THE FUTURE OF STAR WARS

is just the beginning. Here’s what to expect from the upcoming shows and films that are coming at you like a squadron of X-wings

OBI-WAN KENOBI

The most obvious candidate for a live-action TV show was always Obi-wan. Ewan Mcgregor is still-popular casting from his role in the prequels, and this series will slot neatly into the middle of the missing 20 years in the Jedi Master’s life. Presumably his mission will partly involve keeping the secret of young Luke and Leia’s existence from their father, with Hayden Christensen (somehow) returning as Darth Vader. With The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow directing and The Alienist’s Hossein Amini on screenwriting duties, we’re mostly hoping to learn how he came up with his cunning alias: ‘Ben’.

ANDOR

If you liked Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor but wish we’d seen more of him before his — spoiler — untimely end in Rogue One, good news! He and sarky battle droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) will return in a new, limited series. The Americans’ Stephen Schiff is showrunning, which seems like an inspired choice for a morally murky character in a story described as a spy thriller (remember when Cassian shot his informer in cold blood? That show’s Elizabeth and Philip would be proud). Promised flashbacks to Cassian’s childhood, and his relationship with his sister, may explain his passionate hatred of the Empire — but it’s that spy element that sounds most fun. If The Mandalorian showed that this galaxy can host a Western, we can’t wait to see what they do with a more paranoid genre.

THE BAD BATCH

There’s a new animated spin-off planned from the franchise’s small-screen success stories, Clone Wars and Rebels. It’s the story of Clone Force 99, a commando squad of not-quiteclones formed during the Clone Wars. This “bad” batch of clones were not perfect recreations of Jango Fett like the rest of their army, but elite soldiers designed with special skills: sheer muscle (Wrecker), enhanced aim (Crosshair), more brainpower (Tech) or extrasensory abilities (their leader, Hunter). But after the War ends and the Empire rises, they must find a new way to survive as mercenaries and seek a new purpose. Expect them to be tasked with hunting down, or helping, familiar figures in the Star Wars universe, in a show that looks — physically as well as morally — darker than its Clone Wars progenitor.

ACOLYTE

In April 2020 Lucasfilm announced that Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland would be creating a “femalecentric” series that will, she says, take place “in a pocket of the universe and a pocket of the timeline that we don’t know much about”. We now know that’s the High Republic era that lasted from about 300 to 100 years before the Skywalker saga takes place. That was a time when the Outer Rim was still sparsely populated and unsettled but the Jedi were active across the galaxy, a rare moment in the Star Wars timeline when the good guys were on the back foot. But the prospect of exploring any new facet of Star Wars chronology has us more excited than a tip-yip on Life Day Eve.

AHSOKA TANO

As soon as she was cast, there were rumours that Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano might get her own live-action series — and sure enough, it’s happening, with Dave Filoni, the character’s

creator and guiding force, on writing duties. A spin-off from The Mandalorian, there have been reports that this will involve the blueskinned Grand Admiral Thrawn in some capacity — rumours that pre-date her mention of his name in the show. As the stand-out fan favourite of the animated world, an Ahsoka live-action series is a no-brainer, and Dawson’s first appearance in the role only whet our appetite further.

RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC

Why settle for one Mandalorian spin-off when you can have two? This effort, with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau back in charge, will focus on the titular law-keepers (we think?) and, we’re told, intersect with its parent show’s timeline before building to a “climactic story event”. So that is enlightening. There was speculation that this could focus on characters such as Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, now a marshal of the New Republic, but file that under “extremely unconfirmed” for now.

VISIONS

If you loved The Animatrix and are hyped for Marvel’s What If...?, this might be the Star Wars animation you’ve been hoping for. We’re promised a celebration of the galaxy far away via “ten fantastic visions” from leading anime studios, and a “diverse cultural perspective”. We’re hoping for full-on Akira levels of weirdness, but in space.

LANDO

The galaxy got one more injection of cool with the news that Justin Simien of Dear White People is developing a limited-run show about everyone’s favourite cape enthusiast, Lando Calrissian. It’s not yet confirmed whether this means the return of Donald Glover, Billy Dee Williams or both in some sort of time-hopping/ story-bookending fashion, but surely at least one of them will be back, and space designers everywhere will be delighted.

A DROID STORY

Promising a mixture of “visual effects and animation” (isn’t that just CG animation?), this new series will see a new hero “guided by” C3PO and R2-D2. The current animated Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales are delightful, so we are hoping for more cheery bickering from the mismatched droid legends and a hapless newbie caught in the middle.

ROGUE SQUADRON

The Star Wars franchise continues to address its lack of female directors by hiring Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins to direct this feature film about an X-wing squadron for 2023. And it’s a personal project for the filmmaker, whose father, Captain William T. Jenkins, served in the US Air Force. “I love to move fast, and speed of any kind,” Jenkins says. “I think that’s because I grew up the daughter of a great fighter pilot, and every day I would wake up and go outside and look up, and I would see my father and his squadron take off in their F4s, roaring across the sky.” Expect it to be a high-velocity thrill-ride that would have Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell looking on with envy.

UNTITLED TAIKA WAITITI PROJECT

We don’t know much about this beyond Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s assertion that it will be “fresh, unexpected and… unique”. But it’s Taika Waititi, so how much more do we need? Expect something weirder and more comic than usual. The tales of IG-11’S career in nursing, a sort of Mr. Mom with an assassin droid? Honestly, we don’t care — just sign us up.