There has been a great disturbance in the Force. Since 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker, Disney Plus TV shows have been our primary source of new Star Wars content, but at April 2023’s Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy set out a plan for the franchise’s return to the big screen.
Three new movies will explore different eras spread across millennia in the ever-expanding Star Wars timeline, from the dawn of the Jedi to the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker. The exciting slate of new Star Wars TV shows and movies also features continuations of the story started by The Mandalorian, the culmination of Andor, and the returns of animated shows The Bad Batch and Star Wars: Visions.
“We're exploring a lot of different storylines,” Kennedy said at Celebration (via StarWars.com). “This really spawns from what George Lucas said years ago, that he created Star Wars to move forward and backward along a mythological timeline. Now we're looking to broaden that timeline.”
Below we explain all the new Star Wars TV shows and movies preparing to jump out of hyperspace. And if you can’t wait, check out our guide to watching Star Wars in order.
New Star Wars TV shows
Star Wars: Visions Volume 2
Release date: May 4, 2023
After 2021’s Volume 1 gifted the keys to the Star Wars universe to a select group of Japanese anime studios, the second outing for anthology series Visions is much more international in scope. Among shorts from Chile, France, India, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and the UK, we’ll see stories told in CG, traditional 2D animation and stop-motion – including an offering from Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman Animations titled “I am Your Mother”. And with the stories unconstrained by the limitations of canon, we can expect to see filmmakers exploring aspects of George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away we’ve never explored before.
Young Jedi Adventures
If you’re looking to get your younglings into Star Wars, this TV show (available on both Disney Plus and Disney Junior in the US) could be a good place to start. Targeted squarely at younger kids, it has a definite Muppet Babies vibe, and follows a bunch of pre-teen Jedi wannabes taking their first steps into the wider world of the Force. Set in the High Republic era (around 200 years before The Phantom Menace), it features a younger version of Master Yoda, and older fans will surely appreciate the cameo from an exogorth (space slug) in the trailer.
Ahsoka
Release date: August 2023
Having made the move from CG animation to live-action in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice finally becomes the headline attraction. As well as being a Mando spin-off, the Ahsoka TV show is turning into something of a Star Wars Rebels reunion, with Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), wannabe Jedi Ezra Bridger and surly droid Chopper (himself) all returning alongside the eponymous lapsed Jedi (Rosario Dawson). Hunting down returned Imperial bigwig Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen will reprise his Rebels voice role) is set to be on top of their agenda, especially as – like the other shows from the Mandalorian era – the series is building up to an epic conclusion on the big screen (see below).
Skeleton Crew
Release date: 2023 (TBC)
Despite being yet another show set in the increasingly crowded Mandalorian sector of the Star Wars timeline, Skeleton Crew will have a very different mission briefing to its predecessors. Jon Watts, director of the three Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movies, reportedly pitched the show as The Goonies in space, and Disney (opens in new tab) say it’ll focus on a group of kids trying to find their way home after making a mysterious discovery. Luckily for them, they won’t be making their journey across a dangerous galaxy alone – Jude Law is coming along for the ride as their (as-yet unnamed) Jedi protector.
The Bad Batch season 3
The Clone Wars was the TV show that kept Star Wars' fire alive between Revenge of the Sith and Disney’s 2012 Lucasfilm buyout. It's fitting, then, that Disney Plus is sticking with animation for this Clone Wars spin-off about an elite unit of genetically modified Clone Troopers in the early days of the Galactic Empire.
Greenlit back in August 2021, The Bad Batch season 2 will pick up the story of Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Echo and fellow clone Omega as they try to stay one step ahead of Imperial forces led by their renegade brother, Crosshair. And with (spoilers!) the cloning facilities on Kamino now destroyed and hints that the show will somehow tie into the events of The Mandalorian, this follow-up season could have big ramifications for the Star Wars galaxy.
