After making her first live-action appearance in Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano is now the focus of a brand new Disney+ series, starting Rosario Dawson as the former padawan of Anakin Skywalker.
According to a recent report from The New York Times there would be a “significant expansion of the Star Wars universe” and this confirmation is a big part of that.
In the latest episode of The Mandalorian, Chapter 14 ” The Tragedy”, Grogu and Mando arrived on Tython immediately. Grogu got to the seeing stone to do his Jedi business and then Slave I arrived, distracting Din Djarin and taking his attention away from Grogu. After a bit of a standoff with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, he teams up with them to fight off Stormtroopers that were sent by Moff Gideon. While all of this is happening, Grogu is by himself and gets taken by the Dark Troopers back to Gideon. The Razor Crest was blown up, giving Din only one option: to go with Boba and Fennec. He starts trying to form a team with Cara Dune and is on his way to Miggs Mayfield when the episode ends.
Last season, Miggs and Mando went on a mission together, Mayfield backstabbed Mando but Mando turned it around and left him locked up in prison. Mayfield may not want to work with him given what happened the last time they saw each other. If Miggs joins the team, he may not be the final piece. We’ve met some other characters along the way who would be perfect additions to the Grogu Rescue Squad. Among those he might call on for help are:
There are also a couple of other characters from Chapter 6 who could come back and help if it gets them a Get Out of Jail Free card.
I don’t think Ashoka will be back for the team. Bringing a former Jedi back on the team might make the fight for Grogu a little unfair and a little less exciting. I would believe they will set it up so he wants her to be on the team but can’t find her, sidelining her for this episode. It’s most likely that Bo-Katan will join the Grogu Rescue Squad because it gets her close to achieving her goal of reacquiring the Darksaber.
I also think that like last season, it will take 2 episodes to resolve the conflict and to retrieve Grogu. Will the Grogu Rescue Squad leave in one piece? I don’t think so.
Chapter 15 of The Mandalorian will stream tomorrow.
2020 has been quite an unconventional year, to say the least. Especially if you’re a big Hollywood studio. Movies and movie studios have taken a heavy hit this year with the pandemic forcing theaters worldwide to shut down. As time went on, some studios tried to return to a sense of normality by reopening some theaters and distributing their movies there. Others adapted and tried a more “direct-to-streaming” PVoD approach with their films. But no matter the case, it’s forced some studios to delay their projects and production slates. But now, we’ll able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, as the Walt Disney Company will hold its virtual Investor Day tomorrow.
Disney’s Investor Day is this particular event where Disney gathers its assets and fellow production companies to discuss their current status and what’s ahead for the company either next year (2021) or in the foreseeable future. Now last year, Disney focused its Investor Day on its “Comprehensive Direct-to-Consumer Strategy”, giving presentations for Disney+, Hulu, Hotstar, ESPN+ and of course, they also discussed how Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic fit into their program at the time. That presentation lasted for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. This year, it is expected that they will follow suit to last year and discuss the future of Disney+ in a presentation that is expected to last a total of 4 hours. Deadline has also confirmed that they will announce “new projects from Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar that will encompass TV as well as theatrical.”
We can expect Disney to shed some light on exactly how well the streaming platform did for its first year of service since debuting on November 12th last year. As of September of 2020, Disney+ had gained a net total of 73.7 million subscribers, and that number is before Disney+ was made available in Latin America, so we expect that number of subscribers to grow by the time the event rolls around tomorrow. Not only that, but we can also expect Disney+ to make some expansion announcements tomorrow, specifically to Southeast Asia. Twitter User @DrewsClues found this very interesting information, with Disney making a search in Southeast Asia, hiring personnel for Disney+ in Southeast Asia.
https://twitter.com/drewsclues/status/1335442360667426817?s=21
We might see Disney officially confirm projects that were originally slated to release in theaters shift to Disney+. Some of those projects include the likes of Cruella, and the live-action remakes of Peter Pan and Pinocchio.
We may also hear announcements of possible Disney live-action remakes that may be making our way to the big screen soon, as well as possible announcements to future Disney+ original shows. Speaking of Disney+…
We all know of Disney’s experiment with Mulan and Premier Access from way back when in September and it seems the experiment really took off. Let’s take a look at what Bob Iger had to say regarding Premier Access during their Q4 2020 Earnings Results Webcast back in November:
Based off on what we’re reading, it seems that those ideas of Premier Access being a “one-off” are certainly untrue and that we can expect more titles to be released on Premier Access. However, I find it possible that Disney might consider reducing the price tag on the films they might release under their platform considering the reception Mulan received. Now, what titles could Disney release under the brand? There’s a number of potential candidates that could be released via this format as a way to compete with Warner’s decision to push their entire 2021 slate to HBO Max.
