By George Bate & Josh Bate
From StarWars.com and other sources, a bunch of exciting Star Wars news dropped this week. We at The HoloFiles and Star Wars Holocron are going to break it all down…
For starters, Lucasfilm officially announced a new theatrical Star Wars movie – The Mandalorian & Grogu. The film will be directed by Jon Favreau and produced by Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, and Dave Filoni. Favreau will write the screenplay with Filoni, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The status of The Mandalorian Season 4 remains a bit of a mystery amidst the news of a Mando and Grogu movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Season 4 was well into development prior to the four-month long Hollywood strikes. Scripts for all of the episodes were written and production was set to start soon. However, during the strikes as development on all projects were paused, Lucasfilm re-evaluated and decided to make the next Mandalorian story a theatrical movie.
The announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu also creates questions about the New Jedi Order film in development from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Officially announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, the film was set to be the next Star Wars movie in production and, therefore, the next Star Wars movie that will hit theaters. But that is no longer the case. Last we heard, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight had stepped in to replace Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson in finalizing the film’s script. The movie, which will see Daisy Ridley return as Rey Skywalker, is still officially in development, although when it will come to fruition is increasingly unclear.
According to the StarWars.com announcement, The Mandalorian & Grogu joins three other Star Wars films in development. In addition to the New Jedi Order film, a movie about the dawn of the Jedi from Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold is still in development. This joins an upcoming movie from director Dave Filoni, which is highly rumored to adapt key elements from Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire.
Absent from the StarWars.com announcement are several other previously announced Star Wars movies. Deadpool 3 and Stranger Things director Shawn Levy was reportedly developing a Star Wars movie, and the Lando Disney+ series has been re-developed into a theatrical movie. Updates on these movies are absent from the official Lucasfilm report, although that does not mean that the films have ceased development.
One project that was confirmed to be in development is Ahsoka Season 2. This announcement was coupled with concept art from Dave Filoni, which shows Ahsoka on top of the Mortis statue that Baylan Skoll was present on in the Season 1 finale.
Putting all of this together, we’ve put together a speculated release order of upcoming Star Wars projects (emphasis on the word ‘speculated’). The following are in order, starting with the project we think will be the first to release.
2024
- The Bad Batch Season 3
- The Acolyte
- Skeleton Crew
- Tales of the Jedi Season 2
2025
- Andor Season 2
- Ahsoka Season 2
- Star Wars: Visions Volume 3
2026
- The Mandalorian & Grogu
- Untitled New Jedi Order movie