Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Star Wars

  • Report: Obi Wan Kenobi will appear in “Star Wars: Andor”

    Report: Obi Wan Kenobi will appear in “Star Wars: Andor”

    Coming off the heels of an incredible season finale of The Mandalorian in December, many Star Wars fans are excited to see where the next story set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away may take them. Some are excited to continue with the aftermath of Order 66 in The Bad Batch, while others may be waiting to see what the dealings in The Book of Boba Fett have in store for the famed bounty hunter. But amongst the lists of series and films that are coming soon to a galaxy near you is the upcoming Disney+ series, Star Wars: Andor.

    Kathleen Kennedy, the President of Lucasfilm, described the series as “a tense nail-biting spy thriller in the Star Wars universe.” Created by Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity), Diego Luna will reprise his role as Cassian Andor from the spinoff film, Rogue One. He will also be joined by the cast of Stellan Skarsgard, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma. And it seems that a certain negotiator may have joined their ranks as well.

    Our friends at the Illuminerdi are reporting that Ewan McGregor is set to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi for the upcoming Andor series. What’s interesting is that it reportedly will not be a “one and done” cameo like Luke Skywalker at the end of Season 2 for The Mandalorian, but that he’ll rather have a recurring role in the series. Now, this would certainly serve quite some backstory for the character of Obi-Wan, given that he’s been isolated in Tatooine since the events of Revenge of the Sith all the way until A New Hope. Let’s not forget that we’re also going to be getting an Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+ as well after this, which is set 10 years after the events of Episode III, so it would be interesting to see how the two series will connect with one another.

    Source: The Iluminerdi, Disney’s Investor Day

  • RUMOR: ‘Rangers of the New Republic’ to Replace Cara Dune with ‘Rebels’ Hera Syndulla

    RUMOR: ‘Rangers of the New Republic’ to Replace Cara Dune with ‘Rebels’ Hera Syndulla

    Star Wars is getting ready to expand in the upcoming years. The Mandalorian kicked-off a variety of spin-offs that got announced during Disney’s Investor Day. Among them, there was the mysterious series titled Rangers of the New Republic. It seemed that at one point, Gina Carano‘s Cara Dune was the front runner to lead the spin-off series. There were even rumors that she would lead alongside Katee Sackhoff‘s Bo-Katan. As many know by now, Lucasfilm has parted ways with the actress. Many wondered what it may imply for the series, especially now that they weren’t recasting. Well, it looks like they may have found their replacement in Star Wars Rebels’ Hera Snydulla.

    The story comes from a site called LRM Online, which ran the story earlier today. Shortly after, the Kessel Run Transmissions also highlighted this new direction for the show adding some validity. We still have to take this as a rumor, but the character of Snydulla would be a perfect choice. She is already well-established from the Star Wars Rebels series, and it isn’t the first time they are adapting an animated character into live-action.

    The Mandalorian saw a lot of success in carrying over characters from Clone Wars and Rebels. She also has close ties to the early rebellion and was a central figure in the formation of the Alliance that wanted to restore the Republic. She has a close connection to Grand Admiral Thrawn, who might have a role in the upcoming Ahsoka series, so she would also connect to the overarching storyline that is getting set-up.

    Source: LRM Online, YouTube (KRT)

  • Indira Varma Joins Star Wars’ ‘OBI-WAN KENOBI’ Series

    Indira Varma Joins Star Wars’ ‘OBI-WAN KENOBI’ Series

    Lucasfilm’s highly-anticipated prequel spin-off, Obi-Wan Kenobi, has added its first new cast member. According to Deadline, Indira Varma has joined the series in an undisclosed role. The actress is perhaps best known for her work on HBO’s smash hit Game of Thrones, where she portrayed the cunning Ellaria Sand for four years. Details surrounding the Disney+ limited outing have been kept tightly under wraps since its official announcement at 2019’s D23 Expo but it will shed some light on the titular Jedi’s time in exile between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

    Before today, the only known cast members were fan-favorite Ewan McGregor, who was reprising his acclaimed role as Kenobi, and Hayden Christensen, making a surprise return to the franchise. He will return to portray the villainous Darth Vader. While we don’t know who Varma will be playing just yet, her striking facial features and British origins seem to line up nicely with The Clone Wars‘ Duchess Satine. Many fans have speculated that Obi-Wan’s love interest might appear via flashback in his upcoming solo project. Only time will tell if this theory pans out.

