Samuel L. Jackson Says He’s Nudged Bryce Dallas Howard About Bringing Mace Windu Back To ‘Star Wars’

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHarrison Ford has signed on to star opposite Jason Segel in the Apple comedy series “Shrinking,” Variety has learned.The show was first announced in October 2021. Segel will write the series alongside “Ted Lasso” co-creator Bill Lawrence and “Ted Lasso” star, writer, and co-executive producer Brett Goldstein.“Shrinking” follows Jimmy (Segel), a grieving therapist who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 10-17:April 10: Actor Liz Sheridan (“Seinfeld”) is 93. Actor Steven Seagal is 70. Singer Terre Roche of The Roches is 69.

EXCLUSIVE: Shudder has locked down rights to the critically acclaimed feature Mad God, directed by two-time Academy Award-winning artist, animator and filmmaker Phil Tippett. The experimental animated project 30 years in the making will hit limited theaters and debut on AMC Network’s premium service for genre fare on June 16.

Following Troy Kotsur‘s big win at The Oscars over the weekend, fans are now learning that he also had a secret role in The Mandalorian.

Dune" took home six of the coveted gold trophies.  This outstanding honor puts the $165 million feature film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel in rare company, becoming the second of the most successful sci-fi movies at the Oscars by placing it in a tie with 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Road" with six wins.

The “Obi-Wan Kenobi” limited series on Disney+ is two months away, and it’s a big draw for many “Star Wars” fans hoping for the return of Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. While some of been critical of Vader’s inclusion and the new face-off that is coming between former master and pupil—there are many lines in ‘A New Hope’ that always indicated they had never seen each other since ‘Revenge of The Sith’ and that this new face-off undercuts that film—one way that seems to make it all work is the live-action introduction of the Inquisitors.

Back To The Future star Christopher Lloyd has joined the cast of Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian.On Friday (March 18), it was announced that Lloyd – best known for his role as Dr. Emmett Brown in Back To The Future – has joined the cast of the hit Disney+ show and will appear in season three.The Mandalorian, which also stars Pedro Pascal and Giancarlo Esposito, is currently filming its third season in Southern California.While details surrounding Lloyd’s role have not yet been disclosed, it’s described as “guest-starring in nature”.While details of season three are scarce, actor Katee Sackhoff did disclose last November that her character has “unfinished business”. The second season of the show, which won seven Craft Emmy Awards last year, saw Sackhoff appear for the first time as rival Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze.Sackhoff was last seen fighting for possession of the powerful Darksaber, which was acquired in season two by Pedro Pascal’s hero Din Djarin.“The way that Lucasfilm left me in season two, one of the roads that could be gone down – absolutely, you’d think – would be the unfinished business,” Sackhoff told Slash Film.“But that is so far above my pay grade, and you just don’t know, right? As a fan of the show, I’m just excited to see what they come up with.” Reviewing season two of the show, NME said: “…The plot is tweaked enough that it doesn’t feel stale … this franchise is finally on an exciting new path.

Rarely do we see actors that have appeared in both “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” franchises, but given that Lucasfilm is developing multiple live-action shows and films at the same time, there is going to be franchise crossover at some point. The third season of the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” is currently shooting in southern California at the central production hub, and a new casting addition sees an old ‘Trek’ actor from the original wave of films join the “Star Wars” universe.

Star Wars director J.J. Abrams.According to reports in The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Deadline, Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions company are developing a scripted series for Netflix about the Bono-fronted band.There are reports that the script for the show is being written by Anthony McCarten, the scrip-writer behind Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.As per The Hollywood Reporter, U2 are “expected to be involved and sanction the project.”NME has reached out to representatives of Abrams and Netflix for comment.Last November, U2 guitarist The Edge revealed that the band were working on a new album.The update came shortly after the four-piece released the track ‘Your Song Saved My Life’, their first new material in two years.Their most recent studio album, ‘Songs Of Experience’, came out back in 2017.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson is the king of film franchises and one of the most well-recognized actors on the planet; the film he’s collectively been involved in have grossed over $16.7 billion worldwide.

Samuel L. Jackson is just as eager to get back to the Star Wars franchise as fans are for him to make a return. During a recent live taping of the  podcast, the star revealed that he's lobbied for his Jedi Master character, Mace Windu, to make a return much like how other past franchise stars have made it back into the fold in recent years.«There's a huge history of people with one hand returning in ,'» Jackson joked, referring to both Anakin Skywalker severing his character's right hand before his eventual murder by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, as well as the multiple Skywalkers who have lost a hand. Jackson played Mace in the  prequel trilogy alongside stars Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala). He reprised the role for the 2008 animated film and voiced the character in 2019's The character has also appeared in various  books, comics and video games, as well as the television series voiced by Terrence C.

Star Wars spin-off series.In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Pulp Fiction star was asked if by Horowitz if he should hold out hope for a return to the role of Windu – a role he performed in all three of the “prequel” films between 1999 and 2005.“Definitely,” Jackson replied, adding: “There’s a huge history of people with one hand returning in the Star Wars franchise. The only person I’ve ever said that to about coming back was Bryce Dallas Howard, ’cause I just did a movie with her.

Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast, Jackson was asked if he’d be up for returning, considering how many other past franchise stars have made it back into the fold in recent years. His answer was a definitive yes, as he joked that he’s pretty sure Mace Windu survived his fall in 2005’s “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.”Jackson also acknowledged a certain trend in the area of returners as well.“There’s a huge history of people with one hand returning in ‘Star Wars,'” Jackson joked, referring, of course, to the multiple Skywalkers who lost a hand.

As we prepare for the highly-anticipated release of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+ in May, it’s clear Lucasfilm has fully embraced “Star Wars” on your TV screen. But what about the movies? It seemed like Patty Jenkins was going to have her “Rogue Squadron” film coming next year, but that got shelved.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIn support of the Disney Plus streaming service, Disney has expanded its involvement in local production in Asia-Pacific. The company’s APAC head of content and development, Jessica Kam-Engle, gives the keynote presentation on the first day of Hong Kong FilMart.Ahead of her speech she gave a few pointers to Variety readers.Jessica Kam-Engle: From our extensive research, consumers across most Asian markets have a strong preference for local language entertainment content.

bad motherf – – ker.“The Marvel actor, 73, was gifted a purple lightsaber from “Star Wars” creator George Lucas after starring as Mace Windu in the Darth Vader prequels. And the color wasn’t the only unique thing about it: the weapon was also engraved with the letters “BMF,” or “bad motherf – – ker,” a nod to Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, in the 1994 action flick “Pulp Fiction.”But during an appearance Wednesday on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Jackson revealed that he didn’t request that his present have a reference engraved on it.“They did that because they loved me — I didn’t ask for it,” Jackson explained to host Fallon.“When the shoot was over, when they presented it to me, it had ‘BMF’ on the on-off button,” the “Glass” actor said of his gift.