Lucasfilm Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Lucasfilm‘s Kathleen Kennedy dropped major bombs tonight, though one of them was not a “Boba Fett” series as rumored. Instead, Kennedy dropped two bombshells: Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the creators of “The Mandalorian,” are developing two new spin-off shows from the series.

The failure of “Solo: A Star Wars” series was a huge blow for Lucasfilm, their first big defeat after years of Midas Touch-hits. But people liked, at least, most of the characters.

Fans of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels are going to be happy. Hayden Christensen returns as Darth Vader, joining Ewan McGregor in the upcoming limited series “OBI-WAN KENOBI.” Directed by Deborah Chow, the series will begin shooting in March 2021.

For most of the rumored and confirmed “Star Wars” live-action series coming to Disney+, there has always been a clear focus. There is the “Obi-Wan” show, “Cassian Andor,” and perhaps the “Ahsoka Tano” series.

George Lucas might have been the butt of a million jokes after the release of the “Star Wars” Prequel Trilogy in the early-2000s. He was parodied by just about everyone as someone completely out of touch with what makes a good “Star Wars” film.

Bloopers and mistakes in movies or TV series are nothing new, but rarely do they get noticed by so many people that they become features instead of bugs. When a regular-clothed crew member was spotted in the background during a scene in “The Mandalorian,” it became an Internet sensation that fans dubbed “Jeans Guy.” Sadly, it appears Disney giveth and Disney taketh away, as they already removed the blooper from the episode.

Spoilers: but really, didn’t we all see it coming? Ahsoka lives! Since reports came in early March that Rosario Dawson would join the cast of “The Mandalorian,” fans of the “Star Wars” animated shows have been eagerly anticipating the live-action debut of the beloved “Star Wars: Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” animated character Ahsoka Tano.

To Mando or not to Mando, that’s the question posed in this week’s episode of The Playlist Podcast. And to help Charles, Brian, and Mike figure out if “The Mandalorian” is actually any good after reaching the halfway point in Season 2 or if this “Star Wars” series is pure Bantha feces, they’re joined by The Playlist’s Editor-in-Chief, Rodrigo Perez (who is a closet “Star Wars” expert, but likes to keep that lowkey, so don’t tell anyone).

Say what you will about the Disney-era “Star Wars” films. They have their fair share of problems, especially when it comes to the way ‘Rise of Skywalker’ ended the Skywalker Saga last year.

When it was announced that “Russian Doll” creator Leslye Headland was taking over the reins of a “Star Wars” TV project, there was a lot of head-scratching. Not in a bad way, of course, but just that nothing in her previous experience would lead you to believe that Headland was perfect for the role of shepherding a “Star Wars” project.

It’s been a week, right? We can talk about spoilers from “The Mandalorian” Season 2 premiere? Well, if you read the title of this article, then you’re probably already spoiled a bit. Sorry.

The Covid-19 pandemic may have royally disrupted the film industry, but Disney’s Lucasfilm is one of the few companies who’ve avoided delays thanks to fortuitous timing and an innovative, easy-to-work-in system (ILM’s the Volume, see below). “The Mandalorian” season two finished production before the pandemic started and was able to finish post-production remotely and then finished in time for the first episode to air at the end of this past October.

Even though you can pretty much just mention the word “Disney” to a diehard “Star Wars” fan and they’ll likely lose their mind and go off on a rant about how the studio has failed the franchise.

You’re right, we normally wouldn’t cover the latest trailer for a LEGO TV special on Disney+.

Felicity Jones might be the actress that scored the highest praise for anyone who starred in the Disney-era “Star Wars” films. Even more so than Daisy Ridley, who garnered a ton of fans but also a lot of criticisms, Jones starred in a film that is often regarded as one of the best “Star Wars” films and her character seems to be one of the more interesting recent creations.

Kanye West is a lot of things. He’s a multiplatinum-selling rapper.

Remember blockbusters? The closest anyone is going to get to that blockbuster feeling in Fall 2020 is the second season of Disney+’s flagship series, “The Mandalorian,” which dropped its premiere this morning, a little less than a year after the show debuted with the streaming service in November 2019.

Now that ‘Rise of Skywalker’ has been released on all platforms for what feels like 10 years already, the dust has settled on Disney’s “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, and we can maybe begin to take stock of what worked and what clearly didn’t. And we can also discuss what might have been, such as with the unmade ‘Episode 9,’ tentatively titled “The Duel of the Fates,” which is a story that actor John Boyega thinks could have better suited his character, Finn.

We’ve been talking about a new “Willow” project for over two years now. What started as talk about a sequel film morphed into discussions about a TV series, but time after time, there was nothing confirmed.