    Kenobi will begin filming last year, but various script rewrites and a global pandemic have delayed the process on more than one occasion. The series will enter production in the spring, with director Deborah Chow on board to run it. Chow proved her directing chops, and her handle on the Star Wars universe to fans with some stellar work on the first season of The Mandalorian. The time she spent there will surely come in use when Kenobi utilizes the same innovative StageCraft technology to stay safe in these turbulent times and bring the sands of Tatooine to life.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Star Wars: Republic Commando’ Remaster Revealed

    ‘Star Wars: Republic Commando’ Remaster Revealed

    Another fan-favorite Star Wars video game is getting a remaster. It was revealed today that Star Wars: Republic Commando is coming to the PlayStation 4 on April 6, courtesy of Aspyr Media. The game, considered a classic among the Star Wars community, allows the player to take control of Delta Squad leader Boss and his trusty group of commandos. The game’s controls have been updated to fit modern controllers, and include directing your squad through complicated maneuvers and blasting the dastardly battle droids of the Separatist Army to bits. The re-release also adds new trophies for the player to strive towards, and will reportedly feature backward-compatibility with the PlayStation 5.

    The Republic Commandos avoided de-canonization in 2013 by appearing briefly in an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The crew was voiced in that cameo by Dee Bradley Baker, who voiced every clone in the series. Fans have eagerly awaited their return to the spotlight ever since. A version of the Republic Commandos will star in the upcoming animated series The Bad Batch, which was just revealed to be arriving on Disney+ on May 4th, a holiday for the fandom. Gamers have been treated to a variety of old-school Star Wars content in the past couple of years.

    Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and Star Wars Racer Revenge are both available on the PlayStation Store at the time of this article’s publishing, along with NES original Super Star Wars. So far, no other projects related to Delta Squad have been announced, but the timing of the remaster is certainly suspicious. Especially considering Lucasfilm is about to take another high-profile deep dive into the world of Clone Troopers.

    Source: Twitter

  • UPDATE: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ To Premiere on May the 4th

    UPDATE: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ To Premiere on May the 4th

    UPDATE: It looks Collider was indeed right after all since less than two hours after the initial news came out, LucasFilm confirmed the May 4 release date for the upcoming series.

    On StarWars.com there was further information regarding the release schedule. It was made clear that the unusual release day (for Disney+), a Tuesday, is due to the fact that May 4 is, as we all know, Star Wars Day. The following episodes will be released on Fridays as The Mandalorian, with the first one being made available on May 7th.

    Source: StarWars.com

     

    According to Collider, The Star Wars Clone Wars spin-off The Bad Batch is now set for a May 4th premiere on Disney+. However that same report ended up getting deleted shortly after, and the link is no longer available. Luckily, The Direct was able to quote the article before it got taken down, announcing a May 4 release date. Announced in July 2020, the animated series will follow the Clone Force 99, which is also known as the titular Bad Batch. They were the focus of The Clone Wars‘ last season’s first storyline. It will take place in the post-Clone Wars era, which will see the uniquely skilled clones take on mercenary work as they transition into a new life. It was during Disney’s Investor Day back in December that when we found out that the series will premiere in 2021. They also released the first footage, so we were hotly anticipating the actual release date.

     

     

    The Bad Batch is yet another Disney+ exclusive that will expand the Star Wars franchise after The Mandalorian‘s success. If this debut date proves true, it looks like the streaming service is experimenting with different release schedules for its shows since both The Mandalorian and WandaVision was released on Fridays. The animated show would then break the mold with a Tuesday premiere as the service starts to expand, showing us that Disney is looking for ways to release multiple episodes every week without them cannibalizing each other. The May 4th release would set The Bad Batch to premiere right before Black Widow hits theaters and a couple of weeks before Loki will have its first episode made available. It will be interesting to see if the release of Collider’s article was just an accident or if it was released early, ahead of a scheduled official announcement.

