Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Star Wars TV

  • Hayden Christensen on Preparing for His Return in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’

    Hayden Christensen on Preparing for His Return in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’

    While everyone was excited about Ewan McGregor‘s return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming Disney+ series, many were caught off-guard when it was revealed that he’ll also be joined by Hayden Christensen. Not only that but shortly after it was confirmed that he’ll also return in the Ahsoka series as well. So, it’s a grand return for the actor that played Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogies. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed how he prepared for the role after 17 years.

    It seems he really did his homework as the actor revisited not only all the films but also watched The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, which were quite important to develop his character even after he hung up the mantle. Perhaps it also was what inspired him to join Ahsoka to get involved with the story introduced in the animated series.

    I went back and rewatched all the films,” says the man who will be once again going behind the mask as Darth Vader. “And I also got into the animated shows, The Clone Wars and Rebels.

    Hayden Christensen

    It’s great to see his commitment not only to bringing this franchise to life but generally how much work he’s put in to prepare for his return. We have been teased that he’ll be in the series as Darth Vader, but there’s always a chance that they might use flashbacks to also revisit scenes between Anakin and his former master. Perhaps Ahsoka Tano even gets a cameo in the upcoming series.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • Bryce Dallas Howard Says ‘The Clone Wars’ Fans Will Be Rewarded in ‘Ahsoka,’ Likely Directing 

    Bryce Dallas Howard Says ‘The Clone Wars’ Fans Will Be Rewarded in ‘Ahsoka,’ Likely Directing 

    Bryce Dallas Howard continues to gush about a galaxy far, far away, and she’s got a bit of news for fans of Ahsoka Tano. The actress-turned-director spoke about the future of Star Wars during a recent interview with Romper. After the interviewer mentioned that the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was among their favorite shows, Howard, who has spent the past few years helming acclaimed episodes of both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, had a curious response to the name drop moment:

    Without giving anything away, you are going to love the Ahsoka show that’s coming up. I cannot tell you anything, but what I can say is that you being a fan of the Clone Wars will be greatly rewarded.

    Bryce Dallas Howard

    Bryce Dallas Howard and her father, longtime Hollywood staple Ron Howard, have each spent time behind the camera for Lucasfilm. As such, it’s possible that the Jurassic World star simply knows something about Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka series through a professional association. However, it almost seems more likely that Howard could be directing an episode of the Disney+ series. Bespin Bulletin already reported that she would be returning to work on the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian, and the director’s previous outings have been hits with fans of the show. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse filmmaker Peter Ramsey is officially directing at least one episode of Ahsoka, and it’s expected the character’s creator Dave Filoni will participate as well, but that still leaves plenty of room for Howard to slip in and contribute herself.

    Ahsoka begins filming later this month, with the aforementioned Dawson, Ray Stevenson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and a returning Hayden Christensen set to round out the cast.

    Source: Bespin Bulletin

  • RUMOR: ‘Star Wars: Visions’ Season 2 May Arrive Later This Year 

    RUMOR: ‘Star Wars: Visions’ Season 2 May Arrive Later This Year 

    It would appear Lucasfilm may not be done bringing anime to its galaxy far, far away. A new rumor from outlet Cinelinx claims that the animated anthology series Star Wars Visions, which was a hit with Disney+ subscribers when it debuted last year, will be returning for another season. Furthermore, the report states that the next batch of episodes will drop on the streaming service by the end of this year, much sooner than some might have expected, and could continue some of the stories established during the first season’s run.

    So, those who were hoping for more might just get their wish sooner than expected. The Disney+ series certainly left quite an impact, as many wanted to see Disney exploring more anime-inspired spinoffs of their popular franchises moving forward. Visions also left quite the impact with those that wanted to see some more contained stories that twist and turn the way we view Star Wars in creative ways.

    Plus, the potential of expanding some of the existing stories might also have those happy that fell in love with some of the characters. They even expanded with a novel titled Ronin storyline, which further explored one of the episodes more, and who knows if that might even get adapted. Whatever direction they might take, it definitely will be exciting to see what new and old stories might arrive with the anthology Disney+ series.

    Source: Cinelinx

  • ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ Director Peter Ramsey Attached to ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’

    ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ Director Peter Ramsey Attached to ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’

    Star Wars keeps attracting some amazing talent, as The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse director and first black filmmaker to win the animated feature at the Oscars, Peter Ramsey has joined the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka. The latest in a line of Star Wars series that also acts as a spinoff of The Mandalorian, which reintroduced the titular character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars into live-action with Rosario Dawson taking on the role.