Joseph Aberl could probably tell you more about this project than I can but one of the most exciting parts of this upcoming Investor Day is the announcement of a new section in Disney+ called “Disney+ Star.” Now, Disney+ Star is rumored to essentially be a section of Disney+ that’s more focused on adult content and that it will require a pin code to access such content. We might see the addition of films from some of the companies Disney managed to purchase in recent years such as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, A&E, and more. To read more on that, feel free to check out Joseph’s article on Disney+ Star.
As we mentioned earlier in the article, Deadline confirmed that we can expect announcements regarding new projects from Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar that will encompass TV as well as theatrical. So let’s start with Marvel Studios. Right now, Marvel Studios has been extremely silent and rightfully so. It is the first time since 2009 that we go an entire year without a Marvel Studios production. The entire Phase 4 slate has seen a bit of mix up these past few months, with a lot of projects currently left up in the air without an official date. Now that the pandemic is starting to lift the pressure off studios and we see the light at the end of the tunnel, with the rollout of vaccines across the world, it might be a good time for Marvel to set some of its dates in stone.
As of today, these are ALL of the projects Marvel Studios has OFFICIALLY announced, and before the pandemic, most of their production and premiere dates were all set in stone. But since the pandemic, a lot of these projects were forced to delay their releases, with no official dates in sight outside of WandaVision, which premieres on January 15th, and Black Widow which premieres in May. Notice how originally, Black Widow was meant to kick off Phase 4 but with the pandemic forcing its delay, it pushed WandaVision to the front of the line. We may expect to see some new dates set for these films and perhaps a slight shift here and there.
With WandaVision set to debut on January 15th, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Loki finally having completed filming, and the animated What If? show well into nonstop production since its announcement, 2021 is completely stacked in terms of Marvel Studios content for Disney+ shows. Now that nearly all of these projects are pretty much completed in production it might be a good time to present investors (and fans) with another trailer for the upcoming WandaVision show. We believe that Marvel has been setting up a sort of countdown in these past few days with some posters for WandaVision so be sure to check out that theory piece. It’ll also be a good time for Marvel to give us our first trailers for shows like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki, and the animated What If?. I also expect Feige to give us an update on shows like Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel, which just started production as well as the upcoming Moon Knight and She-Hulk series, starring Oscar Issac and Tatiana Maslany respectively.
Charles Murphy had taken up the task of creating an incredible article about what to expect from the future of the MCU and when to expect it, so do be sure to check that out! But back at the matter at hand, it is likely that Marvel might also take the time to announce some projects, some that we already know of like the Nick Fury Disney+ show. Marvel might also take the time to address some of the Disney+ rumors of characters that might join the MCU via these types of shows like Ironheart, S.W.O.R.D., Secret Warriors, and Ghost Rider.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news as of late, you might have noticed that multiple trades and blogs have been dropping Marvel news these past few months regarding the MCU films such as Kang the Conqueror being confirmed for Ant-Man 3, Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder, and the massive bombshell that dropped yesterday regarding Spider-Man 3 with the castings of Alfred Molina, Andrew Garfield, Kirsten Dunst and the rumors of Tobey Maguire and Emma Stone joining the film for what seems to be a live-action iteration of the Spider-Verse. We’ve discussed the possibility of Marvel making the move to push Black Widow to a possible hybrid release both in theaters and Disney+ via its Premier Access service. AND not only that but Marvel has yet to address any details regarding films like Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Blade, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool 3, and so on. Whether or not Kevin Feige takes the opportunity to announce any details regarding any of these projects remains to be seen, but I at least find it unlikely.
Apart from Marvel Studios, we also expect Lucasfilm to announce some of its upcoming slate as well. They might tout some of the massive success that the second season of the Mandalorian has generated and will discuss what might be in store for the future of the show as well. Our very own João Pinto had also taken up the task of creating an incredible article about what to expect from the future of Star Wars and when to expect it, so do be sure to check that out! In there, we discuss A TON of goodies that Lucasfilm might discuss tomorrow. Among those are the series focused on Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Bad Batch. We also might get the confirmation of series that have been rumored to be in development for some time, such as a show focused on Bo-Katan as well as a show around Ahsoka Tano. And of course, there is the possibility that Kathleen Kennedy might possibly discuss the future of the Star Wars films as well, so we’ll have to stay tuned for that one.
We are also expected to take a peek at what Pixar has been working on behind the scenes in terms of future animated films (and possibly even series). They may discuss the upcoming movie Soul, which is expected to be released on Disney+ this coming December 25th, as well as discussing their upcoming project, Luca.
