The first installment of Star Wars hit theaters with this title in 1977. It was not until 1981, when it was re-released, that George Lucas added A New Hope to differentiate the installments of the trilogy. Now that half a century has passed since the filmmaker began developing the project, Star Wars is a sprawling and prolific universe both in film and especially on television. But, due to the studio’s obsession with overexploiting its brands, it has also been worn out: the Star Wars label is no longer a guarantee of an audiovisual event.
The causes are of two kinds. As they have also encountered with Marvel, production volume affects public perception. The need to watch a Star Wars series decreases as they become routine television, especially when the good The Mandalorian is interspersed with bad miniseries like The Book of Boba Fett or the prequel Obi-Wan Kenobi, and when even The Mandalorian Its performance is reduced as the number of seasons increases.
Consequently, it then happens that a brighter, more adult effort like Andor is released and has trouble gaining a foothold among the public. Critics, for the record, did buy the proposal from Tony Gilroy, who had been in charge of Rogue One, and it is nominated for an Emmy for best drama series, direction and script. Or, for example, Ahsoka lands at Disney and a sector does not connect because of how linked it is to Rebels, the animated series ended in 2018 (and which affects the viewer’s experience).
Luckily, the projects that Disney has on the launch platform, as we said, allow us to have hope in the fictional universe. There is the Skeleton Crew, whose main incentive lies in its references: it wants to be heir to the cinema produced by Amblin Entertainment in the eighties, which made titles such as E.T., The Goonies or Back to the Future. It is not a reference that should be taken lightly: Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, was one of the three founders of the production company along with Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg.
The story focuses on four boys who, after discovering a secret, must find a way to return home after getting lost in the galaxy. They will be played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith and Ryan Kiera Armstrong with Jude Law and Kerry Condon in the adult roles. And who is behind it? Jon Watts and Christopher Ford as creators, who have had very good results at the box office by promoting Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and who have had the Oscar winners for Everything at Once Everywhere, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, as directors of an episode.
After it was known that filming ended in California in January of last year, the strike of writers and actors should not have affected Disney’s initial plans to release the season during 2024, once the post-production effects have been completed.
And, if Skeleton Crew is interesting for its references (and the fact that Kathleen Kennedy has an appreciation for the Amblin style), The Acolyte draws attention for the impossibility of predicting what the project will be like thanks to the involvement of Leslye Headland. In 2019, when she was receiving critical acclaim for the sci-fi stoner comedy Russian Doll, she expressed that she was interested in writing a Star Wars film. No sooner said than done. In April of the following year she already had a series underway that was described as a women’s series and it was later confirmed at what point in the chronology it will be inspired: the High Republic, a century before the events of the prequel trilogy.
Being set in a historical moment marked by peace, Headland will have the option to narrate the strengthening of the dark side of the Force through the investigation of crimes by a Jedi master and his former Padawan. Lee Jung-jae, the South Korean actor who won the Emmy for The Squid Game, will play the Jedi master while Amandla Stenberg, known as Rue from The Hunger Games, will be the young disciple, in a cast that also includes Manny Jacinto, Carrie-Ann Moss or Jodie Turner-Smith.
They are two new hopes that, together with the return with the second and final season of Andor, allow us to feel hype for the immediate future of the franchise at a time of transformation for the brand. And the director, producer and animator Dave Filoni, the man behind the success of the Star Wars animated series, involved in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett and creator of Ahsoka, has held the position of creative director of Star Wars.