During the Star Wars Celebration fan gathering on Friday, Lucasfilm offered the most thorough look yet at the company’s ambitions for the venerable series, putting the past, present, and future of Star Wars on full display. Lucasfilm made it clear that it intends to test how far it can expand the Star Wars galaxy: creatively, logistically, and even historically, as studio CEO Kathleen Kennedy unveiled three new feature films and first looks at four forthcoming TV shows.
The nine previous “Star Wars” films, from “The Phantom Menace” to “The Rise of Skywalker,” have all taken place within an approximately 70-year time frame, straddling the climactic Battle of Yavin in “A New Hope,” which has functioned as the franchise’s canonical pivot point for six decades. All of the Disney+ live-action and animated spinoff TV series, including “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Andor,” “The Bad Batch,” and the impending “Ahsoka” and “Skeleton Crew,” have been released inside that time range. (The animated anthology series “Visions,” which debuted in 2021, is not part of the Star Wars canon.)
Hardcore fans are aware that the Star Wars series has a much longer history than the countless Star Wars tie-in novels, comic books, and video games, and Lucasfilm plans to start utilising that larger narrative landscape in live-action with “The Acolyte.” The Disney+ series, which was first announced in 2020, pioneers on two fronts: It will follow the rise of the Sith during the final years of the High Republic and is around 100 years before the events of “The Phantom Menace.”
Creator and showrunner Leslye Headland stated during the presentation on Friday, “I really wanted to go into the Star Wars universe and tell the story of this enormous galaxy that I love so much from the perspective of the baddies.” We must place this between the High Republic and the start of the prequels, which was the first thing that became clear. Not only is this a thrilling period of the story, but it is also the time when the evildoers are outnumbered. The odds are against them.
Kennedy later disclosed that James Mangold, who previously helmed “Logan” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” will be directing a movie that is set 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. The movie will serve as the origin story for the Force, the one metaphysical thread that connects the entire franchise. In his interview with Variety following the presentation, Mangold referred to the popular Biblical epics of the 1940s and 1950s.
“I simply see this opening to produce kind of a ‘Ben-Hur’ or ‘Ten Commandments’ about the birth of the Force,” Mangold remarked when he initially discussed the idea with Kathy Kennedy. “The Force has evolved into a sort of religious myth that permeates all of these films. But from where did it originate? How did you find it? Who uncovered it? The first Jedi was who? That’s what I’m now writing.
Both of these projects go well beyond what viewers have come to associate with Star Wars, not simply in terms of the time period in which they are situated but also in terms of their themes: No Skywalkers, no Empire, just people who exist in the shadows of chaos. It holds the prospect of bringing to life eras that have only been on the mysterious outskirts of the franchise, which is really thrilling for the core fandom. But, it was not because of the extensive breadth of its mythology that Star Wars became a decades-spanning pop-culture phenomenon; rather, it was because of the innovative spark of its storytelling and the endearing verve of its characters.
The conflict between those desires to please the core fanbase and engage a far larger casual audience has already shown some significant fractures in just how far Star Wars can push itself. The first two seasons of “The Mandalorian” followed the development of the relationship between the show’s reticent titular character and his cute ward Grogu as they travelled the galaxy together. The relationship, however, has been put on hold for Season 3 of “The Mandalorian” in favour of delving further into the cultural and religious mythology of Mandalore and the diaspora of warriors attempting to survive after the planet’s destruction.
Hardcore fans have criticised more populist storytelling decisions, such as casting Lizzo, Jack Black, and Christopher Lloyd in guest star roles that, to some, felt distractingly out of place within the larger story, while casual fans have complained about having to follow increasingly obscure mythology (Mythosaurs! Darksabers!).
These kind of responses will only intensify as Lucasfilm broadens the parameters of what a Star Wars project may be, making them louder and messier. Together with Jude Law, “Skeleton Crew” will be the first Star Wars film to use a nearly exclusively child cast, while “Ahsoka” will heavily reference the animated “Clone Wars” series that initially featured its title character (played by Rosario Dawson). A future feature picture produced by Lucasfilm veteran Dave Filoni will then tie together both of those episodes, along with “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” in an obvious attempt to adapt the Marvel Studios method of multi-threaded franchise creation to a galaxy far, far away.
Due to the necessity of seeding storylines into one another, “The Book of Boba Fett” ended up devoting two episodes to wrapping up the significant Season 2 cliffhanger from “The Mandalorian.” Lucasfilm made a clue about the appearance of the seaweed-like pirate Gorian Shard from the third season of “The Mandalorian” on “Skeleton Crew” on Friday. It also indicates that the major conflict on “Ahsoka” will be set up in the Season 3 finale of “The Mandalorian.” Even “Andor,” the series that has won praise for distinguishing itself from every other Star Wars programmes in terms of plot and creativity, isn’t immune: Genevieve O’Reilly will play rebel commander Mon Mothma in “Ahsoka,” which is set about ten years after her tenure on “Andor.”
The general impression is that these aren’t separate shows so much as they are all parts of one massive “Star Wars” series with various logos attached because of all of these interconnecting plotlines. That’s great news for Disney executives who require a steady stream of content to keep members on board with Disney+, but it presents an increasingly difficult challenge to anyone who is committed to keeping up with it all.
Daisy Ridley will return to reprise her role as Rey from the second trilogy of films as she rebuilds the Jedi while fending off a new menace as part of Lucasfilm’s continued focus on the franchise’s literal future. Despite strong disapproval of “The Rise of Skywalker,” the company believes that people are eager to follow Rey’s story as it ventures into unexplored narrative territory.
Lucasfilm is also betting that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker who has never helmed a live-action narrative picture, is the appropriate director to steer Star Wars into a new direction.
Obaid-Chinoy said on Friday, “I’ve spent the better part of my life meeting real heroes who are defying oppressive regimes and battling unimaginable obstacles.” “That, in my opinion, is the core of Star Wars. And for that reason, I find the prospect of a new Jedi order and the thought of enrolling in a Jedi Academy under the tutelage of a strong Jedi Master appealing.
After raucous applause, the director then introduced Ridley to the audience.
Ridley, who was obviously overcome, said nothing more than, “I’m extremely delighted to be continuing this trip.”
