It may be just four months or so away, but much of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, remains shrouded in mystery. But after we got a very broad teaser that leaned more on Star Wars familiarity than telling us what’s up with our titular heroes, people would’ve expected that our next look at the film would at least give us a little more of an inkling about what’s pulling Din and his ward back into the fight. But don’t expect that just yet.
During the Super Bowl, Lucasfilm released the latest teaser for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Set after the events of the streaming series’ third season, the movie follows up on Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and the youngling Grogu after their retirement to Navarro in the wake of the re-liberation of Mandalore, and Din’s newest job working as a freelance agent of the burgeoning New Republic. This teaser, however? It’s still vibes, it’s just this time it’s in the snow.
The new teaser comes after practically months of silence since the initial trailer, a tactic that The Mandalorian is more than familiar with, maintaining an air of secrecy for as much as possible in the run-up to each season’s debut on Disney+. Even as the new film draws even closer, it looks like we’re still going to have to wait and see what makes this film worth heading out to theaters for instead of a fourth season on Disney+.
The Mandalorian and Grogu, which also stars Sigourney Weaver as New Republic officer Colonel Ward, and Jeremy Allen White as Clone Wars character Rotta the Hutt, hits theaters May 22.
This year, after a nearly seven-year hiatus, Star Wars returns to the big screen. It’s the third-largest window ever between live-action films in the franchise, with the two longer ones being the 16 years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace and the 10 years between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens.However, this latest wait feels wildly different, and it made us wonder, is there a correct, tried-and-true amount of time that should pass between Star Wars movies?
To put the current seven-year wait in context, we must look to the past. The reason those two longer windows were so long is that, in both cases, Star Wars was basically over. After Jedi, and again after Sith, George Lucas all but closed the book on the story. This time, though, that wasn’t the case.
In 2019, The Rise of Skywalker may have been the end of “The Skywalker Saga,” but no one considered it the end of Star Wars. Everyone knew it was coming back. It was just a question of when. So even though seven years is shorter than 16 and 10, it somehow carries more weight. Between Jedi and Phantom, as well as Sith and Force Awakens, people surely continued to talk about Star Wars, but it was more aspirational and hypothetical than anything else.
Part of that is because it’s what fans had become used to. During the times of both the original and prequel trilogies, waiting and debating Star Wars movies was the name of the game. Three years passed between the first, second, and third films of each trilogy, giving the filmmakers time to make the movies and fans to wildly obsess over them. That got taken up another level in the years leading up to The Phantom Menace, especially with the advent of the internet. And yet, Lucasfilm still waited three years between each movie even then, which let audiences sit with one film as they anxiously awaited the other.
The anticipation surrounding Star Wars was arguably the best part of Star Wars. Then Disney came on board.
The beginning of The Force Awakens. – Lucasfilm
Starting with the release of 2015’s The Force Awakens, fans got five Star Wars films in five years. And, while most of them had a full year in between, in the case of Solo, it was a mere six months. Two new Star Wars movies six months apart. It’s still unfathomable. And that time crunch took a lot of the fun out of it. Rumors, trailers, magazine features, all of it was so condensed and homogenized that it lost its luster. It was so much Star Wars so fast that excitement, understandably and inevitably, began to wane. So, by the time The Rise of Skywalker came out, we were a little burned out. That the movie failed to meet expectations didn’t help either.
Of course, that was just the beginning. After The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars didn’t stop. It pivoted to a whole new medium. Beginning with the late 2019 release of The Mandalorian, Star Wars became a streaming franchise. Now, in addition to not having to wait too long, we didn’t even have to leave our house. No lining up. No advanced tickets. No communal experience at all. Just new Star Wars, every few months, in a bubble. And it was a lot of Star Wars.
Between 2019 and today, Lucasfilm released seven live-action shows, with 10 seasons between them, as well as six animated shows with about 18 seasons between them. (And that’s not even counting new episodes of The Clone Wars.) New Star Wars had become as regular as breathing, and, with that, some of the magic has gone away.
The Mandalorian and Grogu – Lucasfilm
Which brings us to this year. In May, The Mandalorian and Grogu will become the first Star Wars movie released since 2019. Then, next year, it’ll be followed up by Star Wars: Starfighter. We can all agree that seven years is too long for what is essentially just another random chapter to the story. But we can probably also agree that after seven years, suddenly getting two seemingly unrelated, standalone films in back-to-back years is falling back into that dangerous old pattern. Maybe these two films, especially if they’re good, will make it work this time. Maybe seven years of waiting gives them success like The Force Awakens and Rogue One. But maybe it doesn’t.
And, with new leadership now in control of Lucasfilm, the franchise is reportedly pivoting back to being a primarily theatrical experience. We would be very surprised if a movie a year doesn’t once again become the norm. It would almost have to, especially with nearly a dozen movies in various stages of development.
So what’s the magic number? Is there a magic number? Well, three years seemed perfect, but we don’t think that’s happening again. One year, on the other hand, is probably too often. Can Disney and Lucasfilm really afford to wait two years between Star Wars movies? Probably not. But, we think, it would be a good thing in the long run.
Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as president of Lucasfilm. Although she will continue as a producer for several Star Wars projects, including upcoming movie The Mandalorian and Grogu, the company will now be helmed by a duo in Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. It’s a big changing of the guard for Star Wars fans, and marks the start of a fresh chapter for the sci-fi universe.
Before taking over at Lucasfilm, Kennedy had seen great success as a producer with a couple little films you may have heard of: E.T. and Jurassic Park. She became Lucasfilm’s president in 2012 when the company was acquired by Disney. At that point, it had been several years since the last Star Wars movie; Revenge of the Sith closed out the generally panned prequel trilogy in 2005. Fans’ best option for Star Wars content was The Clone Wars, a standalone film and animated series which were well-regarded but primarily popular among the hardcore devotees rather than reaching the widespread cultural relevance of the prior feature films.
During Kennedy’s tenure, Star Wars returned to the big screen with The Force Awakens in 2015. Although that J.J. Abrams-led trilogy was also a roller coaster for many fans, it marked a renaissance for the franchise. Lucasfilm embarked on two standalone movies in Rogue One and Solo, which generated yet more buzz and more money for the company. Star Wars got the full cinematic universe treatment, with critically acclaimed live-action television projects and several new video games. The world fell in love with Baby Yoda. Ewan McGregor finally got to don his Obi-Wan Kenobi robe in a better vehicle. The franchise was back in the mainstream, with the budgets and expectations of media behemoth Disney at its back. No matter your feelings on the current state of Star Wars, it’s an impressive accomplishment by Kennedy and a big legacy that she leaves behind at Lucasfilm.
So now that Lucasfilm has arguably ended this phase on a high note, what’s next? Dave Filoni moving into the top spot isn’t much of a surprise. He’s long been seen by fans and seemingly by the company as George Lucas’ spiritual successor. Filoni was also the showrunner on The Clone Wars back in the day and has been involved in some capacity with many of the recent TV series, most notably The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. All that history means his new role of President and Chief Creative Officer is pretty expected, and the Star Wars faithful likely feel that they are in good hands.
As the title implies, Filoni will be responsible for the artistic side of the operation, while as Co-President, Lynwen Brennan will be in charge of the business side. Brennan may be a less familiar name, but her tenure with Lucas’ businesses dates back to 1999 when she joined the legendary effects studio Industrial Light & Magic. Dividing the art and the commerce can yield good results if the two are able to find a good synergy. Star Wars has proven that it’s a moneymaker even when the films and series aren’t particularly well-received, but here’s hoping that Filoni and Brennan will each be able to maintain high standards for Lucasfilm and the Star Wars fandom.
It’s official. Kathleen Kennedy is leaving Lucasfilm. And, in a new interview talking about the decision, the producer offered updates on several Star Wars movies that may, or may not, be coming in the future.
“Jim Mangold and Beau Willimon wrote an incredible script, but it is definitely breaking the mold, and it’s on hold,” Kennedy told Deadline. “Taika [Waititi] has turned in a script that I think is hilarious and great. It’s not just my decision, especially when I’ve got a foot out the door. Donald Glover has turned in a script. And as you have read, Steve Soderbergh and Adam Driver turned in a script written by Scott Burns. It was just great. Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.”
Oddly, two films that Kennedy doesn’t mention are the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Rey movie and the Dave Filoni Heir to the Empire movie, both of which were announced along with Mangold’s film in 2023. That’s very, very discouraging.
More encouraging is what she has to say about Simon Kinberg’s new trilogy which, though being reworked, is still moving ahead. “[Kinberg] is working right now,” Kennedy said. “He wrote something that we read in August, and it was very good, but not there. We’ve pretty much upended the story, and then spent a great deal of time on the treatment, which he finished literally about four weeks ago. And it’s a very detailed treatment, like 70 pages. And so he is expected to give us something in March.”
So with The Mandalorian and Grogu coming out this year, and Star Wars: Starfighter (which Kennedy says was meant to be a standalone but could, potentially, be sequalized) out next year, what movie is coming next? It won’t be Kennedy’s call anymore, but there are additional thoughts. “Mangold’s is really on the back burner as is Soderbergh’s,” she said. “I think the ones by Taika and Donald are still somewhat alive. That’s going to really be up to the new team to figure out. I know that [new Lucasfilm heads] Dave [Filoni] and Lynwen [Brennan] are very much on board with what Simon’s doing, and that would be a new trilogy. In the timeline of things, that takes you well into 2030 plus. So that’s really what’s up next.”
It seems like it’s good news for fans of Taika Waititi and Donald Glover, but bad news for fans of James Mangold and Rey Skywalker. What do you make of the quotes?
“When we acquired Lucasfilm more than a decade ago, we knew we were bringing into the Disney family not only one of the most beloved and enduring storytelling universes ever created, but also a team of extraordinary talent led by a visionary filmmaker – someone who had been handpicked by George Lucas himself, no less,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a press release. “We’re deeply grateful for Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership, her vision, and her stewardship of such an iconic studio and brand.”
With Kennedy stepping down from Lucasfilm to focus on more general film production, her previous duties will now be split between the two Lucasfilm mainstays. Filoni, as President and Chief Creative Officer, will handle the more creative side, while Brennan, the longtime head of business at the company, will handle logistics. Her title is Co-President. Think of it sort of like things are being handled at DC Studios, with James Gunn handling creative and Peter Safran handling the more day-to-day things.
“When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead,” Kennedy said. “It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm. Their creativity and dedication have been an inspiration, and I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together. I’m excited to continue developing films and television with both longtime collaborators and fresh voices who represent the future of storytelling.”
Kennedy got her start as an assistant to Steven Spielberg and quickly established herself as a formidable creative force. Over the last 50 years or so, she produced many of the best and top-grossing films of all time, such as Gremlins, The Goonies, Poltergeist, Back to the Future, E.T., and the Indiana Jones series.