    Source: Collider via The Direct

  • RUMOR: Mena Massoud is the Front Runner to Play Live-Action Ezra Bidger

    RUMOR: Mena Massoud is the Front Runner to Play Live-Action Ezra Bidger

    A Kessel Run Transmissions report has been released that places Aladdin‘s Mena Massoud as the main choice to play Star Wars Rebels‘ Ezra Bridger in the upcoming Ahsoka Tano live-action series. This series will continue where Ahsoka’s The Mandalorian cameo left off, with Ahsoka searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn as he is the one who may lead her to Ezra after he disappeared in the animated show’s finale. Mena Massoud has worked with Disney before in the aforementioned Aladdin, so it seems Disney should be pretty sure about their choice to play the Lothal native.

     

     

    Besides Rosario Dawson who will be playing the titular character, this is the first major casting news regarding the show, one of the two The Mandalorian spin-offs, the other being Rangers of the New Republic. The show was announced during the Disney Investor Day on December 10, 2020, and will be developed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. If they are already casting the show’s main characters, it could be a sign that they are already eyeing a production start. Star Wars may try to replicate Marvel Studios’ formula of releasing a new show so that most of the year is filled with content. We could also see them switch between each show to better spread it out throughout the year. Either way, Massoud would be an amazing choice to play the iconic character from the Rebels animated series. It could also be a clue that we might get some casting information on Admiral Thrawn in the coming months.

    Source: Kessel Run Transmissions

  • UPDATE: Disney Will Not Recast Gina Carano’s Cara Dune

    UPDATE: Disney Will Not Recast Gina Carano’s Cara Dune

    UPDATE: The moment we dropped the news, it seems that THR has updated their article and states that they won’t be recasting Cara Dune moving forward.

     

    Source: THR, DiscussingFilm

     

    It was only a week ago that Disney fire The Mandalorian star Gina Carano from her role in the galaxy far, far away. It came after months of scrutiny from fans. Carano has been divisive due to her questionable social media posts. The final straw for Disney was an Instagram post that many viewed as anti-semitic, but the former MMA fighter maintains it was a call for unity. Whatever the case may be, the future of Cara Dune is in doubt. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Carano was to headline a Disney+ spin-off series. As such, their insiders claim they are considering a recast of Cara Dune for a story and merchandising reasons.

    Initially, it seemed as though we’d seen the last of Dune. After a recurring role over two seasons led her character to the ranks of New Republic officer, it did not appear that any future appearances were vital to the series’ plot. However, the news that Disney is considering a recast would indicate that they have big plans, which may correlate with the recently announced Mandalorian spin-off Rangers of the New Republic. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Carano was supposed to be part of the Disney Investor’s Day roll-out that revealed the show to the public. However, the backlash over previous Twitter comments led to her getting booted from the event. If Carano was to play a role as Dune in any of the projects announced that day, New Republic would have been the one that made the most sense.

    Hasbro has halted the production of Cara Dune-based toys. Even Amazon has removed almost all of its merchandise for the character. A recast would most likely allow the companies to salvage some of the potential losses from any toys they’re currently unable to sell with a new face and re-branding. There are no details given if Carano also gains a licensing fee for their use of her image through the toys, so there might be some legal discussions are happening behind the scenes. It will be interesting to see how it develops as Star Wars rolls out their future Disney+ slate.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Rian Johnson’s ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Still in Development

    Rian Johnson’s ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Still in Development

    Star Wars has entered a new era. After the new trilogy has ended, the franchise tested new forms of storytelling with its first Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. Its success led to the announcement of a slew of various titles that will premiere on the streaming service. Among them, we got the reveal of a live-action Ahsoka Tano show. They also revealed two brand new films, an unnamed project by Taika Waititi and Rogue Squadron by Patty Jenkins. However, there was one absent film announcement. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was originally going to work on a spin-off trilogy, yet we haven’t heard anything about it in a long time. Many believed it could have been canceled as Johnson moved on to working on the Knives Out franchise. Plus, Disney seems to have a stronger focus on its streaming service moving forward. USA Today’s Sariah Wilson took to Twitter to confirm that he is still actually working on it.