Andor season 2
Arguably the most critically acclaimed of all Disney Plus’s Star Wars TV shows, Andor’s ambitious, morally complex first season showed us a darker, grittier side to a galaxy far, far away. Creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy returns to continue the story of Cassian Andor, Mon Mothma and the early days of the Rebel Alliance, with a second and final season whose 12 episodes will unfold over the four years leading up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
“If you know your ending, it really helps,” Gilroy said at Star Wars Celebration (as reported by Variety). “We know exactly where we’re going. You know what you have to deliver emotionally and what the story has to do. It’s a decision borne of survival, but it’s good for us creatively.”
Diego Luna and Genevieve O’Reilly are back as Andor and Mothma, respectively, alongside fellow returnees Stellan Skarsgård (Luthen Rael), Denise Gough (Dedra Meero), Kyle Soller (Syril Karn), Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen), Faye Marsay (Vel Sartha) and Varada Sethu (Cinta Kaz). Production on season 2 began in November 2022, with Gilroy hoping for an August 2024 debut.
The Acolyte
Release date: 2024 (TBC)
Every canonical Star Wars movie and TV show to date has been set in the relatively brief seven-decade period between The Phantom Menace and The Rise of Skywalker. That all changes with The Acolyte, as showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) winds the clock back more than a century to explore the Jedi Order’s glory days in the High Republic era.
Intriguingly, the new show will focus on characters who’d usually be considered the villains in of the franchise – the word “acolyte” is traditionally used to describe an apprentice of the Dark Side in Star Wars lore – and has also been touted as a mystery thriller. The cast includes Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give, Dear Evan Hansen), Lee Jung-Jae (Squid Game), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Joonas Suotamo (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials). Russian Doll star Rebecca Henderson brings Vernestra Rwoh, a fan favorite character from the High Republic books, to the screen.
Lando
Release date: TBC
Card player, gambler, scoundrel… you’d like him! Things have been rather quiet on the Lando front since this ‘event series’ was first announced at a Disney Investor Day way back in December 2020, but Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told IGN (opens in new tab) at Star Wars Celebration 2023 that “it’s still happening”. Star Donald Glover (Atlanta) also seems keen to go back to a role he first played in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, telling GQ: “I would love to play Lando again. It just needs to be the right way to do it.”
Dear White People writer/director Justin Simien is lined up to call the shots, though, given the seemingly glacial pace of its development, we’re not expecting to see this show on Disney Plus anytime soon.
Other Star Wars TV shows in the works
While a fourth season of The Mandalorian hasn’t been given an official greenlight by Disney Plus yet, further adventures of Din Djarin and Grogu seem inevitable – especially as series creator Jon Favreau confirmed to French TV station BFM in February (via Entertainment Weekly (opens in new tab)) that “season 4, yeah, I’ve written it already.” That said, with The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew seemingly existing as an ever-expanding, interweaving tapestry of Star Wars content set in the post-Return of the Jedi, we have no idea what form season 4 might take.
Although the future of The Book of Boba Fett remains up in the air (more than a year on, a season remains unconfirmed), we definitely won’t be seeing Rangers of the New Republic, another proposed Mandalorian spin-off. After it was announced in December 2020, there was much speculation that Rangers might focus on former Rebel shock trooper Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and X-Wing pilots like Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), who’s since evolved into a kind of Outer Rim space cop. By May 2021, however, it was being reported that the show was “no longer in active development”, a move seemingly connected to Lucasfilm's decision to part company with Carano that February, after a series of offensive social media tweets from the star.
Don’t hold your breath for a second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi either. While Ewan McGregor is apparently keen to pick up his lightsaber again, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy told Variety (opens in new tab) at April 2023’s Star Wars Celebration, “That [show] is not in active development.”
Maybe we shouldn’t give up hope just yet, however. “But never say never,” she added, “because there’s always the possibility. That show was so well-received and [director] Deborah Chow did such a spectacular job. Ewan McGregor really wants to do another. Everybody’s all hands on deck with what we’re doing right now. We’ll turn our attention to [Obi-Wan Kenobi] again maybe down the road.”
Now, onto the movies...