Lucasfilm founder and Star Wars creator George Lucas thought so highly of Kennedy that he hand-picked her to run Lucasfilm as he sold it to the Walt Disney Company in 2013. Since then, she’s been responsible for the successful relaunch of the franchise, both on the big screen and its new renaissance on streaming, too.
And though Kennedy will remain on board for a bit, overseeing The Mandalorian & Grogu, Star Wars: Starfighter, and more, all eyes now move to Filoni. Also a disciple of Lucas himself, Filoni made a name for himself with fresh, exciting storytelling in Star Wars animation before making the shift to live action. His success there hasn’t been quite as impressive, with many feeling he’s a bit too reliant on past stories and nostalgia rather than bold, forward choices. But few people on the planet know or understand Star Wars as he does.
“My love of storytelling was shaped by the films of Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas,” Filoni said. “I never dreamed I would be privileged to learn the craft of filmmaking from both of them. From Rey to Grogu, Kathy has overseen the greatest expansion in Star Wars storytelling onscreen that we have ever seen. I am incredibly grateful to Kathy, George, Bob Iger, and Alan Bergman for their trust and the opportunity to lead Lucasfilm in this new role, doing a job I truly love. May the Force be with you.”
Filoni is currently working on the second season of his show, Ahsoka, so don’t expect him to fully make the pivot for a while. Once he does, though, the movies and shows he puts into production will say a lot about how he views the future of Star Wars. There are certainly plenty of options on the table.
What do you think of Kennedy stepping down and putting in Filoni and Brennan? Let us know below.
The year 2025 was jam-packed with must-see genre entertainment. io9 covered an extensive range of pop culture across film and television, including major releases from Marvel Studios, DC Studios’ big Superman arrival, Netflix heavy hitters like Stranger Things, and awesome anime.
Beyond the screen, io9 kept you updated on the latest in theme parks and immersive experiences, as well as the latest in collectibles, toys, books, games, and comics.
To close out 2025, we’ve compiled our staff picks, highlighting our most treasured stories and sharp coverage that defined the world of genre entertainment this year.
The Director of Good Boy on Creating Horror From a Dog’s Point of View
By Cheryl Eddy
Most dog owners can recall at least one instance where their pup has reacted to a seemingly invisible presence. Are they picking up a sound pitched higher than our hearing? Sniffing out the memory of a dropped piece of food? Or perhaps… using their canine super-senses to detect something supernatural?
Good Boy, the feature debut of director and co-writer Ben Leonberg, takes that idea and runs with it, following Indy (played by Leonberg’s own dog) and his owner, Todd (Shane Jensen), as they move into the former home of Todd’s late grandfather. It’s a gloomy, dark, isolated place, and—as Indy soon realizes—it appears to be teeming with unquiet spirits. [Read more]
The Superman We Need Right Now: A Report From the Set of James Gunn’s New DC Film
By Germain Lussier
When Superman started kissing the football on a stick, it all clicked together. The day was June 24, 2024, and io9 was in Cleveland to watch the filming of James Gunn’s Superman. At the end of a giant battle over the streets of Metropolis, the Man of Steel knelt down to kiss and profess his love to an inanimate object that special effects would later transform into his dog, Krypto. That little dash of heartfelt weirdness, in the middle of a massive action scene, did a near-perfect job of showing what the film’s cast and crew had been trying to articulate all day: this is not just a unique, new Superman, it’s James Gunn’s Superman. [Read more]
In Sinners, Honesty Leads to Freedom
By Justin Carter
Sinners is the type of movie where nearly every scene could be considered a standout moment on a technical, writing, or performance level. For me, there’s two moments—one utterly sincere and raunchy, the other delightfully meta—that speak to one of the film’s core themes.
In the first, burgeoning blues guitarist Sammie (Miles Caton) is getting intimate with singer Pealine (Jayme Lawson) and proceeds to get on his knees. He’s about to employ the advice his older cousin Stack (Michael B. Jordan) gave to him about pleasuring a woman earlier in the film, and just as Pearline’s about to politely decline, Sammie looks up at her and says: “You’re beautiful, and I want to taste it.” He’s clearly taken with her, and says this with the earnestness of someone who believes in what he’s saying. [Read more]
What’s the Story Behind Tron: Ares? Our Report From the Set
By Germain Lussier
“I have to ride a lightcycle.” That was my first thought last year when the invite arrived to visit the set of Disney’s new sequel, Tron: Ares. It seemed like a logical request. When you think of Tron, you think of lightcycles. They’re a huge part of both 2010’s Tron: Legacy and 1982’s Tron. And yet, I had to wonder, were there even lightcycles in this movie? What exactly WAS this movie? Coming out 15 years after the last one, with basically a whole new cast, it seemed any concept of what the film could or would be was entirely up in the air. I had questions. I wanted answers. And, perhaps, a ride on that lightcycle. [Read more]
I Love the Moment That Everything Changes in Gundam GQuuuuuuX
By James Whitbrook
The latest entry in the Gundam franchise, GQuuuuuuX, is built around one of the most fascinating premises a mainline Gundam show has had in years. To get there, we’re asked to cast our minds back over 45 years to the original 1979 anime—and in doing so, we’re also asked to consider a pretty hilarious idea.
The vast majority of Gundam GQuuuuuuX—as covered in its prequel/compilation movie GQuuuuuuX Beginning, out in American theaters today for a limited run—is predicated around the fact that the show is in fact set in an alternate version of Gundam‘s “Universal Century” timeline. The primary timeline of the original Gundam and its direct successor series, among others in the franchise, GQuuuuuuX‘s version of events asks us to consider another outcome. What if the antagonistic forces of the original series, the secessionist space colony Zeon, actually managed to win the war against Earth? [Read more]
7 Reasons Why The Nightmare Before Christmas Is Not a Halloween Movie, 4 Reasons Why It Is
By Sabina Graves
Every year, it seems that Halloween creeps in earlier than before, and with it, its Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington.
Take the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland; it’s a haunted house with ghosts that, as soon as Halloweentime arrives at the Disneyland resort at the end of summer, becomes inhabited by Jack and the people of Halloweentown. However, they’re not there for Halloween; they’re there to make Christmas. There’s the rub, because the once cult and now very mainstream holiday staple from the mind of Tim Burton and director Henry Selick is about one holiday taking over another. [Read more]
Bryan Fuller Reveals the Inspirations for His Dark Fairytale Feature Debut
By Sabina Graves
He’s best known for his acclaimed genre TV shows, but Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) is making his feature film directorial debut with Dust Bunny, a coming-of-age storybook fantasy with his signature twist.
The film reunites the Hannibal series creator with star Mads Mikkelsen. He plays a hitman hired by a young girl named Aurora (Sophie Sloan), who wants his help to hunt the mysterious and monstrous Dust Bunny tormenting her apartment.
In a recent conversation with io9, Fuller talked about how the feature got the big screen treatment after previously being pitched as an episode of the Steven Spielberg-produced Amazing Stories series for Apple TV, and what it was like working on it with genre great Sigourney Weaver. The cult-fave creative mind also opened up about how he feels in regards to some of the projects he’s been attached to that have fallen through—as well as his excitement for a project yet to be announced. And yes, we even got a few details about his potential Silence of the Lambs limited series. [Read more]
Birds of Prey Deserved Its Full, Chaotic 15 Minutes of Fame
By Justin Carter
It always sucks when something that’s pretty good and was clearly well made just doesn’t hit the way it seems like it should’ve. This is particularly true when it comes to movies; think of a film you saw that was surprisingly enjoyable and how it didn’t really get a fair shake for whatever reason.
Plenty of examples come to mind for me, but one of the first is Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Originally released on February 7, 2020, under its initial (and funnier) title, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the film’s a bit of a tangled knot. You may remember it first seemed like a solo vehicle for Margot Robbie’s Harley post-Suicide Squad 2016, then somewhere along the line, it also may have become something for the popular, usually women-starring B-list superhero team, and then ended up being… kind of both? [Read more]
Castlevania: Nocturne Writers Talk Religion, Revolution, and Black Representation
By Isaiah Colbert
Castlevania: Nocturne returns with its second season on Netflix, sparking online discussions about video game references, animation enthusiasts sharing their favorite action clips, and Alucard babygirl posts in its wake. However, a new season also brings the resurgence of pearl-clutching and Gamergate-adjacent rhetoric concerning Black representation, which should be celebrated in the Powerhouse Animation series instead.
To address and preempt criticisms from those who deride the inclusion of Black characters in the video game series as “woke,” we talked to Black Castlevania: Nocturne writers Testament and Zodwa Nyoni, and executive producer Clive Bradley, about how they enriched Konami’s fantastical source material setting with real-world events and the Black experience. [Read more]
How Fionna and Cake Reflects the Legacy of Adventure Time
By Sabina Graves
Season two of Fionna and Cake has arrived on HBO Max, taking Adventure Time fans into a new world—and it’s one that’s finally established as its own universe, thanks to Prismo breaking the rules and making the Ice King’s fan fiction real.
The first season’s ending metatextually had Fionna and friends fight to make their world canon, and there’s now more to explore in its earned existence and how it might cross over into Adventure Time‘s Land of Ooo.
But don’t get the premise twisted, Fionna and Cake isn’t just fan service to sneak back into Adventure Time territory completely. In a conversation io9 had with producer Adam Muto, we discussed how the creative teams aim to make their beloved character variants stand on their own and, yes, sometimes stand with the legacy faces to take on new interdimensional threats. [Read more]
A Love Letter to Cobra Kai, One of the Greatest Sequels Ever
By Germain Lussier
When I first watched Cobra Kai, I stopped it five minutes in. This is a true story. I started the first episode and was so absolutely blown away by what I was seeing, I almost didn’t believe it was real. Since I was about five years old, I’d been a massive fan of The Karate Kid franchise, and here I was in my 30s watching the same actors from those movies tell this dynamic, awesome, follow-up story. There was no way this show was this good. It was impossible. [Read more]
Tony Gilroy Looks Back on Taking Shit Seriously in Andor
By James Whitbrook
Tony Gilroy is a man with a vision. That vision guided him from the extensive reshoots of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story all the way to a Disney+ series about one of that film’s heroes, Cassian Andor—and finding in it a critical acclaim unlike anything the galaxy far, far away had seen in a generation.
He’s also a very frank man who knows when that vision can potentially turn on a dime—as it did one day while filming the series in Scotland, when the writer, director, and showrunner realized that his grand plan for Andor wasn’t going to work. [Read more]
Andor‘s Tony Gilroy and Genevieve O’Reilly Break Down Mon Mothma’s Pivotal Dance
By Sabina Graves
During io9’s interview with showrunner Tony Gilroy and star Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, the duo broke down the last moments of the third episode of this week’s drop. Gilroy also discussed how framing these pivotal years as three-episode mini-movies came about. [Read more]
Andor‘s Finest Hours Just Delivered a Huge Gut Punch
By Sabina Graves
What it takes to sustain a rebellion is brought into question in this week’s episode arc of Andor, which covers what happens two years before the main events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the original Star Wars saga. Thematically it’s time for the rebels to figure out if they want to just fight or actually win, as tensions come to a head on Ghorman in what’s probably the most gut-wrenching watch of the series, and perhaps even Star Wars as a whole. [Read more]
Who Was Syril Karn?
