Once again at Star Wars Celebration, fans around the world gather to hear the big announcements. However, “Big” is often not the best description for these ads due to the secrecy that Lucasfilm likes to wrap around its various projects. Precious few release dates have been given, for example. But we got some juicy details about the projects that have already been announced, which is also exciting. So here’s everything we learned at ExCel London about the Star Wars galaxy’s movements through the ages, small and big screen.
The question on everyone’s lips at Star Wars Celebration 2023 was whether a new slate of live-action movies would be announced. It’s been four years since a galaxy far, far away was visited on the big screen with several projects from the likes of Kevin Feige, David Benioff & DB Weiss, JD Dillar and Patty Jenkins shelved. But by the end of Lucasfilm’s run, fans got a huge answer when studio head Kathleen Kennedy announced three new movies that set the past, present, and future of that cinematic universe’s timeline – including the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey.
“It really stems from what George Lucas said years ago that he created Star Wars to go forward and backward along a mythical timeline,” said Kennedy. “Now we’re looking to expand that timeline, build a rich future, expand on the present and delve into the past to tell our stories.”
It hasn’t been confirmed whether these individual films will be the first in a new trilogy set across the timeline, but after the tepid response to Solo: A Star Wars StoryAnd celestial rise, Besides hanging up the many big-screen projects announced at past Star Wars festivities, Lucasfilm is keeping its cards close to its trunk.
What we learned Star Wars: New Jedi Order
Ridley got a huge roar when she came on stage to confirm that she would be returning as Ray Star Wars: New Jedi OrderTo join director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on stage. “I have always been drawn to the hero’s journey,” said Obaid-Chinoy. “I am drawn to the promise of a new Jedi Order and I am drawn to immersion in the Jedi Academy with a powerful Jedi Master.”
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“My heart is pounding,” Ridley added. “I am so happy to continue this journey.”
Set 15 years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerand written by Stephen Knight, Ridley’s Rey will be the Jedi Master guiding a new generation of Padawans and rebuilding the Jedi Order as a new Dark force attempts to demolish it.
What we learned Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi
At the other end of the Star Wars timeline – 25,000 years after the prequel series, in fact – James Mangold will direct Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, tells the tale of the first Jedi who wielded the Force in an age of chaos and oppression. Mangold describes it as a “biblical epic” akin to it The Ten Commandments That would grapple with the dawning of power.
What we learned about the untitled feature set in The Age of the New Republic
Longtime Star Wars director, writer, producer and executive producer Dave Filoni is set to helm his first live-action set in the current era of The New Republic. Kennedy explained that the film was executive produced by Filoni’s company Mandalorian Focused on the “escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic,” collaborator Jon Favreau brings together several narrative threads and characters from the Disney+ series including The MandalorianAnd Boba Fett book And Ahsoka.
“There was a whole bunch of stories I grew up on in the Expanded Universe and there were a lot of plans in the New Republic,” Filoni said. We’re taking advantage of the new stuff that’s been created in the meantime, and putting it all together. Like we said, we’re going to get into this epic battle that unfortunately happens to our heroes after the events of return of the jedi) and before The Force Awakens. “
What we learned Ahsoka
Filoni is definitely busy at Lucasfilm. He was on stage to announce the August 2023 release of Ahsoka, with Ahsoka Tano herself, with Rosario Dawson alongside co-stars Natasha Leo Bordizzo and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Fans got a glimpse of actors like Sabine and Hera, who were first introduced in animated form in Star Wars: Rebels. Several characters from this animated series will appear in live-action including Ezra Bridger (Iman Esfandi) and Grand Admiral Thrawn, who makes a cameo appearance in the final trailer. “If it’s that good, maybe we’ll get a second season,” Dawson said. “It’s all up to you. I’m ready if you are.”
What we learned The ship’s crew
Filoni and Favreau also provided an update on The ship’s crew, the Amblin-esque series helmed by Jude Law who plays a Jedi who leads some minor characters played by Ravi Cabot Conyers, Keriana Krater and Robert Timothy Smith who find themselves on a perilous journey back home. Set during the Mandalorian time period, this might be the most suburban location we’ve seen yet in the Star Wars universe with a trailer showing kids at school, back to their picturesque homes and riding fast cars through the woods. but in fact fools In fashion, they find themselves lost in the galaxy and encounter pirates (including Nikto the pirate from … The Mandalorian) and shooting and imprisonment. Kennedy said, “That’s what we used to do with all the Amblin movies. Even though kids were in those movies, they weren’t necessarily just kids’ movies and that’s very much how we approached that show.”
