Even though it feels small sometimes, the galaxy far, far away is a vast place full of incredible characters. Not every character needs an origin story and there’s not enough time to explore the origins of them all anyway; however, since he first appeared in Chapter 1 of The Mandalorian, fans have been waiting for the origin story of The Child/Baby Yoda/The Foundling/Grogu. Through bits and pieces of that story glimpsed through the Force, it is clear that Grogu was at the Jedi Temple when Order 66 was enacted but where he came from and the details of how he escaped the massacre have been left untold. But that may be changing soon…
In a recent tweet, The Mandalorian star Carl Weathers revealed that he returned behind the camera to direct Chapter 20 of the ongoing series and shared the title: The Foundling. That’s just one of the names Grogu has been called over the course of his adventures and now that he’s chosen not to study the Force with Luke and return to the care of Din Djarin, it’s a fitting description of him again.
THE FOUNDLING is coming this week on Disney+ and is directed by Yours Truly. #TheMANDALORIAN#BePeace
While fans have been bemoaning the new episode’s reportedly short runtime (it’s rumored to run for 30 minutes and 39 seconds), the potential implications of the title and the fact that it was written by Dave Filoni may buffer some of those hard feelings a bit. Of course, it remains to be seen just how Grogu’s story will be shared since he can’t talk. So far, he’s only been able to communicate with Jedi through the Force and there weren’t any of those hanging out in the Mandalorian covert and the end of Chapter 19. Interestingly enough, actress Rosario Dawson recently indicated she was pretty hyped up for the next installment of the series, possibly teasing the return of Ahsoka Tano who has used the Force to communicate with Grogu in the past.
Judging the impact of the episode by its size wouldn’t seem to be prudent at this juncture and certainly wouldn’t fall in line with the teachings of the Jedi!
Chapter 20 of The Mandalorian will be streaming on Disney Plus at 12 AM PT on March 22nd.
Days after an interview with /Film in which he expressed his hesitation to work on a Star Wars film, writer Damon Lindelof has reportedly left the top secret project that he’d been working on for the past year. Lindelof had been co-writing the film with Justin Britt-Gibson, who has also left the project, which was expected to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
According to Above the Line, the duo turned in a screenplay in February before parting ways with Lucasfilm, who has already brought a new writer on board, and the film still has the green light. Lucasfilm will reportedly announce the film during April’s Star Wars Celebration and reveal that it’s slated to hit theaters in December of 2025. After a recent report revealed that long-developing projects such as Rogue Squadron and the untitled Kevin Feige film were no longer on the slate, speculation ramped up that the top-secret Lindelof/Britt-Gibson/Obaid-Chinoy project was on deck for Lucasfilm. A more recent rumor indicated that the project had already found its star in Yahya Abdul-Mateen II which may lend some credence to Above the Line’s report that production on the project is currently expected to begin in February 2024.
The shockwave of Lindelof’s departure was slightly reduced by his recent admission that he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue “cooking” a Star Wars project given his admiration and attachment to the franchise he grew up on.
I will just say, that for reasons that I can’t get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist. That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it’s the first movie I saw sitting in my dad’s lap, four years old, May of ’77. I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, “Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.” We’ll just leave it at that.
Damon Lindelof
It’ll be interesting to follow the project and see how it develops beyond Lindelof and Britt-Gibson’s draft and if the pair are ultimately granted a writing credit for whatever version of the project hits theaters. A previous report from THR indicated that the film was expected to be set in the aftermath of the sequel trilogy and would bring back some characters from those films. That same report suggested that while Lucasfilm was moving away from its trilogy model, they were open to sequels to the Obaid-Chinoy project should it be successful. With Star Wars Celebration kicking off in just over two weeks on April 7th, fans won’t have too long of a wait to see which of these rumors is true.
Fresh off seeing their film EverythingEverywhere All at Once score big at the 2023 Academy Awards, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka the Daniels, have signed on the direct an episode of the Star Wars streaming series Skeleton Crew.
Skeleton Crew, starring Jude Law, will be set during the New Republic era, the same time frame as The Mandalorian, Ashoka and The Book of Boba Fett. The show wrapped filming several months ago, meaning the directing duo has been on board for some time and the news is only making the rounds now, perhaps conveniently after they were awarded the Oscar for Best Director.