By James Whitbrook
“Who are you?” is the question that haunts Syril Karn for his entire life. From the moment we met him, prim and proper security uniform modified to be just so, a sense of purpose in a vast and uncaring universe has been at the core of understanding what makes Syril tick. The journey that took him across the galaxy reached a climactic moment in Andor‘s penultimate arc this week, and raised that haunting question once more. But the answer is more complicated than mere villain in Andor‘s narrative, doubting or otherwise. Because even as the hero of his own story, the man we know Syril to be, until the very end, is shaped less by himself and more by the systems and structures that made a tool of him. [Read more]
They Just Gave Kleya a Goddamn Gun
By James Whitbrook
There’s a scene in the ninth episode of Andor‘s second season where Vel Sartha, inspecting a table full of requisitioned weaponry at the Rebellion’s Yavin base, picks up a blaster and asks whose it is. Except, that’s not what she asks, raising the pistol into the air in front of a crowd of new recruits. What she actually says is “Who belongs to this?”
I was thinking a lot about that line an episode later, when, as she infiltrates a hospital in a desperate attempt to end the life of the man who saved hers as a child, Kleya Marki, one of Andor‘s standout characters, slips a tiny blaster with one hell of a kick out of her purloined nurse’s scrubs and calmly executes an ISB tactical officer. And then does it again. And again. It’s the climactic, tense moment of an episode that builds up to this singular moment of emotional and dramatic release as she tearfully turns off Luthen’s life support. In many ways, Kleya’s whole life, one torn apart by the Empire, and rebuilt out of her hatred of it, is leading to this moment, and this moment of infiltration and execution is just the final flourish. [Read more]
Vinland Saga Creator Makoto Yukimura Looks Back on Writing His Pacifist Viking Epic
By Isaiah Colbert
Anime and, by proxy, manga are typically viewed through a lens where violence begets violence, and the only hero is one with attention-grabbing hairdos, the ability to power up, and the capacity to punch things even more brilliantly. Very rarely is the traditional hero’s journey, whether in shonen or its older brother genre, seinen, predicated on having its hero question the nature of violence as a catch-all solution, rather than a spoke that keeps the cycle spinning. Then again, not every manga series challenges that notion so brilliantly as Vinland Saga. [Read more]
Revolutionary Girl Utena Is as Lynchian as Shojo Anime Has Ever Been
By Isaiah Colbert
Over the years, critics and everyday people have come to identify media as “Lynchian,” in reverence for how video games, movies, and TV shows evoke the dream-like quality of the late auteur David Lynch. Although most media described as Lynchian takes its inspiration from seminal works like Twin Peaks through referential nods, no show completely embodies the ephemeral vibe of Lynch’s opaque-yet-piercing style of storytelling quite like the similarly influential shojo anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena. [Read more]
Deep Space Nine Understood the Fantasy of Spies—and Their Reality
By James Whitbrook
In just under a week, the next Star Trek project arrives in the form of Section 31, a streaming movie starring Michelle Yeoh diving into the titular black ops organization—one that, at least in all the footage we’ve seen so far, puts an emphasis on the glitz and glam of secret agent work. There’s action, there’s dazzling costumes, there’s even, perhaps most surprisingly in the context of it all, direct Federation oversight, like a co-worker with a stick up their ass who’s here to stop you from having fun. [Read more]
The Leftovers Is Still One of TV’s Great Miracles
By Cheryl Eddy
Losing a loved one brings pain no matter the circumstances. Not knowing what happened to them only adds more agony. That grief and confusion is what propels The Leftovers, but on a global scale—leading to three fascinating, thought-provoking, audacious, cigarette-filled, and often miraculous seasons of TV.
At the start of the first episode, it happens: two percent of the world’s population vanishes into thin air. The amount of missing isn’t huge, but it’s significant. The people who lost someone dear are personally wounded, but nobody escapes being touched in some way by the event, which leaves humanity with an infuriating array of mystical questions. Why did those who left get “chosen”—and why were those who didn’t go get left behind? Was God or some other cosmic being involved? Where did they go? Will they ever come back? And will it happen again? [Read more]
The 6 Biggest Moments in the Shocking Foundation Season 3 Finale
By Cheryl Eddy
Foundation season three has come to an end, but it still feels like there’s so much story left to tell. Thank goodness Apple TV+ confirmed just yesterday that season four is on the way! But before we ponder what’s next, we must discuss the season finale.
“The Darkness” was… well, a lot sure did happen, didn’t it? [Read more]
Stranger Things Lets It Rip to Kick Off Its Final Season
By Sabina Graves
The conclusion to Netflix and the Duffer Brothers’ pop culture phenomenon Stranger Things begins with an epic first volume that’s now streaming for your binging pleasure.
Action and horror propel the return to Hawkins in volume one as our heroes race to find Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), hoping to vanquish him once and for all. In the time since the Upside Down ripped open in season four, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has been training with Hopper (David Harbour) to strengthen her powers. Seeing Eleven’s growth into a strong as hell young woman from her early days throwing bullies off her friends is such a joy. Clearly, that’s thanks to Eggo waffles. [Read more]
Why Gainax’s Gunbuster Pose Is More Than Anime Rule of Cool Reference Fodder
By Isaiah Colbert
Anime of the late ’80s has an undeniable impact that extends beyond the medium into movies, TV shows, and video games. Many of the homages are to 1988’s Akira, which existed before Western culture had a grasp of what anime really was or could be. The “Akira slide”—an iconic shot of Kaneda sliding sideways on his bike in the 1988 movie adaptation of Akira—has become an icon of anime culture, referenced over and over in numerous cartoons and films, western and Japanese, ever since, including Jordan Peele’s Nope, Tron: Ares, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, amid an ocean of other Akira nods.
While Akira references are rife in new media like Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic, letting fans know that the creators are aware of its rule of cool, it’s hard not to feel a bit like the buck stopped at aping aesthetics for easy internet referential brownie points over carrying over its core narrative themes. Although most pop culture nods (Scavengers Reign aside) borrow Akira‘s surface style without echoing its thematic depth, every homage to fellow 1988 anime film Gunbuster‘s iconic arm-cross pose endures as a timeless gesture of steeled resolve wrapped in a badass stance. [Read more]
Meet Freddy Fazbear and Friends at Halloween Horror Nights’ Five Nights at Freddy’s House
By Sabina Graves
Take a look inside the Five Nights at Freddy’s house at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. It looks like a real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location right out of the mind of game creator Scott Cawthon and Emma Tammi’s cinematic adaptation.
io9 was invited to a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the Hollywood attraction based on the video game and Blumhouse film franchise, opening at HHN ahead of December’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Creative director John Murdy took us through to highlight the incredible work done between Horror Nights, Cawthon, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. [Read more]
How Science Fiction Became the Key to This Year’s Most Buzzed About Concert
By Germain Lussier
2001: A Space Odyssey. Star Wars. Star Trek. Tron. Blade Runner. Akira. The Fifth Element. Interstellar. Superman. Flash Gordon. The Matrix. That sounds like a list of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, but actually, it’s a list of the films mentioned during a discussion about the inspirations behind the Backstreet Boys’ popular new residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This past July, one of the biggest boy bands of all time celebrated 20 years of their iconic album, Millennium, at the technologically advanced venue, with two months of sold-out shows that generated a ton of buzz and interest. As a result, two more months of shows were recently added, and io9 spoke to Baz Halpin, CEO and founder of Silent House, about it. [Read more]
KPop Demon Hunters and Expedition 33 Are Having a Moment
By Justin Carter
Have you watched KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix or played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Chances are the answer is “yes,” and if not, you’ve certainly heard of them: both were released earlier this year to fairly glowing reviews (if not outright critical acclaim) and performed very well commercially. The latter, a turn-based RPG from newcomer Sandfall Interactive, will likely pick up some awards at year’s end, while Netflix is planning to go all in on KPop. Along with talks of sequels and an ever-growing wave of merchandise, the streamer submitted the mid-movie song “Golden” for Academy Award consideration. Both may also wind up jumping to live-action; Expedition had a movie announced months before the game’s release, while Netflix is reportedly mulling over a remake with human actors. [Read more]
Epic Universe’s Monster Lore Gives Us the Best Possible Dark Universe
By Sabina Graves
When you visit Epic Universe’s Dark Universe, you get hints of a story that’s so mysterious you’ll want to keep coming back to learn more. In Darkmoor Village, where monsters and humans co-exist—barely—the relationship between the villagers, the mad scientist in her castle with her monsters, and the vampires below is a very fragile menagerie of the macabre.
When io9 visited Darkmoor during Epic Universe’s opening week, we couldn’t help but wonder if the dense canon introduced would offer some insight into Universal’s abandoned Dark Universe film franchise. It turns out that some elements in the attractions, details in the land offerings, and immersive interactions echo what was once supposed to herald an Avengers-like assembly of the Universal Monsters on the big screen. [Read more]
Death Stranding 2 Is Hideo Kojima’s Most Refined and Relentless Vision Yet
By Isaiah Colbert
When Hideo Kojima—the man fashioned into a video game auteur out of his work on Metal Gear Solid—launched his debut title under the newly formed Kojima Productions in 2019, Death Stranding arrived shrouded in mystery and hype. Every Death Stranding trailer was full of cryptic imagery and spectral apparitions, and its stacked cast featuring Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, and Mads Mikkelsen set expectations sky-high. It was also the first title to come from the creator following a messy and public exodus from Konami. Would Kojima once again rewrite the rules of game design?
Upon release, Death Stranding didn’t disappoint so much as it defied prediction. At its core, it was an immersive, slow-burning post-apocalyptic courier simulator. Players took control of Sam Porter Bridges, a pulp comics-esque naming convention of a protagonist suffering from aphenphosmphobia, an extreme fear of being touched, tasked with completing a herculean cross country trek across haunted landscapes by plagued eldritch horrors with the help of a baby in a container on his chest—avoiding environmental hazards and balancing parcels on every available piece of real estate on his body to “reconnect America.” Reductively, Death Stranding is regarded in gaming circles as a “triple-A” indie game, with a weird (but not overly confusingly dense) world-building serving as the connective tissue propelling every careful footstep on Sam’s odyssey. What Death Stranding lacks in conventional thrills, it made up for with sheer conceptual weight. [Read more]
Walt Disney Returns as a Surreal Animatronic for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary
By Sabina Graves
As of this week, Walt Disney returns to his original Magic Kingdom, with a little help from the magic-makers at Imagineering.