    Currently, the production is eyeing starting its cameras in Los Angeles later this month. It is unclear how many episodes Ramsey will direct and if others are also attached. All we know about the series is that Ahsoka will be traveling across the galaxy on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, which continues the storyline set up in Star Wars: Rebels. The series has already attached Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

    While we’re still waiting for any info on how ill play Thrawn, we do know that Ray Stevenson has been cast in a villainous role alongside the confirmation that Hayden Christensen will return once again after appearing in May’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s still the rumor that Mena Massoud might join the series as Ezra Bridger, but that has still not been confirmed so far. For now, we’ll see if more details arrive once they start production.

    UPDATING

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • RUMOR: Jude Law May Have Joined a Secret ‘Star Wars’ Series 

    RUMOR: Jude Law May Have Joined a Secret ‘Star Wars’ Series 

    The Star Wars universe has only been expanding since its return in 2015, and a new rumor suggests it may be getting even bigger. Bespin Bulletin is reporting on some emerging whispers that Jude Law has joined the cast of a secret project, which may be a series filming in Culver City, California this June.

    The outlet explains that the information comes from the Instagram account DeuxMoi, which posts semi-reliable celebrity gossip and boasted it received a tip that “a prime British early-2000s film stud” is “adding to his recent nerdgasm resume (Marvel, Wizarding World)” and was “recently cast in an unannounced Star Wars extended universe Disney+ show”.

    Fans were quick to identify the mystery person as Law, who has spent the last few years playing characters like Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel and Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts series. While it’s unknown what project he could potentially be participating in, the most likely option is Grammar Rodeo, the aforementioned unannounced series that’s already entered pre-production. That show will reportedly take place during the High Republic era and center around a group of pre-teens.

    The Illuminerdi reported a while back that Rodeo was also looking for a male in his thirties or forties to star alongside the youthful protagonists. Law is slightly older than the casting call was looking for, but still a solid possibility for the Jon Favreau-produced series. It’s important to note all of this is still speculation and conjecture, even if the math is starting to add up. No official announcements have been made as of yet, but keep a lookout for news in the near future.

    Source: Bespin Bulletin

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Loki’ Lead Disney+ Viewership

    ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Loki’ Lead Disney+ Viewership

    There’s been a lot of debate on just how well the various series perform on Disney+. While some might want to use it to argue on their personal favorite series leading the pack, but it’s also an indicator of what was the most popular production on the streaming app. While none of Disney+s original productions could compete with Star Wars or Marvel, The Hollywood Reporter and Nielsen offers a little insight into how they generally performed through an analysis based on viewing data for the streamer. As of now, it seems that The Mandalorian and Loki remain the best performing series on the site.

    Lazy loaded image

    Throughout their runtime, every entry of the six live-action shows across both major brands were in the top 10 each week they released a new episode. Yet, it is highlighted that they continuously made billion more minutes of view time spent afterwards. Even What if..? and Star Wars: The Bad Batch made appearances throughout with around two billion minutes of viewing time within seven weeks. The Mandalorian is yet the clear leader with 14.5 billion minutes watched throughout the year. However, 8.4 billion were alone from the time the second season made its debut.

    While the Marvel shows have yet to top the series that started Disney+, Loki managed to draw in 5.23 billion minutes of watch time. It even passed one billion in a single week, and is the only Marvel series to do so. On top of that, it had the highest average watch time for any series, even including Star Wars with 872M minutes per episode in its six week runtime. Falcon and the Winter Soldier actually ranked right behind it with 692M minutes per episode, but reaching 4.15B average. Hawkeye had a weaker run with 3.46B minutes watched during its viewing time.

    The biggest challenge will come for Marvel Studios introducing new characters to the franchise through Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. All previous entries were built on existing characters but they are believed to have the potential to become next quarter’s biggest series alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi. We also have to keep in mind these aren’t direct numbers from Disney+, where they might have a very different picture. It strongly depends on what they base their success on that could reshuffle this order.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Writers Revealed for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’s First 5 Episodes

    Writers Revealed for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’s First 5 Episodes

    We just got the news that Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere on Disney+ on a Friday rather than the usual Wednesday. Not only that, but it’ll also offer us two episodes similar to the premiere o Hawkeye. Similar to what happened with Moon Knight a couple months ago, we also got the list for Moon Knight‘s writers but with one different. We’ve heard that the Star Wars series will consist of six episodes yet there are only five listed so far by the Writers Guild of America West:

    • Episode 1 – Joby Harold, Hossein Amini, and Stuart Beattie (based on a story by Stuart Beattie and Hossein Amini)
    • Episode 2 – Joby Harold (based on a story by Stuart Beattie and Hossein Amini)
    • Episode 3 – Joby Harold & Hannah Friedman, Hossein Amini and Stuart Beattie
    • Episode 4 – Joby Harold & Hannah Friedman
    • Episode 5 – Joby Harold & Andrew Stanton

    The name that stands out is Joby Harold, who is also a producer on the Disney+ series. He’s also taken a similar role for other projects which includes John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum, the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts film, and more. He’s also worked on the screenplay for Army of the Dead and the previously-mentioned Transformers film. Iranian screenwriter Hossein Amini was involved with The Alienist, 47 Ronin, and 2011’s Drive.