With Star Wars Celebration 2023 coming up in London in April, it’s possible that some footage of Skeleton Crew may be on the way and the Daniels could be on hand. Also of note is that now that the pair is in with Disney, this will only increase the online push to see the directors helm Avengers: Secret Wars. Disney loves its corporate synergy, after all.
Fans of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels have celebrated the live-action debuts of many of their favorite characters over the past several years. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have found a way to bring fan favorites like Bo-Katan Kryze, Ahsoka Tano and Cad Bane to life in their lineup of New Republic-era series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Sometime later in 2023, another handful will make their live-action debuts as the core characters from Star Wars Rebels, including Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, are set to appear on Disney Plus in Ahsoka.
It’s been a fun time for fans as Filoni and Favreau have carried on the stories of these characters; however, the pair have also come under fire for questionable decisions about the appearance of the characters like the Grand Inquisitor and for being a bit too generous in fan service by having too many characters make the jump. In fact, Filoni has been accused of making too much of an effort to bring his animated creations to life. Filoni addressed that accusation and gave some insight into his process in an interview with The Wrap.
“Very rarely,” replied Filoni when asked if he often thinks “How can I get my cartoon characters into live-action?” “I know people think it’s the other way around, which is fascinating to me,” he continued, “but I think there’s two ways to look at that, which is that, yes, they were animated characters, but to me they’re just characters. And now I’m over here working in live-action. I’m comfortable with those characters, I know them, I like them and I like to see them around.”
It’s an interesting position for Filoni given that he created and curated the characters over a decade of animated story-telling and now has the ability to call on them to help define a new era of the galaxy far, far away. Even for Filoni, who knows the characters inside and out, brining them to live action is not without its challenges. “It changes when they’re suddenly in a different medium,” explained Filoni. “Katee’s [Sackhoff] talked about it a little bit, and the difference between performing Bo-Katan as a voice actor versus performing her physically and being present on set as her – it’s a different vibe. I’m always cautious. And Jon [Favreau] and I talk about who will we bring in? I try to do it when it makes the most sense.”
For instance, as Filoni explained, when the plot of The Book of Boba Fett called for “a gunslinger to go up against some of our characters,” Cad Bane was the obvious choice. The character’s live-action design came under fire from fans of his time in the animated series. Filoni addressed why the character’s distinct look changed a bit for his live-action debut. “I think looking at that, the first thing I think is, ‘Well, how do we do that and make it believable?’ Like the character, he’s so lean and gaunt in The Clone Wars,” explained Filoni, “and if we don’t do that, is it all CG? How are we going to portray that? If we don’t think we can do that effectively, then we shouldn’t do it.”
The reality of the situation is that in the recent social media climate, the decision to faithfully recreate Cad Bane through CGI would have taken just as much heat as the decision to change it for live-action. The criticism, however, doesn’t seem to faze Filoni. “At the end of the day, I’ve been very happy with the ones that have gone over,” he said before teasing fans with the notion that he’s not done quite yet. “There may or may not be more in Ahsoka, if that’s your thing. If you’re excited about that, I’m just saying that one might have a few more, which makes sense, by the way. As you know, I wrote it. You can’t fault me there.” Who can blame the guy?
The book ends of Chapter 19 of The Mandalorian, The Convert, left fans wondering what Bo-Katan Kryze was up to following her experience in the mines of Mandalore. The episode’s opening picked up in the aftermath of Chapter 18’s plunge into the Living Waters where she encountered a massive Mythosaur, an encounter she chose to keep from Din Djarin after asking if he had seen anything alive in the pool. Bo-Katan’s dip in the Living Waters also put her in a position she never thought she’d be in: walking The Way of the Mandalore as a member of the Children of the Watch. With her home world of Kalevala destroyed by a fleet of Imperial remnant TIEs, Bo-Katan, now washed free of her apostasy, was invited by the Armorer to remain with the covert of Mandalorians. Needless to say, it was a pretty busy day for Bo-Katan.
Did those experiences change the skeptical Bo-Katan, however? Fans aren’t so sure and much of the social media discussion after the episode centered around the character’s decision to remain mute about the Mythosaur, wondering if she intends to use the knowledge of the beast to her advantage. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bo-Katan actress Katee Sackhoff assuaged those concerns, saying her behavior was rooted in something much less malevolent. “She doesn’t trust necessarily what she saw. She might have thought that she imagined it,” explained Sackhoff. “There’s so many things that she’s trying to process in her head that I don’t necessarily think that it’s something that she wants to tell anyone about right now.“
Part of what Bo-Katan may be trying to process is that the beliefs that Din Djarin has held dear–beliefs she called “cute”–may hold some water. According to Sackhoff, Bo-Katan’s attempts to reconcile her past with Din’s “cult” with her own past and the very recent events of her own present have given her quite a bit to ponder which is why she remained so quiet when she was accepted into Din’s Tribe.