Through the audio-animatronics technology Walt Disney introduced when he opened Disneyland 70 years ago, the evolution of the show robots has gone from static positioning with some movements, as first seen on the singing birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room, to a roaming animatronic of Uncle Walt. Stationed in the Main Street Opera House, the (m)animatronic is the crown jewel of the Walt Disney – A Magical Life show, where he, along with the help of Disney CEO Bob Iger as the program’s narrator, gets to sit and stand front and center to share his story in his words. [Read more]
Ghost of Yotei Is a Stronger, Self-Assured Sequel
By Justin Carter
There was a moment early on in Ghost of Yotei where I knew it’d won me over. As Atsu, I wasn’t hunting down the Yotei Six who killed my family and left me for dead back in my youth; I was taking on a simple bounty who’d managed to get the better of me. I was all set to watch him plunge his katana in my back and restart the swordfight. Instead, a wolf jumped in out of nowhere, biting him and granting me full health so I could get back up and resume the fight and get my bounty. [Read more]
The Best Disney Park Ride Overlays, and Where to Find Them
By Sabina Graves
Seasonal and promotional ride overlays are now ways to draw in more people to revisit beloved attractions at Disney’s parks or give passholders a reason to come back over and over. Over time some have had more longevity than others, as the most popular overlay continues to be Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Holiday, which has Jack Skellington and friends take over the West Coast haunt with his spooky Christmas shenanigans. Meanwhile, the haunted version of Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy seems to have exorcised its spirit—it just might have been a tad too scary, while Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain stays beating out the rest. [Read more]
Mass Effect 2 Helped Change What Being an RPG Meant
By Justin Carter
The Mass Effect series has always held a special, and often divisive spot in fans’ hearts. BioWare’s sci-fi RPG saga blew up with its first game back in 2007, and its sequel took the franchise to bigger, more mainstream heights. In the years since that game’s release, it’s cast a long shadow—not just over its own franchise and creator, but the larger RPG space, particularly those from western developers. [Read more]
Back to the Future Returns to Universal Studios Hollywood With an Incredible Immersive Experience
By Sabina Graves
With Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley, Universal delivers on the promise of bringing you into the movies in a new, impactful way. The immersive experience is a triumph and you won’t want to leave.
You get on the studio tour and it becomes a time traveling tram that drops you into the moment that Marty McFly arrives and through the events of Back to the Future on the courthouse square where the Robert Zemeckis film was shot. Through roaming actors portraying George, Lorraine, Biff, and Doc, we get to see iconic moments recreated and be a part of them. I got to chat with my childhood crush George McFly and turned into a total shy mess as he asked if I was going to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. The storytelling propels forward as you are able to encourage him to ask Lorraine to go with him and help with his writing before we see the hilarious hijinks of Lorraine hitting on Marty, her future son who she wants to go to the dance with. Biff shows up and causes mayhem while fans spectate and quote along. [Read more]
Deus Ex Did Good Work, and I Wish It Could Do More
By Justin Carter
For as many long-running franchises were born during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era—your Assassin’s Creeds and Borderlands, to name a few—some old series tried making a return. Among those was Deus Ex, a series of cyberpunk role-playing games which just turned 20 years old and had an unfortunately short-lived return with a duology that under better circumstances, would’ve been a trilogy. [Read more]
Books, Art, and Toys
The full package – Regal Reobot
The Story Behind the Funniest Indiana Jones Prop Replica You’ve Ever Seen
By Germain Lussier
Indiana Jones is always on the hunt for rare antiquities. He’s found the Golden Idol, Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, and so much more. All of which makes prop replicas of those things rather obvious. But, for the Indiana Jones fan who wants to be like their favorite adventuring archaeologist and get something more rare and specific, how about a clothes hanger? [Read more]
For Sale: One Book of the Dead, Slightly Used
By Cheryl Eddy
That little getaway in the woods sure would have been much less eventful if Ash Williams and his pals hadn’t decided to read passages out of that creepy old book someone left behind. But we’re so glad they did—thereby awakening the forces of darkness, sparking the events of The Evil Dead and its sequels, launching Bruce Campbell into the goofy action hero pantheon, and giving horror fans endless delights over the past 40-plus years. And now, you can own the actual prop that started it all! [Read more]
You Have to Check Out These Insanely Detailed Pop Culture Sculptures
By Germain Lussier
Play-Doh is not generally considered a pathway to a career in art, but it was exactly that for Brad Hill. Years ago, the aspiring artist was gifted the popular children’s toy and, as a thank you, molded some of it into a head. “I was like, ‘Oh wait. That’s kind of fun,’” Hill said. “Every day, I’d just wake up and sculpt a head out of Play-Doh. And I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t sustainable.’” He was wrong. Fifteen years later, Hill’s work has gone all over the internet, and this week he’s having a retrospective art show featuring not just brand new work, but pieces from throughout his still blossoming career. [Read more]
Being a Manga Letterer Is More Than Having a Fun Job
By Isaiah Colbert
When people read manga, they often focus on the Instagram caption-worthy one-liners and larger-than-life illustrations that fill their pages. What usually goes unnoticed in picking up a manga is the work that goes into its lettering and graphic design, done by the folks who pour their craftsmanship into typesetting popular Japanese manga for Western audiences.
We spoke with professional letterers Brandon Bovia (The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, Dragon Ball Super, Kaiju No. 8), Evan Hayden (Battle Angel Alita, Land of Lustrous, Akira), Sara Linsley (Kamudo), Aidan Clarke (Otaku Elf, Neo Faust, Les Miserable), Barri Shrager (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?), Kyla Aiko (Dandadan, Gokurakugai, RuriDragon), and Finn K. (Shinobi Undercover, Dear Anemone) about the challenges of typesetting the best manga in the world. [Read more]
How the Grinch Stole Modern Christmas
By Sabina Graves
He’s a meme one, Mr. Grinch, or at least that’s the current pop culture identity of the iconic Dr. Seuss creation.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the beloved illustrated Seuss book that many of us first experienced as a story read to us as children, initially became a cultural phenomenon thanks to its timeless themes about how Christmas can be found not only in gifts but also in the hearts of all—even the grumpiest of green meanies. [Read more]
Star Wars has a beloved and peculiar history with racing games, from the iconic Racer and its sequel to the bizarre Super Bombad Racing. That legacy is growing next year with the release of a brand-new racing game, Galactic Racer.
If you thought Fate of the Old Republic was going to be the only shocker from the galaxy far, far away at the Game Awards tonight, Lucasfilm and Fuse Games announced Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a new racing game set after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy.
Described as a “runs-based” racing game, Galactic Racer will see players cast as Shade, a racer who joins the Galactic League, an underground racing circuit bankrolled by the criminal syndicates of the Outer Rim. There, Shade finds a rival in Kestar, who wishes to use the criminal pull of the League to further his own power. Also, Sebulba’s here! Somehow, everyone returned.
As well as a single-player story campaign, Galactic Racer will also feature a PVP mode where players build their own repulsorcraft and reputation alike against other players.
“From the beginning, Star Wars has drawn inspiration from racing culture, from podracing to high-speed chases across the galaxy,” said Douglas Reilly, Lucasfilm Games VP said in a statement. “With Star Wars: Galactic Racer, the team at Fuse Games has captured that spirit and elevated it into a wholly new form of racing adventure. We can’t wait for fans to experience it.”
Galactic Racer releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X, and PC sometime in 2026.
Last week, Lucasfilm shocked the world with the announcement that its plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Wars with a theatrical re-release would mark the first official re-release of the original theatrical cut of A New Hope for the first time in decades. But the legacy of tweaks George Lucas has made to Star Wars is as long as Star Wars‘ existence itself… and what “original” actually means has been changing, from a certain point of view, from the very beginning.
No one, least of all Lucas, could have predicted the way Star Wars would change pop culture as we knew it when it first released in 1977. The movie that made it to theaters was one of a thousand compromises, with things tweaked and cut and given up on as Lucas strove to realize his ambitious ideas on screen. The moment Star Wars hit theaters, the director was not done pushing what he could change, emboldened by its immediate success—establishing a long history of his revisits to the movie that changed his career forever. Here’s a timeline of the changes made, from 1977 to the film’s latest version streaming on Disney+.
1977
After Star Wars‘ release in May of 1977, multiple changes were made between its initial launch and the film’s wider theatrical run later in the year: four visual errors in the film were corrected, including new laser effects and explosions during the Millennium Falcon‘s escape from Mos Eisley, a recomposition of the matte painting used to depict the exterior of the Massassi temple on Yavin IV, and changes to the cloudscape in the shot of the Rebel fighters leaving the base to assault the Death Star. The last change made didn’t affect the film itself, but its closing credits sequence, which was completely redone with new formatting and spacing.
Lucas also made multiple dialogue and audio changes between the 35mm Dolby Stereo and 70mm 6-track audio versions of the films, and the mono mix created in the summer of 1977. The changes were minor compared to audio tweaks to come over the next 50 years, largely adjusting the timing of certain lines of dialogue and effects, rather than radically changing anything outright, although some voiceover lines were altered for characters like Stormtroopers and C-3PO. Perhaps the most identifiable differences include a complete re-recording of Shelagh Fraser’s lines as Aunt Beru, done out of a belief by Lucas that her original takes sounded too British, and a correction so that Luke accurately says, “Blast it, Wedge, where are you?” during the Death Star assault, rather than cursing Biggs (that will become important later!).
1981
The first significant change to Star Wars is when it officially becomes A New Hope. Re-released in theaters after the launch of Empire Strikes Back a year prior, Star Wars‘ opening crawl was updated to include the subtitled “Episode IV: A New Hope” to match Empire‘s own use of the episodic titling. There were several other updates to the opening crawl beyond this most obvious one: a new starfield background was used, to match Empire‘s, as was the Star Wars title card, and a minor alteration in the crawl to capitalize “Rebel” in its second paragraph.
Those were not the only tweaks for the re-release, though: the opening shots of the Tantive IV‘s pursuit were recomposited to remove some visible bordering, as were slight changes to some effects like engine glow and the positioning of planets in the background of the chase.
1982-1993
A New Hope‘s first home releases also included some minor changes. The initial VHS, Betamax, and CED releases of the film used the 35mm Dolby Stereo audio track, removing a C-3PO line added in the mono mix when R2-D2 displays the Death Star’s internal layouts, where the protocol droid explains that shutting down one of the station’s tractor beam generators would free the Millennium Falcon. The limitations of CED and Laserdisc as a format meant those initial releases in particular also had a peculiar change: the film was sped up to fit on a singular disc, cutting its run time from 121 minutes to under two hours.
The laserdisc releases of A New Hope utilized a newly remastered audio track, but there were further changes in various iterations for the laserdisc release of the film over the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s. The 1988 widescreen laserdisc release of A New Hope in America was based on the master used for a Japanese release from 1986, which had been adjusted to account for Japanese language subtitling. Attempting to correct the changes ultimately created an issue where the viewable section of the screen shrunk over the course of the film, but this was corrected in a 1992 re-release.
