As part of an industry presentation laying down their plans for the near future to investors (and boasting over over 86 million subscribers in just over its first year) , Disney has announced that they plan to invest heavily in a string of television productions related to existing properties their Marvel and Star Wars properties.
Kareem Daniel (the Chairman, Media and Entertainment Distribution for The Walt Disney Company), revealed that their intention is launch around ten new Marvel series and ten new Star Wars series to the Disney+ platform over the next few years…
Firstly, let’s look at the Lucasfilm projects…
The hugely positive reaction to Rosario Dawson’s appearance as Ahsoka Tano in the recent episode of The Mandlaorian has helped greenlight an Ashoka spin-off with Dawson reprising the role. The Rogue One prequel, entitled Andor and featuring the character of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), is set to debut in 2022 and is already in production for a run of twelve episodes. Disney released a sizzle-reel with commentary from Luna regarding his pleasure in returning to the role, albeit a slightly earlier time in Cassian’s life. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is about to go into production and will see not only Ewan McGregor returning to the title role he performed in the three prequels but will also see Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller from Leslye Headland that “…will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era“. Lando is a new event series said to be in early development from Justin Simie and Star Wars: Visions is an original series of short films from Japanese anime creators due to arrive next year. Rangers of the New Republic is also in production, though we know very little about that title, except, like Ashoka, it will take place in The Mandalorian‘s current time-line.
A further animated series, The Bad Batch, in a similar style to The Clone Wars, is also due next year…
It was also announced that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins will be helming the next Star Wars movie due to debut in 2023. Jenkins, who will be the first woman to direct a big-screen Star Wars venture, notes in the sizzle teaser for the project that the film unites two of her great loves: watching her father’s job as a fighter pilot and Star Wars…