The mistakes of her past — with Death Watch and the resulting death of her sister Satine — weigh heavily upon her, and she’s in a more vulnerable state than we’ve ever seen her before when Din brings her in. But because of the disagreements with Din’s cult in the past, the Watch welcoming her to their clan with open arms is a surprise to her. To be immediately accepted by people is new for her. She may or may not be trying to figure out if that’s a place where she should potentially stay.
Katee Sackhoff
Still, it’s hard for fans to believe that the militant Bo-Katan won’t look to weaponize her newfound friends in another attempt to avenge her sister’s death and ascend to lead the reborn Mandalore. According to Sackhoff, that’s not in the cards, however. “I truly believe at this point that she hopes someone else steps up,” Sackhoff said. “She doesn’t want the responsibility. The responsibility cost her everything,” she explained. “Leading didn’t work, so maybe fitting in will.” With more than half the season still ahead, Bo-Katan’s choice to be a leader or a follower will likely have a huge impact on the events of not only TheMandalorian Season 3 but also the shape of the New Republic.
Chapter 18 of The Mandalorian, The Mines of Mandalore, wrapped up Din Djarin’s quest to end his apostasy well enough that it didn’t need to be revisited; however, the book ends of Chapter 19, The Convert, do indeed revisit the events of the previous episode and, to some extent, cleverly revise them. Returning to Kalevala to find it under attack by Imperial remnants, Bo-Katan, Din and Grogu hotfoot it to a safe space one hyperspace away. Where they go and what happens there are left for the show’s closing moments, though an attentive audience surely guessed where they’d land. As interesting as those closing moments–and the moments they surely set up for the future–are, the episode spends 80% of its runtime (the longest of any chapter of The Mandalorian to date) putting Din and Grogu’s ongoing journey in the back seat so Doctor Pershing can take the wheel.
Last seen on Moff Gideon’s light cruiser in the Season 2 finale, Doctor Penn Pershing’s reemergence served as a reminder of where Din and Grogu’s journey began, provided a look at the Reconstruction Era of the galaxy and seemed to put the pieces in place for Gideon’s next move. Part of the New Republic’s Reintegration Program, Doctor Pershing’s arc in The Convert serves up a heaping helping of The Who’s We Won’t Get Fooled Again. Co-writers Jon Favreau and Noah Kloor deftly take advantage of years of conditioning of the Star Wars audience to subtly say an awful lot about the New Republic without saying anything at all. Like the other members of the Reintegration Program, Pershing is now a number and not a name, ironically finding himself given the same cold, impersonal identification assigned to the Clone Troopers by the “evil Empire.” An entirely different article could be written on the episode’s commentary on the inefficiency of the New Republic’s handling of old Imperial and Alliance resources, but their handling of a resource as valuable as Pershing as nothing more than a mundane cog in the machine set the gears of his “regression” at the behest of Elia Kane, who is likely working with Gideon. Pershing’s final fate, having his brilliant mind wiped by the “good guys” of the New Republic using an Imperial Mind Flayer, might as well have been done with Roger Daltrey screaming “meet the news boss; same as the old boss” in the background. The hypnotized never lie.
Whatever Gideon wanted Pershing to do with Grogu’s blood, it looks as though Kane will now help see it through putting Mando and The Child back in the sights of the former Imperials. However, if the closing moments of the episode are any indication, Kane, Gideon and whoever else they assemble may not like what they find the next time they cross paths. As Din returns to the Mandalorian covert to prove he’s come back to the faith, the full measure of his rescue from the Living Waters of Mandalore by Bo-Katan. Though she has never walked the Way of the Mandalore, by bathing in the Living Waters herself, Bo-Katan has been “redeemed” and may now live among the Children of the Watch. The details of Din and Bo-Katan’s experience on Mandalore (Bo-Katan is keeping one tiny detail to herself for the time being) are sure to encourage The Tribe to consider returning to Mandalore and begin the culture’s prophesied return to glory. Bo-Katan’s no dummy and these new brothers and sisters in “faith” provide her with an army of warriors who will certainly do everything they can to protect one of their own, as they’ve demonstrated in the past.