A 1993 laserdisc release of the entire trilogy, dubbed The Definitive Collection, used yet another newly supervised audio mix for A New Hope, this time incorporating elements from all three original Dolby Stereo, 6-track, and mono mixes, including the latter’s dialogue changes. These same editions of the film were rereleased on laserdisc and VHS in 1995, marking the last time the “original” versions of all three films would be available in a widely accessible format for another decade.
We’ve reached the big one: the release of the Star Wars special editions. Beyond remastering and restoration of all three films for fidelity’s sake, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi all received a swath of cosmetic updates to their visual effects, incorporating new, reworked, and extended shots that utilized CGI (including some that incorporated tie-in elements from other parts of the since-established Expanded Universe tie-in media, such as the presence of swoop bikes and Dash Rendar’s Outrider in Mos Eisley from Shadows of the Empire).
But perhaps more infamously, each film also received some narrative tweaks and additions, many of which are still debated to this day. We’ll stick to A New Hope, as that’s what we’re focusing on here: two significant added scenes include Han Solo’s encounter with Jabba in Mos Eisley, now featuring a CG recreation of the character’s appearance from Return of the Jedi (deleted scenes from the original film that this footage was taken from portrayed Jabba as a human, leading to an awkward addition here where Han “accidentally” steps on Jabba’s tail while walking behind him) as well as a brief appearance by Boba Fett in the background, and a scene added to the Yavin IV base where Luke and Biggs reunite with each other, giving the latter’s death during the Death Star assault more dramatic weight. The Special Edition cut also restores the “Blast it, Biggs” line change initially corrected in the mono mix of the film, presumably to further display Luke and Biggs’ bond.
Then there is, of course, the most debated tweak of all: the Special Edition adds an initial shot fired by Greedo during his cantina encounter with Han, moments before Han pulls the trigger on his own blaster to kill the bounty hunter, to create an impression that Han acted in self-defense rather than pragmatism. We’re not going to get into it, but we will revisit it over the course of the rest of this timeline, because people will spend years getting angry about it.
2004
The original trilogy’s first DVD releases, based on the Special Editions, incorporated further changes beyond remastering for the format, altering some of the additions from the 1997 releases while also providing some connective elements to the prequel trilogy, in full swing at the time of the release.
In the case of A New Hope, many of the changes are broadly audio-based, tweaking the effects on certain lines of dialogue or incorporating new sounds at certain moments—perhaps most significantly in terms of audio was a total rework of the voice filter used on Darth Vader, to better align A New Hope with the rest of the original trilogy—as well as corrections on color grading errors introduced in some sequences, like a pinkish hue over the scenes depicting Luke and Obi-Wan’s arrival in Mos Eisley. A newly updated CG model of Jabba to replace the one used in the Special Edition’s additions was also included, and for the first time, English language signage seen throughout the film was replaced with Aurebesh typography, marking a radical overhaul of the history of the written word in Star Wars.
Then, of course, Tatooine is also the home of another change: the Han and Greedo encounter is altered yet again so that the two fire almost simultaneously (although Greedo is still, by the blink of an eye, the first to pull the trigger). No one continues to be satisfied by this.
2006
The 2004 DVD cuts of the original trilogy were re-released for a limited time two years later, with one significant addition. As well as newly remastered versions of the 2004 editions, each release came with a bonus disc containing the so-called original versions of the films, available for the first time in a home format since 1995.
In actuality, these versions weren’t quite the originals. Although A New Hope reinstated the original, pre-1981 opening crawl from a remaining print, the rest of the audio and visual presentation was derived from the versions made for the 1993 laserdisc transfers of the original trilogy released as The Definitive Collection. Until 2027, this will remain the last official release of any version of the pre-Special Edition versions of the film.
The saga’s release on Blu-ray for the first time introduced yet further changes beyond those included in 2004 and 1997. Again, these were broadly audio tweaks rather than anything particularly significant (such as Obi-Wan’s krayt dragon call to scare off the Tusken Raiders, changed again from a tweak made in the 2004 mix—the same scene includes an awkwardly framed piece of rock placed in front of R2-D2 in the small alcove he initially hides from Obi-Wan in).
That doesn’t mean the Han and Greedo scene doesn’t get yet further tweaks, though. A few frames from the moment of blaster fire are shaved off, bringing the timing of the altered scene back closer in line to the original, even as it keeps the near-simultaneous, Greedo-first tweaks introduced in 2004. No one continues to be satisfied by this.
2019
The launch of Disney+ in the United States brought with it yet another alteration of the film, part of a process to restore the film to 4K streaming quality. The streaming version of A New Hope arguably contains some of the slightest alterations to the post-Special Edition version of the film released over the course of the 21st century, broadly adjusting color correction issues on scenes introduced in the 1997, 2004, and 2011 releases.
That does not mean the most-tweaked scene in Star Wars history got off scott free, however. Now Han and Greedo’s encounter climaxes with an awkward cut to Greedo shouting “Ma Klounkee” before he fires. The scene otherwise maintains the pacing of the 2011 iteration, although it also removes a very brief visible shot of the Greedo dummy before it violently explodes. Not only does no one continue to be satisfied by this, they’re mostly comedically confused, birthing a new Star Wars meme in the process.
2027
That brings us back to last weeks news of that the previously announced 50th anniversary screenings of A New Hope will now not just arrive earlier in 2027, but with a version of the “original” film. As with everything we’ve gone through above, what that means with Star Wars certainly remains in flux, and Lucasfilm has yet to provide any kind of details about this release beyond its existence. A statement released by the studio has simply described it as “a newly restored version of the classic Star Wars (1977) theatrical release.”
We’ve got two years before we find out what the galaxy far, far away’s latest definition of “original” is.
Destiny 2‘s new expansion, Renegades, is juking where most brand crossovers jive by having a Star Wars collaboration where, instead of simply just jamming Star Wars stuff into Destiny and calling it a day (well, aside from a few notable weapons), Bungie’s sci-fi shooter is telling its own story inspired by Star Wars, with plenty of themes, locales, and design language given a sideways look to make it look like a merging of the two worlds, rather than a direct transposition.
But just like George Lucas once said, the thing about poetry is that it rhymes. So when Destiny 2 needs a Jedi Order equivalent in a world that already has space wizards, it needs something else to make the parallel clear and feel like the Order—and you can’t just give them a laser sword and call it a day, even if they are also kind of doing that.
Enter the Praxic Order. A faction that’s been touched upon in Destiny‘s worldbuilding since the very first game, they’re stepping into the spotlight for Renegades with actual characters playing a role in the story, as players go up against a fallen guardian, Dredgen Bael (voiced by Marvel Rivals and Dan Da Dan‘s Aleks Le, doing his very best Kylo Ren impression). The Praxic Order will be represented in Renegades by a character named Aunor, who is… essentially a space magic cop.
So far, so Jedi! In a new behind-the-scenes featurette released today, the Destiny 2 team describes the Praxic Order as an “internal affairs” group for the Vanguard, the entity that manages guardians in Destiny‘s world, with their job specifically being to police any guardians who utilize the power of darkness, rather than the power of light that usually gives them their abilities.
That in and of itself is interesting, as Destiny 2‘s broader narrative has spent a good long while at this point tasking players with exploring the darkness and finding strength in the balance of these two diametrically opposed entities—so to suddenly have a main character in Renegades who is the member of an ancient order that has to grapple with the realities of a changed world where their specific, dogmatic view of the way things work no longer wholly applies? That’s Star Wars as hell.
And as funny as it is that a key kind of quasi-multiversal trait of the Jedi Order is that regardless of whatever universe they show up in, they’re kind of just jerks, that’s also a really clever way to bring in elements of Destiny that already feel like Star Wars and push them into an even more direct parallel for this new expansion. If the rest of Renegades can deliver that kind of fun interrogation of Destiny and Star Wars‘ shared similarities in this way, fans of both will be in for a treat.
Destiny 2: Renegades will launch next week on December 2.
When you think of the Star Wars prequels and conflict, you probably think of one of the most important interstellar campaigns of the entire saga, the Clone Wars. But in Star Wars‘ old expanded universe, only fleetingly touched upon in the rebooted continuity, a conflict preceded both the Clone Wars and the broader prequel trilogy itself that helped pave the way for the state of the Galactic Republic as we knew it coming into The Phantom Menace, one arguably that helped create the circumstances for the Clone Wars too: the Stark Hyperspace War.
First introduced in background material for the run-up to The Phantom Menace, and ultimately more fully explored in the pages of Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics, the Stark Hyperspace War has largely made its way into modern Star Wars canon through offhanded mentions in name only. But the bones of the conflict itself in the Expanded Universe set the stage for the politics at play both among the Jedi Order itself and within the Galactic Senate by the time we see them both facing existential crises by the time of The Phantom Menace.
Although the prequels and the EU alike would go on to explore the cracks running deep in the Republic that allowed Palpatine’s machinations to splinter it and forge the Galactic Empire, the Stark Hyperspace War was one of the earliest windows into the timeframe around the prequel trilogy, and with it, our first indicators of some of those cracks in the galaxy’s institutions.
Even before the war formally broke out in 44 ABY—roughly 12 years before the events of The Phantom Menace—the Galactic Republic had faced longstanding issues with increased corruption and lawlessness, especially in the Outer Rim territories. The Rusaan Reformations that had radically overhauled both the representative structure of the Republic and the military power of the Jedi Order centuries prior had both seen an increase in the political power of industrial conglomerates within the Republic, such as the Trade Federation and banking clans, as well as a diminished reach for the Republic’s judiciary branch, under which the Jedi and the minor security forces the Republic could muster served.
It was this perfect storm that ultimately led to the rise of Iaco Stark, a noted smuggler, as a major power in the Outer Rim. Building a Robin Hood-esque reputation on raids against Trade Federation transports, stealing goods to sell to communities for less than the costs enacted by the Federation, Stark successfully convinced a growing group of business allies and mercenaries to form the Stark Commercial Combine, one of the largest conglomerates of pirate activity ever formed in Republic history.
But Stark was secretly working with the Trade Federation’s leader, Hask, and another crucial business figure, Adol Bel, head of the Thyferran Xucphra Corporation, one of the only companies in the galaxy that could distribute and produce the vital medical supply, bacta. Preparing to stage a conflict between the Combine and the Trade Federation, Stark had grander dreams: to draw the Galactic Republic into a conflict that would consume it entirely.
The first phases that set the stage for the Hyperspace War saw Xucphra sabotage one of its own bacta facilities on Thyferra, rendering galactic supply incredibly scarce. The bacta crisis instantly drove up demand and prices of medical treatment, especially in the Outer Rim, as hoarding of what remaining supply was available created even more economic pressure.
Working in tandem with the Trade Federation, Stark’s Combine began staging raids on bacta supplies owned by the corporation, selling it at a profit but still below the skyrocketed demand while dramatically raising Stark’s reputation even further, not just as a shield against the Trade Federation but as a figure people could point to as a sign of the Republic’s inadequacies.