About a year or so ago, Bob Iger said, the future of “Star Wars” lay in television, at least new film franchises were up and running. Yesterday, in a restructuring of media and entertainment division announcement (read: more layoffs), Disney announced its “primary focus” for entertainment is streaming.

If you wanted to hire someone to possibly create a new cinematic universe based on existing IP, you could do a lot worse than filmmaker Jon Favreau. After directing “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2,” Favreau would go on to see his two films spawn dozens more and an entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This one has been in the works for a while now, but the news is out there and official: “Utopia” and “Black Mirror” filmmaker Toby Haynes is taking over directing chores for Tony Gilroy on the “Cassian Andor” series, a prequel spin-off from the “Rogue One” movie. Before you cry, “oh no, more ‘Star Wars,’ drama!”, this one is different.

We are just over a month away from the release of Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” which just wrapped up an awards season that saw the series nominated for Best Drama at the Emmys. And while the first trailer for the upcoming season hinted at a bunch of big reveals and twists that fans will find over the course of the new episodes, one star of the show hints that the really good stuff is actually coming in Seasons 3 and 4.

Season 2 of “The Mandalorian” is just over a month away and Disney launched the first trailer for the new episodes today to begin the marketing machine. So, if you go on social media, you’re going to be inundated with more Baby Yoda memes and nerd speculation.

Lucasfilm’s “The Mandalorian” began with a fascinating concept that intrigued “Star Wars” fans a little tired of the same old story: a familiar armor, but ultimately new character living on the fringes of the “Star Wars” galaxy after the fall of the Empire post-“Return Of The Jedi.” Yes, the character concept was similar to Boba Fett—another Mandalorian character—and the unnamed Mando warrior was a mercenary bounty hunter like just like Fett.

It has been more than 15 years since the release of Ewan McGregor’s final appearance in a “Star Wars” film, with ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ But the actor is set to come back to the galaxy far, far away sometime soon (maybe next year?) in the upcoming ‘Obi-Wan’ spinoff series on Disney+. And according to the actor, he’s pretty pumped about the opportunity to play the Jedi master one more time.

When “The Mandalorian” Season 1 debuted last year with the launch of Disney+, the platform was using the series as the crown jewel of the launch lineup. Sure, it was a guarantee that “The Mandalorian” would attract subscribers, considering its “Star Wars” lineage, but no one really thought the show would end up earning 15 Emmy nominations including Best Drama Series.

Kathleen Kennedy has been leading Lucasfilm for years now. And in her time, she has released a number of “Star Wars” films and TV series, including the most recent sequel trilogy.

The future of “Star Wars” is pretty uncertain, at this point. No, Disney isn’t canceling the franchise or anything like that.

For “Star Wars” fans, there are certain topics that will always spark a lively discussion. Most recently, you can bring up either ‘The Last Jedi’ or ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ But for decades prior to Disney buying Lucasfilm, there was always a debate and discussion surrounding the silly “Star Wars Holiday Special” from 1978.

While not a ton of info is available about what direction the “Star Wars” franchise is going in the future, what we do know is that Disney+ is going to factor into that future quite a bit with a number of series coming down the line, including the highly-anticipated “Cassian Andor.” And with a new cast member joining Diego Luna in the series, we can see that the show is preparing to head into production pretty soon.

Even with the massive debate surrounding films like ‘The Last Jedi’ and ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ both “Star Wars” installments still earned more than $1 billion at the box office in spite of the controversy. The same can’t be said about ‘Solo.’ That film not only divided audiences (as much of the Disney-era films in the franchise have done), but it also was a relatively big box office disappointment.

Let’s be honest for a minute—the “Star Wars” franchise is at a crossroads and there’s really no way of knowing what the future holds for the Lucasfilm moneymaker on the big screen. But we do know one thing—fans sure do love what Dave Filoni is doing with the animated “Star Wars” universe.

Doug Chiang is the Vice President and Creative Director of Lucasfilm. He’s an Oscar-winning designer who has worked on more iconic projects than you can imagine including “Death Becomes Her,” “Forest Gump,” “Rogue One” and five out of the last six “Star Wars” films.

As is the case with most pop culture, even the most hated things in film eventually find fans over time. This is what the whole idea of a cult classic is based on, with a failed film eventually finding its audience after time.

When Lucasfilm announced that the studio was working with Jon Favreau on a new “Star Wars” series titled “The Mandalorian,” it was assumed that the series spawned from the previous development on the long-rumored “Boba Fett” spin-off feature. However, according to ‘Mandalorian’ filmmaker Dave Filoni, that’s actually not the case at all.