So while the “Big Three” of the first few episodes only get a small fraction of The Convert’s runtime, the detour to the Coruscant of the New Republic is by no means a waste of minutes. The events on Coruscant serve as a reminder that while you can take the solider out of the Empire, you can’t always take the Empire out of the soldier: the threat of Gideon, in this case in the form of Kane’s ongoing loyalty to his “plan”, still looms large. Additionally, the time spent exploring the ins-and-outs of the New Republic is long overdue. Through two seasons of The Mandalorian, only bits and pieces of what was going on at the center of the galaxy could be gleaned when Mando’s Outer Rim adventures attracted their attention. The New Republic is still new story telling territory and with the rise of Mandalore drawing nearer with every episode, it’s safe to say that the hypocrisy of the New Republic will come into play. There’s nothing in the street looks any different to me…
The last few weeks have been some of The Bad Batch‘s best; a remarkable turnaround from a fairly lame first half of the season. Where episodes once felt flat and pointless, they are now full of life and purpose, aimed towards a clear end goal with actual substance. The latest entry, titled Pabu, continues this trend with a wonderful excursion focused on community, something the leading group of rebels has found themselves severely lacking. A perfect mix of calm and storm, the episode manages to be both a singular adventure and a catalyst for the development of its heroes in one gorgeous outing.
Pabu sees the Bad Batch accompany their occasional business partner and not-a-pirate Phee Genoa, played by Wanda Sykes, to the episode’s titular planet for a bit of rest and relaxation. After a betrayal by their previous employer, the group needs a safe place to hide and a refresher on what it means to be alive, something Genoa believes she can supply in the form of a peaceful refugee city. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned, and the group ends up having to protect the citizens from a massive tidal wave that wipes out half the community’s infrastructure. The resulting escapade is a lovely look into what the clones could have, and uphold, if they were willing to lay down their guns and give up the fight.
It’s an excellent follow-up to last week’s installment, The Outpost, which saw Crosshair finally submit to a devastating revelation about the Empire. Similar in fashion, the Bad Batch have come to see their own allegiances in a new light, ditching Rhea Perlman‘s Cid and complimenting their former comrade’s journey in a subtly clever way. The parallel between the two storylines is likely far from accidental, with the show’s nearing finale kicking the series’ overarching plotlines into their final gears. One of the best aspects of Pabu, an episode that appears to be potentially one-off at first glance, is how effectively it pushes the narrative forward for its protagonists. Even if the Bad Batch don’t grow to call the planet home, their experience there opens up new ideas and helps both Dee Bradley Baker‘s Hunter and Michelle Ang‘s Omega consider other methods of living.
Also of note is the ingenious bait-and-switch of Genoa’s role in the series. After several episodes of the character claiming not to be a pirate, something played as a joke every time, it turns out that she is not, in fact, a pirate. She truly is a “liberator of stolen artifacts”, as she puts it, and an advocator of the downtrodden. This reveal works in a few ways. It’s surprising and endearing, yes, but it’s also another notch in The Bad Batch‘s allegorical belt. From the start, the series has made no false pretenses about its intentions to portray the “soldiers post-war” dilemma, and refugees are a large part of that conversation. It’s truly very intriguing to see The Bad Batch manage to tie another character, one who seemed to be outside of the thematic elements of the show, into the grander image.
Overall, Pabu is a solid half-hour of television. It’s whimsical in its ideals and thrilling in its execution. The Bad Batch has really hit its stride in the back half of this season, and it really feels as though the show is leading to something special. Hopefully, it can stick the landing.
When the first episode dropped for the long-awaited third season of The Mandalorian, we met the pirate king Gorian Shard. While it’s uncertain if we might see more of him in this season, a new rumor from Bespin Bulletin may have pointed out that this was a way to set up the main antagonist in the upcoming Jon Watt‘s directed Disney+ Star Wars series, Skeleton Crew.
There was a strong focus on the character during the episode, as his crew seemingly are obsessed with mentioning his name. They also went all out with the make-up that hinted at this character having a bigger role overall but we won’t know until more episodes are released from The Mandalorian.