The bacta crisis, as well as the Combine’s growing “hostility” towards the Trade Federation, suddenly made the issues in the Outer Rim a key issue in the Senate, although not necessarily out of a concern about corruption in the outer territories. Both Nute Gunray, at the time a ranking minister of the Federation and its Senate representative, rather than its outright leader (and unaware of Hask’s deal with Stark), and Senator Ranulph Tarkin, an avowed militarist advocating for changes against the Rusaan Reformation’s decrees on Republic military assets, both used the crisis to advocate for increased martial power, both privately and on a galactic scale.
They were defeated in the tide of Senate opinion, however, by then-Senator Finis Valorum, who successfully pushed the Senate to open diplomatic negotiations with the Combine. With Valorum and Gunray tasked as the Republic’s primary negotiators, alongside a task force of Jedi diplomats (who were surreptitiously tasked by the Order to investigate the true nature of the bacta shortage on Thyferra, believing industrial sabotage was in play), the Republic and the Combine agreed to meet on the world of Troiken to enter talks. However, in secret Gunray leaked the location of the peace talks to Tarkin, who had been privately accumulating his own militia from Republic member worlds’ own defense forces sympathetic to his anti-reformist beliefs.
Hoping to stage a surprise assault on the gathered Combine forces at Troiken, Tarkin believed his victory would advance the militarist cause within the Senate, and make him a prime candidate to assume the Chancellorship—while also eliminating one of his key rivals in Valorum and the Jedi’s negotiation party as a necessary cost of the conflict. But, through Hask, Stark already knew of Tarkin’s fleet, using the pretense of Gunray’s betrayal of the peace talks to immediately hold the Republic and Jedi delegation hostage upon arrival at Troiken.
Stark even managed to lace Gunray’s surreptitious messages to Tarkin’s fleet with a Navicomputer virus that destabilized Tarkin’s ships’ ability to safely navigate hyperspace, destroying many as they re-entered realspace in unsafe environments such as planetary atmospheres or within stars and black holes, and leaving the few that did make it to Troiken, Tarkin’s flagship included, vastly outnumbered by the Combine fleet.
On the ground, confused crossfire caused by Gunray ordering the Trade Federation’s own Battle Droid security forces at the peace talks led to the mortal wounding of the Jedi’s lead negotiator, the Wookiee Jedi councilmember Tyvokka, and a hasty retreat by the remaining diplomats and Jedi to Mount Avos, the former hub of a spice mine that they could use to hide and entrench themselves from Stark’s forces. Above Troiken, Tarkin ordered his remaining troops to abandon ship, positioning their escape pods to link up with the Republic forces at Avos, turning the mountain into a siege target for Stark and his armies.
While the Jedi and Republic forces fought to defend their position at Avos against multiple waves of Stark’s mercenaries, on Thyferra, Jedi Master Tholme and his apprentice Quinlan Vos successfully managed to uncover Stark’s connections to the Trade Federation and Xucphra’s leadership, providing the burgeoning evidence needed to move against the Combine on Coruscant.
The united forces of Tarkin’s remaining militia as well as the Jedi—especially the Jedi Knight Plo Koon, who used his telepathic abilities to learn of the Combine’s plans and prepare the Republic’s successful defense of Mount Avos—opened a window of opportunity, as Stark pivoted to a siege of the mountain range, knowing the Republic defenders barely had supplies to last for longer than 10 days.
While Jedi Master Adi Gallia managed to successfully flee through the cave system beneath Avos with Gunray and Valorum and requisition a functioning Combine transport to get the senators back to Coruscant to petition the Jedi Council and the Senate to not give in to Stark’s demands, Koon and the other Jedi (including Qui-Gon Jinn and his recently elevated padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi) lead Tarkin’s forces to rebuff multiple failed assaults on the mountain by Combine troopers, loosening Stark’s tenuous grip on the alliance.
Although the Senate refused to send military backup to Troiken and relieve the Republic delegation—arguing that the threat of Stark’s navicomputer virus infecting trade ships in the Outer Rim took precedence over aiding what they saw as an illegal private military force—the Jedi Council, threatening Gunray with the exposure of the Trade Federation’s broader complicity in the war, convinced the minister to allow them use of a Trade Federation fleet to send a Jedi strike force to Troiken instead.
The plan was in part only able to be coordinated again thanks to the psionic abilities of Plo Koon, who meditated with his fellow Jedi between Combine assaults to not just telepathically liaise with the Council on Coruscant, but to learn of Stark’s increasing loss of sway among Combine leadership with each failed siege on Avos… and convince the smuggler to accept amnesty in exchange for aiding the Jedi in bringing the war to an end.
Buying time for the arrival of the Jedi strike force, helmed by multiple masters from the Council, the remaining Jedi and Republic soldiers, Tarkin included, laid out a plan to both transmit a patch to Stark’s navicomputer virus to the Jedi fleet upon its arrival and escape through the abandoned mining caves beneath Avos, sealing the exits behind them to stop the Combine forces from pursuing them altogether. But while the Jedi successfully aided the arriving fleet above Troiken, the plan on the ground went awry, due to Tarkin’s increasing frustration that Plo Koon’s commanding presence had brought the war to a largely peaceful end instead of advancing the militarist cause.
Attempting to kill the escaping Jedi and condemn the pursuing Combine armies to death, Tarkin blew himself up with a detonator, sealing the cave system entirely while also leaving the trapped Combine armies to be devoured by local wildlife living deep within Avos’ cavernous structures. The Jedi delegation and the remaining Republic wounded survived, but Tarkin’s legacy was secured as the “hero” that ended the Stark Hyperspace War with his sacrifice.
Although the Stark Hyperspace War lasted for mere days, it would have lingering ramifications for the Galactic Republic throughout the remainder of its waning across the next two decades. Although the Stark Combine broke up after the war, lessons learned by the pirates that had made the militia up only increased the effectiveness of piracy within the Outer Rim, emboldened by the Senate’s unwillingness to support Tarkin’s paramilitary with judicial forces.
Republic veterans of the war—whose lingering wounds from the conflict were compounded by the bacta shortage—established the Stark Veterans Assembly to both foster support for treatment and to continue Ranulph Tarkin’s military advocacy within the Senate after his death, a sentiment that would eventually lay the groundwork for the creation of the cloned Grand Army of the Republic in secret.
For the Jedi, the death of a councilmember sent shockwaves through the Order—as had its necessary role in increased peacekeeping to bring the war to its conclusion. With Tyvokka’s seat on the council now vacant, Plo Koon was advanced to the rank of Master to fill it in light of his key role on Troiken. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Valorum’s part in the conflict elevated his standing within the Senate, leading to sweeping support for his election as Supreme Chancellor just four years later.
Gunray in turn saw his own internal standing in the Trade Federation rise, even if he’d played his part out of necessity, setting the stage for him to assume leadership of the conglomerate… putting all the pieces into place for the manipulations that, less than a decade later, would begin to see the plans for the phantom menace of a Sith takeover of the galaxy fall into place.
Star Wars: Visions, the Lucasfilm anthology series that hands over the keys to the galaxy far, far away to animation teams from around the world to create whatever they want with it, has been predicated on the novelty of the new. Both its first two “volumes” of seasons, one focusing on storytelling from a raft of premiere Japanese studios, the other on teams from around the globe, have been bright spots in a universe of familiarity because of their very nature as brand-new Star Wars: material that is unbeholden to any vision of continuity, material that can imagine any perspective or any scenario, rooted in iconography and concepts we have seen remixed and reworked for generations, to ask the simple question of what Star Wars can mean and can be to a specific set of creators.
Paradoxically, that it has succeeded so well in communicating this vast potential to Star Wars fans has created a problem for the show coming into its third season, which begins streaming today: Star Wars: Visions, and its broad vision of the franchise, is no longer all that new. That’s especially a challenge in this third season in particular, as Visions is not only returning to a Japanese-centric focus for the new crop of nine shorts, but those shorts are made by a near-even mix of returning and new studios from the first season—and further compounding that is the fact that several of the new shorts are direct sequels to shorts from that debut season, too.
It creates an interesting challenge, then, of how Visions can balance this vibrancy it has gained from inviting fresh perspectives into Star Wars with building on the groundwork that made Visions a success in the first place. Is it simply enough for the anthology series to be more, rather than new, now that we have become familiar with it?
It’s a question that, for the most part, volume three and its myriad creative teams are disinterested in directly asking or answering. But it’s a question that lingers in your mind throughout watching the nine new shorts, as the series provides tales that are, in general, satisfying to watch in the moment but broadly struggle to capture the same transformative feeling that made both its two volumes so enchanting to experience.
That is not to say that Visions volume three is disappointing—what worked across volumes one and two still continues to work here. There is plenty of jaw-dropping spectacle, from intense action sequences to stunning vistas. There is still plenty of inspiration in transposing Star Wars concepts and designs into new frameworks—either, as volume one did, by reframing them through Japanese design and history to draw on Star Wars‘ enduring connection with Japanese cinema, or just by simply playing with the sandbox that iconography represents. It just doesn’t quite land as enchantingly as it did the first and second times around, but beneath that sheen of newness still lies some incredibly well-done, visually resplendent Star Wars storytelling.
An interesting point to note in that familiar feeling is that, compared to volume two, which broadened its perspective both through international animation studios and in simply the kinds of Star Wars stories it wanted to tell, volume three echoes volume one’s fascination with the Force and Jedi in particular, bringing the balance back towards stories based on duels and mysticism (that’s not to say there aren’t notable highlights that largely eschew those ideas, such as Project Studio Q’s “The Song of Four Wings” or Wit Studio’s “The Bounty Hunter”). But this time that spiritualism feels not just wholly connected to a Jedi/Sith dichotomy, although there’s plenty of that: if a broad theme unites the shorts of volume three, it is the concept of Star Wars as a generational story, of lessons learned and passed on through families, masters and students, and cycles of conflict.
If there is a weakness to volume three, it’s perhaps where that familiarity is most explicit. Three of the nine shorts are sequels, directly or otherwise, to stories from volume one: Kamikaze Douga and Anima’s “The Duel: Payback,” Production I.G’s: “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope,” and Kinema Citrus’ “The Lost Ones” (which follows the Jedi F from the studio’s volume one short, “The Village Bride”). While broadly these shorts are solid—”Payback” is the weakest of the three, simply executing a lesser version of “The Duel” and, perhaps unfairly, now has to draw comparisons to Emma Mieko Candon’s incredible Ronin novel on top of that—they do generally sit together to give volume three a feeling of continuity, rather than striving for newness.
Of them all, “The Lost Ones” works best simply by expanding F’s story and world, rather than directly following on from the events of its predecessor as both “Payback” and “Child of Hope” do (the latter literally climaxing with a “To Be Continued” message, presumably in Visions‘ new Visions Presents format announced previously at Celebration Japan). Perhaps Kinema Citrus thought it could balance that out by providing a wholly new concept for another short (the studio also animated the adorable “Yuko’s Treasure” this season), but “Lost Ones” still stands out as a highlight for simply proving that there is space to return to the worlds established in these stories while still doing something that feels additive, rather than iterative.