    Stuart Beattie might be known for creating the story of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 30 Days of Night, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Writer Hannah Friedman has been involved with a variety of projects and was a feature writer of the Pixar Braintrust and Disney Feature Animation. She is currently co-executive producing the upcoming Willow series. Last, but not least, is Andrew Stanton, who is another Pixar veteran that was the writer for the original 1995 Toy Story, worked on Wall-E, and the upcoming Lightyear.

    Source: WGA

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3’s Production Has Wrapped

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3’s Production Has Wrapped

    Well, it seems that even with all the hurdles it faced throughout, The Mandalorian‘s third season has wrapped production. Currently, the series is potentially eyeing a release by this Holiday, which matches the series and its spinoffs usual release schedule. And, it seems they’ll have enough time to prepare for their release, as Amanda Ramirez has shared a new logo from the Disney+ series’ costume department confirming that they have finished work on the upcoming Season 3. The logo she shared may be something she created for the team, as she’s a cross stitch artist as revealed in an interview with Shoutout LA.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbp_V6XrG_o/

    The timing is also perfect as we just got a big reveal, as Hollywood icon Christopher Lloyd has joined the series in an unknown role. Star Wars expansion into the medium has certainly managed to draw in some major talent, especially veteran actors that have made a name for themselves in the industry with genre pictures. The franchise always had a strong pull but it keeps growing as they are now investing more time in expanding it beyond animation and a trilogy.

    The Mandalorian‘s upcoming third season will pick up where The Book of Boba Fett left us off. For those htat missed out on that spinoff series, it might be quite a bit jarring jumping back into the story, but we’ll likely get a recap early on. Their reunion was still rushed a bit, as we’re already entering the next season with the same status quo that we left the other one with, but we’ll see where it leads us.

    Source: Instagram, Shoutout LA

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Adds Christopher Lloyd

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Adds Christopher Lloyd

    Star Wars franchise has just nabbed quite the veteran for the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian, as The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed Christopher Lloyd, famous for his roles in Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and so many other countless projects have joined the project. His role remains tightly under wraps, but he is meant as a guest star and won’t have a recurring role. It might be similar to The Terminator‘s Michael Biehn in the last season.

    The Mandalorian has truly become a special franchise as it continues to pull in quite a few veteran actors. Din Djarin’s story seems to resonate with quite a few, as well as the talent that is bringing their story to life. The series has already been in active development in California, and we just recently got a few set photos teasing the return of a fellow Mandalorian. So, we’ll see if the upcoming third season might manage to become even larger in size than the previous ones.

    Din Djarin’s story will pick up directly where it left off in The Book of Boba Fett. While it did seem rushed to have him and Grogu meet up again, especially in a spinoff story, it opens up a lot of opportunities and possible stories to explore in the next season. Grogu still has no control over his powers and may succumb to the dark side, or even teach Luke a lesson about the importance of allowing an emotional connection to make you stronger. Whatever it is, we’ll have to see once the third season drops on Disney+.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • New ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Set Photos Reveal Return of Axe Woves

    New ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Set Photos Reveal Return of Axe Woves

    It looks like Din Djarin won’t be the only Mandalorian in the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian Disney+ series. It seems that Simon Kassianides will make his return as Axe Woves, who briefly appeared in the Bo-Katan introduction episode back in the seconds season. He was the only member of her trio that was noticeably absent during the finale. Luckily, Bespin Bulletin dropped a few set photos from the production that reveals an actor with the same armor on the set.

    They do highlight that it’s very likely Kassianides himself, and he was working alongside Katee Sackhoff as well. So, we might see Bo Katan make her return in the upcoming season as well. The actress has hinted in the past on why Woves may have been absent during the final moments, but it’s uncertain if they might further explore the Night Owl’s moving forward. It is still surprising they haven’t gotten their own spinoff with how popular they were, especially when Sackhoff continued to play the role from the animated series.

    Still, it’s great to see more involvement of the other Mandalorians in the upcoming sequel, especially with the series potentially moving towards further exploring Mandalore, as another rumor by Bespin Bulletin hinted at the potential visit of the mines below Mandalore that the Armorer teased. So, we’ll likely see more of their race pop up as the series continues and an unlikely following gathers around Din Djarin, the one to wield the Darksaber.

    Source: Bespin Bulletin