Created by MCU Spider-Man’s Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the episodes will be directed by Watts, David Lowery, Daniels, Jake Schreyer, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung. “We have an amazing list of people from all walks of cinema coming together,” Kennedy added. The ship’s crew It is currently in post-production and will premiere on Disney+ later this year.
What we learned the assistant
the assistant It was another major talking point during the show with creator Leslie Headland (Russian Doll) describing it as “frozen Meets Kill Bill—though she wouldn’t confirm if there were musical numbers. It’s possible she was referring to frozenSister Dynamics also described the series as a “spiritual war”, set 100 years before the prequel trilogy during the era of the High Republic.
“We’re taking place during a part of the timeline that’s peaceful and there’s really no war for our Star Wars,” Headland said. “I went back to the inspiration of George in martial arts films, Kurosawa films, samurai films. Films that were about deep personal bonding. So Master Padawan, teacher-disciple, but also father and daughter, brother and sister, this became war for us.”
The first footage certainly shows a reverence for Chanbara cinema with plenty of shots of the Jedi Temple, Jedi wielding lightsabers and martial arts sequences involving Amandla Stenberg and Carrie-Anne Moss. Yojimbo And Hidden castle Are great visual references too, Headlands said, as well as wuxia classics like Come drink with me which similarly centered on combat. Of working with Headlands, Stenberg said, “She has a deeply emotional way of dealing with the darker sides of ourselves and doing so with a style of magical realism that really appeals to me.”
the assistant It will also see the return of Chewbacca understudy Joonas Suotamo as the Wookiee; This time as the Jedi Master. The series is still in production, having completed four episodes, with filming ending in May and the series set in 2024.
What we learned Andor season 2
Also in production with an August 2024 release scheduled for the second half of the year Andor. “We actually started filming in November,” said show creator Tony Gilroy. “We’re about halfway there, we’ll be shooting during August, so we’ll spend another year doing post-production, music, visuals, and I think we’ll be out the following August.”
Gilroy shared a few scenes from Season 2 that hint at more of a spy and spy game feel with titular hero Diego Luna sporting some neat weeds and a moustache in one scene, Kyle Soller’s Cyril Karn rocking his natural curls and everyone armed and ready to really start rebelling. “If we don’t stand together, we will be crushed,” Moon Mothamma says at one point.
Admit it Andor It’s going to end with season two, Gilroy said, “If you know your end, it really helps. There are a lot of shows out there—shows that I love—and they’re trying to figure out where they’re going. We know where we’re going. It’s kind of a jailbreak: you know what? where are you going “.
In a separate panel on the making of Andor, Gilroy confirmed that each of the three episodes will represent one year, four years in total, until the timeline connects to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The final scene, in fact, would end with Cassian going to Kaverin’s ring as a fully-fledged resistance agent. “He joined the rebellion, and we haven’t backed out,” Gilroy said. He’s a committed member now – that internal debate is over.”
Andor may be coming to an end but Lucasfilm clearly has no plans to end this franchise. Of course, if it’s of the same high quality as Gilroy’s politically charged series, that might not be such a bad thing.
What we learned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Elsewhere on Lucasfilm’s slate is the Indiana Jones franchise and Harrison Ford’s final outing as a part-time guru – part-time adventurer. While Ford literally called her, sending a video message, Phoebe Waller-Bridge offered a little more insight into her character Helena, who is the daughter of an Indiana god.
“They haven’t seen each other for a very long time, and in some ways it’s the worst thing that could have happened to him at this time in his life, but also the best thing,” Waller-Bridge said. Indy is nearing retirement, but is once again swept up against Mads Mikkelsen’s evil Nazi who wants to do better than Hitler with the help of the Dial of Destiny to turn back time.
The trailer shows a good deal of the de-aging tech that will be used in a flashback then back and forth in time from the Indy of the 1940s to the 1960s as well as the return of John Rhys Davies’ whitewashed performance as Egyptian ally Salah. Filmed in various locations including Glasgow, Sicily, and Morocco, a sneak peek at the tuk-tuk chase scene shows that the Indiana Jones franchise’s ideas of Orientalism and high-octane chase sequences remain intact.