All that, however, does not apply to a singular exception among Visions volume 3’s roster: the final short of the anthology, “BLACK.” If the rest of volume three is a well-executed familiar blanket, David Production and director Shinya Ohira’s 13-minute mood piece is a stunningly captivating shock to the system: alien and new and experimental in the exact ways you would want Visions to strive for.
It feels barely like anything we’ve ever seen from Star Wars—the imagery of the Stormtrooper armor and the machines of the Imperial/Rebel conflict lost in the sound and fury of its manic, mind-bending visuals—and also so unlike anything else from Visions, whether in volume three or otherwise, that it gives “BLACK” a discordant sense, but one that feels incredibly exhilarating in the moment. That it sits at the very end of the season feels intentional in this way—to coax you in with well-done, albeit familiar, slices of animation before “BLACK” overwhelms your senses with a bold story that puts the onus on its audience to interpret and find meaning in it, a free-flowing, hectic, scratchily animated vision of smooth jazz and the human condition locked away in the mind of a Stormtrooper.
That by far and away the absolute highlight of the season is such a challengingly complex and engaging short, one that transcends into something that feels like an arthouse piece, is the exact reminder that Visions, and anyone who’s been following the anthology along diligently, needed: Visions can do very good, very familiar Star Wars. But it is at its very best when it manages to wow you with something that is completely and shockingly new.
Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is now streaming on Disney+.
Earlier this week, Adam Driver sent a disturbance through the Force when he revealed The Hunt for Ben Solo, a Star Wars film developed by himself, director Steven Soderbergh, and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, which the actor said was backed by Lucasfilm but ultimately scrapped by Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman. However, a new report twists the lightsaber in a bit further, alleging that the movie had made significant headway into initial development before it was killed.
Playlist reports that The Hunt for Ben Solo—which would’ve been set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and resurrected the titular character after he seemingly sacrificed himself to resurrect Rey—purportedly had received an internal green light from Lucasfilm when it was then offered to Disney executives for approval.
What that meant was that the film, allegedly developed under the codename “Quiet Leaves,” had a finalized script in place and was entering early phases of staffing and pre-production planning after Lucasfilm itself had given the studio’s approval. At that point, Disney had already purchased a “beat sheet”—a document providing a broad chronological guideline of the planned events and emotional beats of a story to guide the eventual screenplay—from Soderbergh and his wife, Jules Asner, the latter writing under the pen name Rebecca Blunt.
At that point, Burns (who had previously been involved in Star Wars on iterations of the Rogue One script before eventual Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy was brought into that project) was reportedly paid “more than any screenwriter in Lucasfilm history,” according to Playlist, to write the script.
Lucasfilm, which at this stage had not yet entered production on a new Star Wars film after the release of The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, allegedly only waited until The Hunt for Ben Solo was considered ready to begin filming before presenting it to Disney, with a “final script, budget, and proposed start date,” only for Iger and Bergman to reject it, citing confusion about the survival of the redeemed Kylo Ren.
io9 has reached out to Lucasfilm for comment on the veracity of Playlist’s report and will update this story when and if we hear from the studio.
But the report does coincide with public statements made earlier this week on Bluesky by an account believed to be Soderbergh’s. The account “Bitchuation” (a handle Soderbergh had previously used on Twitter before seemingly migrating to the rival social media platform in November 2024) stated in a series of messages on October 22, two days after Driver’s public reveal of the project, that “I did not enjoy lying about the existence of THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO, but it really did need to remain a secret…until now!”
“Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected,” the account continued. “She said no, this was a first.”
Playlist further noted that the reason both Driver and Soderbergh have felt comfortable discussing The Hunt for Ben Solo this week is that, in spite of positive fan reaction to the idea, both actor and director firmly believe that the project is permanently dead, and they are no longer bound by any related disclosure agreements (no Ryan Reynolds Deadpool leak here, it seems).
Unrelated to Hunt for Ben Solo, Playlist also further touched upon a recent claim from the InSneider that director David Fincher had attempted to develop a new Star Wars film, only for it to be turned down. Contrary to that initial report, Playlist claims that Fincher’s project—supposedly set between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker—never went beyond very early conversations and concepts and didn’t gain traction with Lucasfilm, rather than breaking down over say on the final cut of the film, as the InSneider had suggested.
We’ll bring you more on Lucasfilm’s plans for the future of Star Wars—scrapped or otherwise—as we learn them.
In an exclusive with Entertainment Weekly, Stover shared his new author’s note, now added to the book’s 20th anniversary re-release. In it he discusses his unique approach to writing the film as a novel with George’s Lucas’ blessing and inspiration from Greek myths.
What sets the book apart from the film is that it allowed Stover to expand on Anakin’s perspective during his fall from the light side. And it’s something that made him nervous from the start. “It had come to me during the panic attack I’d suffered after signing the contract to write this novelization, which had ignited because I’d foolishly committed to write the keystone in the arch of the Skywalker saga for the biggest audience of my career—and the entire Star Wars-loving universe would be hoping for a thrilling space opera, despite the plain fact that every main plot point had been spoiled for decades.”
Stover continued, “Add the challenge of writing a novelization without ever seeing the final movie, because the movie wasn’t done and wouldn’t be out before the book went to the printer. I would be armed with only the script and the collective Lucasfilm knowledge of Star Wars. What saved me then was my early training,” he explained, describing how the guardrails of classic theater mythology came in handy for the writer.
“More than 20 years before I signed that contract, I’d had the good fortune to study theater history under a professor who was an authority on ancient Greek drama. Every single one of the great Greek tragedians had faced exactly my trouble—their audience knew the story going in—and they had some tricks they would pull to make their plays dramatic anyway. I figured I could steal a couple of these for this book.”
“The more I thought about Greek tragedy, the better it seemed to fit. The classical tragedies were drawn from Greek mythology and legend, right? Also—if I needed any further excuse—ancient Greek tragedies were traditionally performed as single acts without intermissions, like modern movies, and they were usually presented in actual, no kidding, wait for it . . . trilogies.”
“I hoped to present the story explicitly as a tragic myth, with language and style more formalized and darker in tone than people generally expect from Star Wars fiction. After all, I intended to argue that this story is special. It’s different from any other Star Wars story—not only because it’s the final film (or so we thought at the time), but because this story is the true foundation that underlies all the rest, and it should feel different from the very first page.”
Additionally, his approach would be informed by how myth served as a template for so much Star Wars media to begin with within its Expanded Universe (before getting decanonized). “But evoking the Greek tragedies was only part of my idea, and I expected that part to be an easy lift, for the reasons I sketched above. The rest, however, was gnawing holes in my stomach lining, because I wanted to fold in elements of the larger Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU).”
“I desperately needed EU material to make this story work. Not because the EU had been part of my life ever since Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and definitely not because it’d be extremely cool to incorporate elements of those stories into this novelization … I genuinely believed that I needed the EU to make this story work as a novel. It would give the story heft and texture. It would let me touch on where these people come from and where most of them are going to end up, and it would let me weave this specific narrative and its implications into the wider ‘historical’ context of the whole galaxy far, far away.”
The best anecdote of the note was how all of this work, how he’d gone out of his way to plan and pitch to George Lucas, was met with a surprising answer when he asked the living legend how much he should stick to the script. Lucas liberated him from perceiving the movie script as a constraint. “Don’t worry about that stuff. As long as you don’t violate the story, do whatever you want,” Lucas said to Stover. “Just make it good.”
For the third installment of the Lucasfilm and Disney+ series, the global collaboration this time taps in nine Japanese anime houses: david production, Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA, Kinema citrus Co., Polygon Pictures, Production I.G, Project Studio Q, TRIGGER, and WIT STUDIO.
The highly anticipated series also announced its dub cast which features genre darlings Anna Sawai (Shōgun), Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel), George Takei (Star Trek), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows), Jodie Turner-Smith (The Acolyte), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Steve Buscemi (Wednesday).
Get ready for some of the best of Star Wars to return October 29 on Disney+. But first, check out the trailers below and the descriptions with original and dub voice casts from of each short.
No dubs:
Dubbed:
Here are all the details on each segment, as shared by StarWars.com:
Kamikaze Douga + ANIMA – “The Duel: Payback”
With the help of some unexpected allies, Ronin faces off against his greatest foe – a twisted Jedi known as the Grand Master who is bent on revenge.
Directed by: Takanobu Mizuno
English Voice Cast: Brian Tee, Will Sharpe, Suzy Nakamura, Jonathan Lipow, Minami Iinuma, Gary Littman, Yukihiro Nozuyama, Shawn Gann, Major Attaway, Andrew Kishino, Patrick Seitz, Lee Shorten, Frank Todaro, David Chen, Nozomi Furuki, Ayaka Shimizu, Kaede Yuasa
A rogue bounty hunter takes on a job for a shady industrialist that has unexpected consequences for her and her droid.
Directed by: Junichi Yamamoto
English Voice Cast: Earl Baylon, Anna Sawai, Ronny Chieng, Joseph Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith,
Zoe Rux, Carrie Keranen, David Chen, Major Attaway, Joy Ofodu, Frank Todaro
Japanese Voice Cast: Ai Fairouz, Tomokazu Sugita, Daisuke Ono, Yume Miyamoto, Ai Kakuma, Kotono Mitsuishi, Setsuji Sato, Koji Seki, Marie Miyake, Hiroya Egashira, Katsumi Fukuhara, Koji Seki, Marie Miyake, Hitomi Kitazaki
Kinema citrus Co. – “Yuko’s Treasure”
A sheltered orphan teams with a street rat kid to rescue his droid caregiver and find a long-lost treasure.
Directed by: Masaki Tachibana
English Voice Cast: Liam Karlsson, Julian Paz Fedorov, Harvey Guillén, Steve Buscemi, Anne Yatco, Maximilian Reid, Matt Yang King, Joy Ofodu, Sean Burgos, A.J. Beckles
After assisting refugees escape a natural disaster, an incognito F is forced to confront the ghosts of her past when their refugee ship is intercepted by the Empire.
Directed by: Hitoshi Haga
English Voice Cast: Karen Fukuhara, Mark Strong, Ryan Potter, Aki Toyosaki, Kimberly Brooks, Lincoln Bonilla, Jimmie Yamaguchi, Mike Bodie, David Errigo Jr., Cheyenne Nguyen, Nick Kishiyama, Leon Chen, Jennie Kwan, James Sie
Desperate for a quick payday, a smuggler takes a job to rescue a fugitive from the Empire.