There is some uncertainty if the school that the pirates try to enter might even be the same where Jude Law‘s character works. It’s not confirmed but would make for some fun world-building by the Disney+ corner of Star Wars exploring its very specific connections.
We’ve heard very little of the Disney+ series that is set to release at some point this year. We may get a first tease during the upcoming Star Wars Celebration and they might even confirm the appearance of Shard as one of its main antagonists. He also seems perfect for a series that wants to explore the pulpy side of the galaxy far far away.
It looks like things aren’t going well over at Lucasfilm. After the news hit the web that two of their highest profile projects have been scrapped, KevinFeige’s unnamed project and Patty Jenkin‘s Rogue Squadron, it seems that an even bigger mess has found its way to their doorstep. Deadline has broken the news that Lucasfilm is currently being used for firing producer Karyn McCarthy from the upcoming Star Wars Disney+ series The Acolyte.
The project is currently being filmed, but some behind-the-scenes events may have led to this legal issue. McCarthy is famous for her work on Ballers as an executive producer and was involved with Leslye Headland‘s new Disney+ series. She was fired after working on the project for a few weeks last year. The issue arises that she turned down an offer to work on Colin Farrell‘s Sugar for Apple, as she decided to dedicate herself to Lucasfilm’s latest venture.
In the filing the following scenario is painted:
Two weeks later, without explanation, without reason, without justification, Lucasfilm told McCarthy it wanted out of the deal. By this time, the Apple offer was gone – Apple had to move on and found another executive producer for Sugar. McCarthy now had neither deal.
Some might be wondering where the core issue lies, as it’s not unusual to miss out on opportunities when focusing on other projects. The firing may have just been terrible timing that added to the bitterness of the situation. Yet, it turns out that she was also not compensated for her work. So, we’ll have to see how this turns out for everyone involved.
Good soldiers follow orders. The motto of the Empire’s Clone Army and the basis of the rift between CT-9904 and his Bad Batch brothers, those words are as etched in the minds of fans of Star Wars animated series nearly as deeply as in the minds of the clones. Throughout the course of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, “good soldiers follow orders” has been the rote and retaliatory response given any time evil deeds were done by Clones in the name of the Empire. Of course, following orders in the service of evil is still doing evil (indeed the phrase seems to be a reference to the “superior orders” defense that Nazi war criminals attempted to use during the Nuremberg trials, continuing a long-running allegory within the Star Wars universe) and the phrase was never going to hide the evil acts.
Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding. It is his nature. You cannot change that. He cannot change that.
Tech, The Bad Batch: Kamino Lost
After a bit of a slow start, Season 2 of The Bad Batch has quickly gotten very interesting following Emperor Palpatine’s Defense Recruitment Bill. The bill not only ushered in the era of the Imperial Stormtrooper but also emphatically ended the era of the Clones, who for all their order following, were decommissioned. The latest episode, The Outpost, is a beginning-to-end indictment of the Empire’s dismissal of the Clones and a parabolic reminder that you reap what you sow. At the center of it all is Clone Force 99’s “do what needed to be done” loyalist Crosshair who by the end of the episode finds himself in a very bad place under the special care of the series’ new bad lad, Dr. Hemlock.
Though it’s laid on pretty thick, the episode’s depiction of the dismal treatment of the Clones seems necessary as a teaching tool not for the audience but for Crosshair. From the moment the ennuyé Imperial Officer drones on to the Clones about their service to Crosshair’s mission to Barton-4 under the uber-douchey Lt. Nolan to the anticlimactic discovery of the purpose of that mission, the humdrum pacing of The Outpost lures fans into a bit of a trap: Crosshair gonna Crosshair. And then…he doesn’t.
This is who I am.
Crosshair, The Bad Batch: Return to Kamino
Having a character go against his very nature, especially one whose nature has been the sole focus of nearly every interaction with the character since the show’s debut is no small thing. What’s more, having Crosshair betray that nature in order to kill Lt. Nolan over the death of a few “regs” symbolizes a near-total metamorphosis for the Bad Batch’s resident cynic. By pulling the trigger and killing Nolan, Crosshair followed his own orders and, by his own beliefs, is no longer a good soldier despite doing what he believed needed to be done. It would seem the fate of his brothers in Clone Force 99 is destined to intertwine with his once more as the new clone king, Dr. Hemlock, now has Omega in his sights. But will the reborn Crosshair soon have Hemlock in his?
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