is still on. No dates or timelines because he has other projects going on, but it is happening.

THAT IS ALL I KNOW ABOUT IT. 😁😁😁

— Sariah Wilson (@sariahwilson) February 16, 2021

Not sure where this goes (it’s not tv or movie related, but relevant): https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/star-wars-high-republic-novels/2021/02/22/adbb4338-72e3-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html

The incredible cast includes Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie. pic.twitter.com/VltHs5Aw6r

— Star Wars (@starwars) March 29, 2021

that is a pick names out of a hat cast there

Hayden C. unrecognizable in that pic

Sabine: I am finally on Peridea, where Ezra here has been trapped with a crazed monomaniac, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who'd like nothing more than to see Ezra dead. Tell us, how have you managed to stay alive all this time, Ezra?
Ezra: I like turtles.

TBF the animal force bonding thing is actually a key character trait for him going back to Rebels! it actually did make sense in a way, though i too hunger for details about what happened in those ten years which will probably be covered in some novel i'll never read

Real damn shame here:

https://gizmodo.com/shawna-trpcic-costume-designer-obituary-star-wars-1850909531

Basically all the Filoni/Filoni-adjacent TV series' work is her and her team. I know a couple of people who worked with her and my impression is she was truly great.

Meantime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUs57-Cz2Pg

(Am I seeing a screening of this a week from Monday? Oh you bet I am!)

but will they be screening the actual special?

Fun fact: I watched the holiday special at my grandmother's house when it aired, I was a few months shy of 4 years old, but already a huge star wars fan. The recollection of it lingered at the edge of my memory for many years, as something that I only half believed was real. Later during my college years, a friend had a VHS copy that I watched, and I was amazed to learn that those hazy memories were indeed something that happened and not just a weird fever dream.

Hahah Moodles that was very much me in ways. I was seven when it aired, so a little more conscious about it and definitely did watch it. But soon after it must have slipped my memory, and, believe it or not, it was while I was watching coverage of Clinton winning his first term back in 1992 and eating a celebratory pizza that somehow I found myself going for the first time ever "Wait...god wasn't there a Star Wars holiday special? There WAS, wasn't there, and I know I saw it. Why have I never heard about it again?" Forever grateful to the freaks with early VCRs who captured it for the ages.

When one of those Ewoks live-action specials aired, I watched it (as a little kid) and thought it was the first episode of a series. So every night, for the next few weeks, I would check for the 2nd episode, thinking – "Maybe it was Tuesday night... maybe it was WEDNESDAY night...," before finally giving up.

(little did I know, I only had to wait ~37 yrs to be sick of Star Wars series.)

Do you mean one of the two made for TV Ewok movies?

Yes... pretty sure it would have been the second one (Battle for Endor).

Both Ewok movies are unwatchable

Yeah, we had a VHS tape of Caravan of Courage, so I watched that a ton as a 9-10 year old, but I only saw the second once so have much fuzzier memories of that one, mainly just centered around Wilford Brimley.

Actually, now that I look at the Wikipedia pages, it was more likely that first one (in 1984). I didn't know there were two until more recently.

Anyway, wasn't trying to call you out, just started wondering if I memoryholed a short-lived live action show too.. lol

I have a deep, misguided nostalgia for Battle for Endor and Wilford Brimley. Definitely too afraid to go back and watch those movies now

I watched the ewok adventure far too many times as a young kid, we taped it when it aired.

New VF interview with Filoni and Dawson about Ahsoka as well as Dave's promotion:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/11/star-wars-ahsoka-dave-filoni

Heading to the big screen, ol' Mando and the kid:

https://www.starwars.com/news/the-mandalorian-and-grogu

Sez Ahsoka season 2 is in development as well, so how intertwined they'll yet be...we'll see.

Catchy title

Much A Din About Nothin'

I would love for Ahsoka and Mandalorian shows to intertwine. Would really like to see Thrawn developed into a more central major villain. Mando needs a major shake-up.

