By It’s Disney’s Investor Day and with it comes a glut of new Star Wars shows coming to Disney+. A lot to get to so let’s just break it down piece by piece.
As well as pushing the new season of The Mandalorian, currently airing on the premium streaming service, Disney announced two new series set in the same timeline as Jon Favreau’s runaway hit. The first is one that everyone saw coming, Ahsoka. Ahsoka will follow the Clone Wars character who recently showed up during the second season of The Mandalorian played by Roasario Dawson. Dawson will reprise her role as the former Jedi in the titular series.
Rangers of the New Republic is the second spin-off and was only given a name but as an old fan of the tactical shooter game Republic Commando, it’s all I really need to get excited. Presumably it will follow a strike team of troopers during the post-original trilogy era after the fall of the Empire.
While known for quite a while, Andor will follow the anti-hero of Cassian Andor from the spin-off Rogue One and will more than likely be a prequel to the movie. Starring Diego Luna, the series is set to air in 2022 on Disney+.
In what is the most shocking of news of the event, Hayden Christensen is going to reprise his role as Darth Vader in the long-talked about Obi Wan Kenobi show. Considering the implication that Obi-Wan and Vader hadn’t seen each between their last meeting on Mustafar before their fateful battle on the first Death Star, I don’t know how they are going to fit the character into the new series. Obi Wan is rumored to begin filming in Boston (not US) this winter.
The Bad Batch is an animated series that looks to take up the mantle that was left empty after the long-loved Clone Wars finished earlier this year. Sporting a similar animation style and taking place after Palpatine’s ascent to Emperor, The Bad Batch will seemingly follow clone troopers forced to navigate the perils of having the Emperor as their ruler.
Keeping in the animation category, Visions is going to be an anthology anime series that has little known about it currently. Slated to come to Disney+ in 2021, boasts “the world’s best Japanese anime creators” working on short episode formats.
Seemingly making it so that no character can go unexplored, Lando Calrissian will also get his own “event” series on Disney+. No word on whether Donald Glover will reprise the role that he portrayed in Solo but bad movie aside, it would be pretty criminal to not let Glover back in the role.
While getting seemingly the smallest reception, The Acolyte is the most interesting announcement for me from the entire call. Dubbed as a mystery-thriller, The Acolyte will show the beginnings of the dark side of the force during the High Republic Era. So we’re talking wildly removed from the previous movies and shows and more in line with the Knights of the Old Republic era. For someone who has Skywalker fatigue, this is the one to look out for.
There’s a ton of stuff in the pipeline for Disney+ when it comes to Star Wars and I can’t blame Disney. The Mandalorian has been a runaway hit for both old and new fans alike and it has been years since those camps have been able to agree on anything. It’s not surprising to see Disney take the ball and run with it, the question is though, how far will they be able to get?