    https://twitter.com/sariahwilson/status/1361502613728948230

    It seems that he is getting the time he needs to iron out the details. We never got any insight into what his trilogy would explore. The Star Wars franchise has many histories to draw from, may it be the Old Republic or explore the galaxy after Rey defeated Palpatine. There have been some discussions on his take on the iconic franchise. Either way, if he has full freedom to tackle his take on an overarching storyline in a galaxy far far away, he could offer a unique story that we haven’t seen yet in this galaxy. I would love to see more of the daily life of Stormtroopers. The Mandalorian offered us a look at the potential of exploring stories beyond the Jedi that we’ve come to know and love. 

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘WandaVision’ Takes the Top Viewing Spot Worldwide

    ‘WandaVision’ Takes the Top Viewing Spot Worldwide

    Disney+ has seen astounding growth throughout its first year. It already surpassed 90 million viewers, which was originally meant to be the streaming service’s four-year prediction. It is impressive if you consider that the only real high IP that was provided for the service was The Mandalorian‘s two seasons. Last month’s release of WandaVision did make people wonder if the first Marvel Studios’ original series would continue the service’s growth. Well, according to Parrot Analytics, the series has become the number one series worldwide.

    The interesting aspect is that the show didn’t start as the most popular show. It seems the initial three episodes kept it between the seventh and the 35th spot. Once the third episode hit, it skyrocketed up to the third or second spot. Ever since the major twist at the end of the fifth episode, it has officially taken the number one spot and hasn’t left it since the episode aired. It shows the relevance of the weekly release model. Wade Payson-Denney, an analyst of Parrot Analytics, points out the difference between Disney+ and Netflix’s binge strategy:

    They really pop up at first but quickly trail off. It’s a quick hit for these streamers. Whereas with weekly release, we see popularity gradually build over time, especially for a show like The Mandalorian and WandaVision

    The Mandalorian actually didn’t peak until its season finale, as it just saw a continuous growth since its initial episodes. WandaVision still has three more weeks to go, so it is sure to stick to that top spot before Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes over in March. Netflix’s focus on releasing their shows in one burst means they have an early peak but fizzle out fast. It’ll be interesting to make a comparison between the Marvel shows. The next two shows will have shorter runtimes of six episodes, which may go through a faster viewer cycle. As Payson-Denney points out, these shows remain in the conversation longer and are able to grow their audience as a result of everyone sharing their viewing experiences and theories online. It’ll be interesting to see how far WandaVision goes in the coming weeks.

    Source: Forbes

  • Disney+ Surpassed 90 Million Subscribers Even Before ‘WandaVision’ Released

    Disney+ Surpassed 90 Million Subscribers Even Before ‘WandaVision’ Released

    Disney+ has proven to be quite the powerhouse in the streaming wars. As of January 2nd, the subscription service has reached a new record high subscription number with 94.9 million. It has risen by 8 million in just one month, as it was at around 86.8 million the last time we got an update on it. As such, its growth already surpassed the service’s original prediction of 90 million in four years. It is a massive win after Disney has announced a slew of brand new originals heading to the service throughout 2021. The release of The Mandalorian’s second season and Pixar’s Soul were essential boosters in the last months. Especially the latter, which dominated streaming numbers during Christmas. These numbers also don’t include the subscribers gained after they released the first Marvel Studios original series, WandaVision.

    The streaming service has seen substantial growth that is not going to slow down anytime soon. Variety does point out that 30% of its subscribers are through India and Indonesia’s Disney+ Hotstar subscription model, which comes at a lower price. They are also about to launch the STAR brand in selected markets. So, the service will see a slight increase in the pricing in those regions. Still, In the latest financial meeting, they stated that they aren’t expecting profitability until 2024, but the current increase is still impressive. It’ll be interesting to see if WandaVision managed to push the subscription beyond the milestone of 100 million. Marvel Studios plans to release around six shows this year, so they will certainly see an increase over the coming months. December will also kick-off with the first The Mandalorian spin-off that is certain to draw in some attention. 2021 is going to be a big year for the service and an indicator how fast its growth will continue in its second year.

    Source: Variety, Forbes