New Star Wars movies
The Mandalorian spin-off movie
Release date: TBC
Baby Yoda is coming to theaters! In what must be a synergistic dream come true for Disney shareholders, Star Wars is following the MCU’s lead by taking a story originated on TV to the big screen. The overlapping stories of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and (presumably) Skeleton Crew are all set to come together in this “cinematic event”, as the “escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic” reaches a climax. Dave Filoni, Ahsoka showrunner and long-time protector of Star Wars lore, is lined up to direct.
“I hesitate to say it’s a big meet-up from just [The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett and Skeleton Crew], because Dave has been developing Star Wars storytelling inside Clone Wars and Rebels and so much of the work he has done for 20 years,” Kathleen Kennedy told Entertainment Weekly (opens in new tab). “So it will be little bits of all that. There are a lot of sources he’s drawing from to see where we’re going.”
The Jedi origins movie
Release date: TBC
The Acolyte may be going back to a time a few centuries before the events of The Phantom Menace but that’s nothing compared to this Jedi origin story. In fact, at risk of coming over a bit Star Trek, this pre-prequel is boldly going where no Star Wars movie has gone before. James Mangold, who’s clearly impressed Lucasfilm with his work on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (one of the most exciting new movies of 2023), is the director lined up to take the franchise millennia into the history of that galaxy far, far away.
The official summary says the film “will take audiences deep into the past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”
“We’ve been talking a lot about going well into the past,” Kennedy told EW, “and one of the things that’s really knitting this all together, obviously are the Jedi. What happened with the Jedi over time? How did the Jedi evolve? They were wiped out with Order 66. Then they gradually have been coming back.”
Rey’s New Jedi Order movie
Release date: TBC
Rumors that Lucasfilm is done with the Skywalker Saga may have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, Anakin’s bloodline technically ended with the deaths of Luke and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, but having taken her old master’s name, Rey is now most definitely a Skywalker. This movie – the first release to expand the Star Wars universe beyond The Rise of Skywalker – continues her story.
Sequel trilogy star Daisy Ridley will return as Rey, as she rebuilds the New Jedi Order and faces up to “the powers that rise to tear it down”. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face, Ms Marvel) is signed up to direct. “This story is about 15 years outside of The Rise of Skywalker,” Kathleen Kennedy said in her EW interview. “We left episode 9 with Rey making a commitment to Luke Skywalker that she would rebuild the Jedi Order. And so here we are, we’re ready to do that.”
As well as hinting that familiar faces from the sequel trilogy might appear alongside Rey – “it’s entirely possible to see some people come back,” Kennedy teased – the Lucasfilm president revealed that, as in Mangold’s movie, the galaxy’s relationship with the Jedi will be a major theme. “The question we’re going to ask with the New Jedi Order and Rey is, ‘Does the galaxy need them any more?’” she said. “‘Do they want them back?’ So there’s a lot of food for thought in what we’re doing, whether it’s in the past, present or future.”
Other Star Wars movies in the works
In the words of Yoda, “Always in motion is the future” – and the diminutive Jedi Master easily have been talking about the Star Wars movie slate since the release of The Rise of Skywalker. Several projects have come and gone since the franchise made its last visit to theaters in 2019, and while some have subsequently been abandoned, two of the highest profile projects remain in the pipeline.
There’s been talk of a new trilogy from writer/director Rian Johnson since he made The Last Jedi, and it seems he’s still keen to head back to that galaxy far, far away. “Rian and I talk all the time,” Kathleen Kennedy told Variety at Celebration 2023. “He is unbelievably busy. So we’re not actively involved in anything at the moment because he’s doing another one of the Glass Onion [Knives Out] movies and then God knows what else. But he really wants to step back into the space. It’s a big commitment of time so that’s really on him.”
Thor: Ragnarok/Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi (who’s both directed and starred in episodes of The Mandalorian) also continues to orbit a Star Wars project of his own. “Taika is still working away,” said Kennedy. “He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day.”
Unfortunately, Rogue Squadron, the pilot-focused movie from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, seems to be stuck on the launchpad indefinitely, having been pulled from its original December 2023 slot (per Variety). It’s also been reported that the Star Wars movie produced by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige (and scripted by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron) is no longer in active development.