Directed by: Masahiko Otsuka
English Voice Cast: Emma Myers, Tanner Buchanan, Judith Light, Cory Yee, Adam Seitz, Matt Yang King, Cindy Robinson, A.J. Beckles, Earl Baylon, Sean Burgos
Japanese Voice Cast: Ami Maeshima, Yuuki Shin, Yasuko Hatori, Show Hayami, Jino Saito, Nobuaki Kanemitsu, Akira Kuwabara, Mutsuki Iwanaka, Hinata Tadokoro, Taiki Yamashita, Satoi Shibuya, Norio Wakamoto
Polygon Pictures – “The Bird of Paradise”
After she is blinded in battle, a hot-headed Jedi Padawan must undergo a series of spiritual trials in order to overcome the temptation of the Dark Side.
Directed by: Tadahiro “Tady” Yoshihira
English Voice Cast: Sonoya Mizuno, James Sie, Victoria Grace, George Takei
A psychedelic battle between past and present, light and dark, and life and death plays out in the haunted psyche of an Imperial trooper who is on the cusp of defeat.
Directed by: Shinya Ohira
Japanese Voice Cast: Kenta Miyake, Tsuyoshi Koyama
Of many, many breakout moments in Andor‘s first season, the passionate posthumous manifesto of Alex Lawther’s Karis Nemik providing the backdrop for Cassian’s return home remains one of the series’ standouts—perhaps only matched when the recording made a surprise return in the show’s second and final season, spreading the message of the Rebellion like a fire across the galaxy. But it wasn’t until the man behind the performance himself learned about that return that he realized just how much of a mark Nemik had made on Star Wars.
Lawther, who, between that brief audio recording cameo in Andor season two and his turn as Joe D. Hermit in Alien: Earth, has made “appearances” in two of the best sci-fi shows of the year, told Polygon of his surprise in a recent interview, revealing that he only learned of Nemik’s viral sensation from an email with showrunner Tony Gilroy.
“I had no idea. He wrote this very beautiful email about the resonance of that particular piece of writing,” Lawther told Polygon of the message, which was sent by Gilroy to let the actor know that he would make a brief “return” in the climactic moments of Andor‘s final episode, with an archival recording of Nemik’s manifesto being played by Anton Lesser’s outgoing ISB lead Major Partagaz before he commits suicide rather than face reprisals for the bureau’s failings.
“‘I’m sure you’re aware of how deeply our work together has landed,’” Lawther quoted from Gilroy’s email (it’s perhaps no surprise to see that the showrunner has repeatedly kept up with online chatter about Andor). “And I was like, ‘Oh, actually, I’m not really that aware of those things.’”
But the actor is very appreciative to see his performance live on… even if poor Nemik didn’t. “Because of Tony’s cleverness, I get to sort of live on in a way,” Lawther concluded. “But I wish I hadn’t been killed by that trolley full of credits.”
What binds the Star Wars galaxy together? Is it the Force? The desire for injustice to be rebelled against, for the light to rise against the dark? Well, in the case of a certain kind of ne’er-do-well in pockets of the galaxy… it’s a real tight pair of pants, and now Ryan Gosling stands among their wearers.
We previously got a shadowed glimpse at Gosling’s new Star Wars character when Lucasfilm officially unveiled Star Wars: Starfighter‘s beginning of production a few weeks ago. But now director Shawn Levy has brought his star and newcomer Flynn Gray into the light with a new image shared to Instagram from filming on the island of Sardinia.
The new look gives us our best looks yet at Gosling and Gray’s character costumes, and Gosling in particular is cutting a very smuggler-vibes figure in a long-sleeved shirt, padded work gloves, and, of course, a cool belt and some swanky tight pants.
There’s no Corellian Bloodstripe to be found here like Han Solo’s legendary look, but the red panelling definitely feels evocative of trying to have this look feel cut from the same cloth. Next to Gray’s character in the baggy work pants and thick fingerless gloves, we’re getting a very good rough-and-ready Star Wars feel out of this latest tiny glimpse.
Star Wars: Starfighter is currently set to hit theaters May 28, 2027.
The sprawling Star Wars universe is in a little bit of a “calm before the storm” moment, with a huge slate of upcoming films, shows, novels, and video games looming on the horizon like a binary sunset. And to add to the melee, an actor from the franchise’s TV darling, The Clone Wars, is teasing the return of a fan-favorite character.
Speaking with The Direct, voice actor Jim Cummings appeared to confirm that his Clone Wars character, Hondo Ohnaka, will be making a return to the series.
“I think you’re gonna have to stay tuned, because Hondo is not done yet,” Cummings told The Direct.
Hondo Ohnaka has also appeared in other Star Wars IP, including Rebels where is appears hero Ezra Bridger, as well as in theme parks like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. A Weequay pirate and outlaw, his past exploits include tussles with Jedi like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano. At the same time, the pirate made a name for himself galavanting across the galaxy—the kind of swindler fans couldn’t help but love. The Direct also notes that among Hondo’s exploits are his fights with the Sith, key among them his kidnapping of Count Doku and making an enemy out of Darth Maul.
Cummings was hush-hush about the specific nature of the Clone Wars-era character’s return and whether he will appear in the upcoming sequel animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord. But the actor heaped praise on the adored character as one of his own favorites.
“He’s one of my favorites, because he’s a lovable rogue. You could probably actually trust him,” Cummings said. “He looks out for Ezra, and he looks out for the younglings, as they call them, and he won’t do anything to harm anybody. But I wouldn’t want to play cards against him.”
While fans will have to wait and see if Hondo will, in fact, make his return in the Maul animated series, they can get to know the lovable rogue in the meantime in game developer Ubisoft’s latest Star Wars: Outlaws’ DLC, A Pirate’s Fortune. In it, hero smuggler Kay Vess and her cute animal companion, Nix, form an alliance with Hondo in their search for hidden treasure in the Khepi system while butting heads with Stinger Tash and her Rokana Raiders.
Should the above adventure prove tantalizing, folks can play Star Wars: Outlaws on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC, and see what all the hype about Hondo is firsthand.
When Tony Gilroy began his Andor journey, his original pitch was deemed “pretty mad and undoable” by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the showrunner revealed how that initial take would later get revisited after Lucasfilm gave it some thought.
“They came back to me and said, ‘We looked at this memo from a year and a half ago, and it makes a lot more sense to us now,’” he recalled. That, of course, led to a series expanding on the very foundation that Star Wars creator George Lucas had in mind when he began the beloved saga: Space Nazis are bad, and the rebellion is coming.
Around the time award nominations were announced for the show’s critically acclaimed second season, real-world headlines eerily mirrored events seen in Andor. In particular, a scene in the Emmy-nominated episode “Welcome to the Rebellion,” which depicts a Ghorman senator being carted off by stormtroopers as he says, “My people today and yours tomorrow; remember Ghorman!” struck a very timely nerve.
It’s a devastating series of events that’s not lost on Gilroy. “When I started on the show, the parallels between what was happening in the world and what was happening in the galaxy and the Empire—those were already obvious.” He explained that his inspiration came from a love of history and using that to embed the seeds of how totalitarianism has taken root in Star Wars.
“But over the six years we’ve been doing the show, that little monster got on its feet and learned how to run,” he said. “When [U.S. Senator for California Alex Padilla] was pulled out of the ICE meeting, like in the episode about the Ghorman senator being pulled out, there was a big text chain in our group like, ‘Oh my God. It looked like the show.’ It’s very sad for us how much it rhymes.”
While we continue to live in unprecedented times, the filmmaker notes that Andor feels like something he can’t see himself doing again. It’s disappointing, but as the state of the entertainment industry continues to evolve, it makes sense.
“For five and a half years, every single day of my life, I had a maximally imaginative involvement that was never complete—writing, designing, music, casting, all of it,” Gilroy said of the pandemic-era-born production. “Every demand on your imagination that could ever be asked was screaming for your attention. That’s a pretty heady place to live. I grew to love it. But I can’t imagine that I would ever be that fully engaged again,” he concluded, but we hold out hope the vast galaxy makes space for his return; we need these stories now more than ever.
No matter what we might find at Galaxy’s Edge, Star Tours will always be the ultimate crossover between Disney’s parks and Star Wars. Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance may offer higher-tech glitz and glamor, but there’s something about the endless evolution of Disney and Lucasfilm’s first major collaboration at the parks that still has it enduring all these years later. And now, that endurance is being celebrated with maybe one of the coolest toys Disney’s ever made out of its parks offerings.
Announced for next weekend’s D23 event (via Jedi News), today Disney revealed a limited-edition playset of the Starspeeder 3000–in its original colors before it got a makeover for Star Tours: The AdventuresContinue. Complete with two 3.75″ scaled figures of R2-D2 and RX-24 (aka Captain Rex before the other Captain Rex) from the “Droid Factory” line Disney sells at the parks, the massive vehicle can actually seat 25 figures inside once you remove the top section of the speeder, in seats that actually include elasticated, clip-in seat belts.
But that’s not all! The Starspeeder 3000 also comes with a wild host of electronic features, including opening doors on either side that play the Star Tours chime, a light-up display stand, as well as light features for the headlights, thrusters, and cannons on the exterior of the ship. Inside meanwhile, the front of the speeder has a 4.75″ LCD screen that can be activated by buttons to play authentic footage from various sequences of the ride itself, as well as phrases from Captain Rex.
At $300, it’s got quite a price tag on it, but honestly, the amount of features and functions the playset has is enough to justify the price, rivaling the scope and scale of some of the lavish vehicles from Hasbro’s HasLab crowdfunding campaigns. Plus, with actual Star Tours footage in it, it’s cheaper than a vacation to a Disney park to grab one and just experience the best Star Wars ride from the comfort of your own home!
Just 3,000 (you see what they did there) Starspeeders will be available when it releases first at D23 on August 9, and then online at the Disney Store starting August 12.
The end of The Acolyte is upon us—but just how will Osha and Mae’s story come to a close? We’re about to find out. Need a place to talk spoilers as the episode happens? io9’s here to help with our Acolyte finale spoiler discussion zone!
It’s been a long road to get here, of course—it was only last week that we got the full picture of what actually happened on Brendok the night Osha and Mae’s lives were turned upside down. But now that we at least know Sol’s part in all of this, will tonight’s eighth and final (for now, at least; showrunner Leslye Headland has made it clear she’s got plenty of ideas for potential future seasons of the show) episode reveal that truth to both twins? How will the Stranger’s plans for either sister factor into it? Just how bad can things possibly get for the Jedi and the Republic alike, a century before things get even worse for both of those institutions in the prequels?
And, of course, as Headland herself has already teased: what major connections to the storied history of Star Wars‘ old Expanded Universe, now dubbed “Legends,” might make their way back into continuity tonight?
Suffice to say, we have plenty of questions we hope The Acolyte finale answers tonight. Stay tuned to io9 tomorrow for our spoiler-filled recap of the finale, and throughout the week for more insight and reflection about this latest chapter of the Star Wars saga. In the meantime, let us know what you’ve thought of the season so far, what your hopes for the finale are, and what you ultimately thought of how it all went down in the comments below!