Encouraged by the information that a lot of people spend a lot of time listening to us talk, Charles and Charles decided to record another episode! Here we talk all about Hawkeye, which recently started filming in NYC, what Hailee Steinfeld means for the future of the MCU, Boba’s badassery in the latest episode of The Mandalorian and more!
With the number of characters introduced in its second season, it’s fair to say that everything is fair game when you’re theorizing about The Mandalorian‘s upcoming episodes. But what this season has also shown us is that by the end of it there won’t be a single episode from season one that you could skip without missing something crucial to the overarching storyline. This means that not only do the most obvious story elements tend to come back in some way but that even the smaller details gain importance throughout the show.
We’ve already written how the focus given in Chapter 13 to how beskar can deal with lightsabers obviously wasn’t innocent. We got two fights where that became clear, and so audiences are now feeling that Mando’s armor is almost impervious to almost whatever Moff Gideon throws at it. But we’ve also mentioned why Gideon’s Darksaber might be able to slice through beskar and now Chapter 14 might have given us another hint on how the final confrontation between Din Djarin’s posse and Moff Gideon’s troopers might unfold. We were deprived of something that, had it not been left out, might have diminished the impact of that final fight and that was seeing the Dark Troopers in battle.
We know that beskar became highly sought after by Mandalorians after the Empire took most of it, as spoils of war, after the Great Purge. We also know that Empire operatives are still holding on to great amounts of the Mandalorian alloy. With the metal at hand, it would make sense that someone like Moff Gideon, who is highly knowledgeable of Mandalorian culture and weaponry, would make use of a material with such unique properties when building himself his own Dark Trooper unit.
In the previous episode, Din Djarin managed to defeat the Magistrate’s assassin droids with a single shot, showing us how droids can still be fairly easily killed. But had Mando and Fennec Shand reached the top of the mountain in time to engage beskar-armored Dark Troopers, we might have seen how their blasters wouldn’t harm them. And that is something that wasn’t really needed for Chapter 14, as Grogu being kidnapped was enough anguish for the moment. Leaving such a revelation to the last two episodes will make Mando’s situation even worse than expected, which will only make his expected retrieval of Grogu even more cathartic.
UPDATE: It looks like Star Wars’ Obi-Wan series isn’t heading to Boston, Massachusetts after all. They were right about Boston, but it will be the one that is 100 miles north of London. They are set to film in the capital of the United Kingdom as well.
Source: CBS Boston
Around four months ago, we shared the news that Star Wars untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi is slowly starting production. They weren’t quite ready to film but started preparing set pieces for whatever locations the famous Jedi might end up visiting. It looks like they are finally ready to film, as news broke that the Disney+ series is eyeing January 4th to start its production in Boston. Ewan McGregor is set to return as the titular character, as it takes place at some point in time after the events of Revenge of the Sith. So far, no official name has been given, but it looks like Star Wars: Kenobi might become the official title, as is stated in the Production List. It also includes the following project summary:
Tatooine-a harsh desert world where farmers toil in the heat of two suns while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones from the marauding Tusken Raiders. A backwater planet on the edge of civilized space. And an unlikely place to find a Jedi Master in hiding or an orphaned infant boy on whose tiny shoulders rests the future of a galaxy.
It is rather interesting that they are going to film in Boston. We have no details on the story, so the city could become the backdrop for a futuristic city in space. The description focuses heavily on Tatooine, but it looks like Kenobi might travel quite a bit throughout the series. There is also a chance that some sequences also take place in flashbacks, where we see Kenobi’s life on Coruscant. Various sources are going around teasing the series story, such as a conflict between Kenobi and a former Clone Trooper. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get our hands on set photos that offer a tease of what the show might have in store for us.
Source: FTIA via CBS Boston
Star Wars has been introducing a brand new era that has yet to be explored, the High Republic. The new series was unveiled alongside a bunch of comics and books that will explore a time where the Jedi Knights had to face a threat that may change the Force as they know it. We haven’t heard any official word if they would also start adapting the new era in other mediums, as it primarily was called a publishing project. Unlike The Mandalorian and other Star Wars franchises, this takes place a couple of hundred years before the events of the films. So, they don’t have to adapt the storylines to fit within the existing timeline. It offers creators more freedom than before, which would make it a perfect era to adapt as a film or TV series.
Cinelinx has heard rumblings that there are plans to adopt the new era in live-action and animation. Lucasfilms has seen quite the success in the medium after The Clone Wars and Rebels. There is even a spin-off for The Bad Batch planned to release at one point. There were rumors of other animated projects being in development, so this is our first real hint that they aren’t just focused on live-action moving forward. There is a good chance that this show won’t enter production for quite some time, as they might focus on getting the High Republic branding out first. Hopefully, we might get an official announcement in the future that showcases the various shows and films that are planned. We still have no idea what the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cassian Andor series will be officially titled. So, maybe Lucasfilm will give us an overview soon, or at least during Disney’s Investor’s Day.