I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wB5NfBKSjw

And back with three episodes of Bad Batch and it remains solidly entertaining. And then some: I thought the first episode in particular is one of the best things in the whole animated cycle in general.

Loved the first episode. The quiet tone was perfectly done. Haven’t watched the other two yet.

Relevant interesting convo on nostalgia and what gets degraded when IP holders continually sell you the same franchise shit forever https://techwontsave.us/episode/208_how_foreverism_degrades_our_culture_w_grafton_tanner

Looking forward to this series more and more, as well as the larger conversations it's opening. (I will say that I always thought it was pretty clear in the prequel trilogy that the fact that the Jedi were hidebound elitists was the whole point.)

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-acolyte-disney-amandla-stenberg-jedi-bad-guys-1851288054

I don’t like this idea, it sounds like a Twitter meme come to life, but whatever.

(And it was definitely clear in the PT that the Jedi Counsel f’d up by being too detached and slow-moving, etc.)

they were like that because they’d become aloof and resigned to their position for like the 1001st time!

kind of a political Lucas thing, the protectors of the galaxy become protectors of the status quo and are slow to notice it

it’s funny that every extended universe does this thing and the movies constantly allude to it and we’re all like “they are the guardians of what is right”

I also feel like SW characters have been “morally ambiguous” since the first film, and the line between light & dark was always shown to be thin. Behind that, the “Jedi are really the bad guys!” thing feels like some Clerks sh1t…

Eh, I don't think the series will go down THAT road.

It will be intersting to see fan reaction to this perspective. It seems like a lot of people despised the Karen Traviss Mandalorian-centric novels for having the audacity to paint the Jedi in a less than glowing light (P.S. they are good novels).

Anyway I have an idea for Disney if they're concerned about making enough money via streaming

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-chilean-beer-ads-cerveza-cristal-lucasfilm-1851306714

Bad Batch continues damn well -- meantime per a Lucasfilm announcement, trailer for The Acolyte appears tomorrow, start date June 4. And teaser image:

https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/cb014d4428d432be199cc155676cd78c.jpg

that's quite striking

I feel like BB is punching above the episodic-but-serial weight but the episode payoffs are still “but we’re getting there!” and too much deep lore for what is really a cartoon family show. idk, maybe this is what kids do now

they’re doing “but maybe we need the dark” across media in books and comics as well, now, btw. the book/comics arc has alluded to Yoda talking to a fallen Jedi about how to defeat a weapon the republic’s enemy is using that basically eats jedi

also we found out Luke’s lightsaber crystal was forced back to the light from the sith. seems a bit obvious

And here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc

Couple of good interviews with Headland here:

https://collider.com/the-acolyte-season-2-plans/

https://collider.com/the-acolyte-series-vernestra-rwoh-explained/

Meantime -- Bad Batch remains really solid this season, last couple of episodes hitting more of those darker tones pretty well (the Tantiss lab set one, eesh).

And speaking of darker things -- arriving in a month!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIST9t72kY

The Bad Batch is plodding along too slowly imo - said the same re Ahsoka (tho tbh also with Andor at first but that paid off big time). The dark tonal shifts are interesting (the poor Camino scientist must be the most depressed-sounding animation character ever, understandably) but this isn't rubbing off on the story much. Wouldn't it be more exciting and cogent for example if the Emperor had witnessed Omega's escape from the base and so there was more pressure around the crew lying low trying to work out what to do next? Mebbe. Not seen the latest ep tho.

Well that's the thing, pressure has, how to put it, ramped up as of yesterday's episodes (it was a two-drop day).

I love everything about Bad Batch. I think its pace is just right and I really enjoy the occasional slow, quiet (and sad!) episodes like at the beginning of the season and this week.

My only two gripes is that for a cartoon, sometimes it's just *too* dark. Why?? And it's hard to believe there's just a few episodes left of the entire series, as I feel like they are only just beginning to reveal where Omega's story will go.

Well it may be the end of the Batch but maybe not for Omega...we'll see!

True, although Omega without the rest of the crew is… less appealing

Uncle Squad