Iron Studios held one of their panels at the virtual event CCXP Worlds: A Journey of Hope. There they discussed what kind of collectibles they are cooking up for next year. The panel, hosted by Marcelo Bassoli and Renan Pizii, kicked off the show with a look at their brand new Mandalorian collectible figure, which also includes Grogu in his pod from the first season.
During the panel, the team at Iron Studios talked about the future of the Star Wars collectibles. They seem to be looking into capturing moments that haven’t happened yet, or we have yet to see in the franchise, such as Lando Calrissian on Tatooine. They also mentioned Obi-Wan on the famous sand planet, so they might be hinting at the upcoming untitled Kenobi show for Disney+. The panel then shifted towards Marvel and Marvel Studios’ collectibles. Now before the panel even started, they teased the future slate of films that would be coming in 2021 by presenting the logos for Spider-Man, Venom: Let there be Carnage, Eternals, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi.
Not only did they tease the upcoming Marvel film salte, but they also talked a lot about how Iron Studios would be involved with developing collectibles for the Disney+ series. They echoed the words of Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige that fans will have to follow the movies and the Disney+ series for this upcoming phase of the MCU. They will be making collectibles based on all of the Disney+ shows before showcasing the various logos once more.
Iron Studios teased that they have already 3 new collectible figures created for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but that they are still not allowed to show them. It’ll most likely be figures of Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and Baron Zemo. As for WandaVision, they gave us a brand new look at Wanda and Vision’s comic-accurate costumes for the series from the Halloween episode.
Notice the WandaVision icon at the bottom of the statues with the combined W and V. They did repeat a few words about the series that we already heard before. Marcelo and Renan talked about how the Disney+ series will be something we’ve never seen before from the MCU in terms of visuals and storytelling. They also mentioned that they’re going to be working on new concepts for Vision and Wanda, as everything we’ll see was created from Wanda’s imagination. This is a surprise reveal, as it once again confirms that most of the events throughout the series will be the result of Wanda’s vision. Alongside this announcement, they confirmed that more figures are being developed based on the Infinity Saga.
In the eight years since Disney bought Lucasfilm, there have been several projects developed under the Star Wars brand. The three movies making up the Sequel Trilogy (S.T.) were naturally the ones that received the most attention, even though their reception wasn’t exactly at the level Disney probably foreseen. Solo also had a few problems of its own that perhaps hindered its final result, the directorial change mid-production being the more prominent one. In what live-action is concerned, this leaves us with both Rogue One and The Mandalorian.
Gareth Edwards‘ movie also had to endure some issues, mostly script related, but it ended up being very well-received. It was a movie with a very predictable end and, unlike Solo and the S.T., introduced characters that the audience had no previous connection to. Apart from the enormous quality in several departments, one of the things Rogue One did very well was a certain something The Mandalorian is also succeeding in, and that “Chapter 14: The Tragedy” made abundantly clear. They both manage to make previous installments of the franchise better movies.
Rogue One made us want to dive straight into A New Hope again after the initial chase sequence offered us a chance to look at the original film with new eyes, re-evaluating character motivations and their attitudes. The Mandalorian takes it to a whole new level and offers the perfect type of fan service. The addition of previously established characters, such as Boba Fett, rewards long-time fans while also expanding the story and the characters themselves. All fan services should aspire to take this route. We have now found a new appreciation for the bounty hunter, a character that weirdly was often both under and overappreciated, with little to justify either end of the spectrum.
Now, we finally know more about both his and Jango’s past. We saw him kicking some ass instead of just being pushed by accident into a Sarlacc Pit. It explained why his allegiance wasn’t with Mandalore or the Mandalorian way, even as he has strong ties to his Beskar armor. It showcased that he values his past and how it connects to his present-day dealings. The Mandalorian has now added a little more weight to Fett’s enduring appreciation, making both Attack of the Clones, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi better movies, at least on what concerns the mythic bounty hunter.
As we near the end of the season, it’s now time for The Mandalorian to stick the landing. This season has managed to bring fans together in a way few Star Wars projects have done in the past. It managed to draw in people from all mediums and ages. It’s a thing of beauty to see how Star Wars has managed to reinvent itself while bringing the most valued aspects of its past along for the ride in a meaningful way, by expanding on them at a time most wanted to leave such things behind. And the final two episodes will most certainly double-down on this.
