Kathleen Kennedy Tells All on the Future of Star Wars
In this unpredictable world we live in, is it hard to imagine what will come next day to day.
And a universe that people religiously subscribe to like Star Wars, is no different.
Since the completion of the Sequel Trilogy and its divisive reception, the future of Star Wars and the voices that will be in charge of it going forward, have very much been up in the air. With release dates getting scrubbed, a trail of fired creative heads and seemingly endless talks of executive switch-arounds, the future of Star Wars was practically unpredictable, to say the least.
Enter.. Kathleen Kennedy.
This week, she sat down for an interview with The Wrap, where she shed light on the plans for the Star Wars universe going forward, and how they plan to use what has come before to inform a completely new take on the franchise that will be completely divergent to the now completed Skywalker Saga.
"It's an ever-evolving process. You know, when I personally came into this, George had already been having conversations with his previous actors, Carrie (Fisher) and Harrison (Ford) and Mark (Hamill), there was a saga that the fans loved and he never finished. He always talked about doing nine movies and he was ready to complete that. And so our focus had been from the beginning on finishing that saga. And now we're stepping back. Stories have been told within this universe over the last 40-odd years, and there's now the realization that this is a mythology that actually spans about 25,000 years, when you really start to look at all the different stories that have been told, whether it's in books and games."
Continuing on, Kennedy was asked about the scrapped plans for certain projects that would have established a foundation for these kinds of stories, such at the Old-Republic trilogy that was originally to be penned by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B Weiss, as well as the once confirmed trilogy that was to be helmed by The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson.
With the only creative head seemingly able to stay standing in this ever changing landscape being Taika Waititi with his planned Star Wars film, Kennedy said further..
"We just need the time to step back and really absorb what George has created, and then start to think about where things might go. That's what we've been doing, and we've been having a great deal of fun doing it, and meeting with lots of different filmmakers and talent. There's so many fans out there and so many filmmakers that have been influenced by Star Wars for so long that it's a fantastic opportunity to get a sense of who wants to be a part of this. So that's what we've been doing."
And finally, with recent discussion about anything Star Wars related being pushed more towards the TV-Genre, with the constant evolution of The Mandalorian, the rapidly approaching production of the Kenobi series and even the recent casting of Adria Ajorna in Cassian Andor, Kathleen Kennedy was asked about the future of Star Wars on TV, and whether or not that will be a key driving force going forward…
"I do. And I've already seen evidence of it. The ability to be very character-driven, with extended storytelling and connected storytelling, I think this space offers us a great opportunity to do that."
Clearly, Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the creative team over at Lucasfilm have made the appropriate choice to step back, rethink their strategies and come away with a foundation for an entirely new take on the franchise based on what has proven to work, and even past choices that did not pan out in the way they would have liked and how that in turn, can help to inform what to do next as well.
With three cinematic release dates set for 2023, 2025 and 2027 with the exception of any confirmed details or synoptic description, things are clearly in motion, and a New Hope for the saga seems to be emerging.
Mandalorian Season 3 ALREADY in the Works!
It seems to us that The Mandalorian has taken production efficiency to an entirely new level. With filming for season 2 practically wrapped up before the cessation of the first season, they were able to ensure that the global pandemic did not affect them adversely. And now, on the verge of a trailer for the show’s second season and the subsequent release of the season 2 on Disney+, we now have word from the executive producer of The Mandlorian himself, Jon Favreau, that Mandalorian Season 3 has already been confirmed and is currently undergoing pre-production. It seems as though that if you need your third season confirmed before the previous season even airs, all you need to do is be a Star Wars project.
When speaking with Variety, Jon Favreau commented that..
“The fact that the set is much more contained is a benefit, because you can limit the number of people. A lot of the people controlling it are doing it remotely from what we call the Brain Bar, which is a bank of gaming computers, essentially. The amount of people near the camera could be much smaller than usual. We also shoot a lot outside, which is helpful, too. We build to a moment in filming more like an animated production, where we have a lot of storyboards, a lot of discussions and scouting in virtual reality. We use cinematic tools in VR much the same way we did for The Lion King and The Jungle Book. A lot of times the actors you are seeing on the screen aren’t actually there on set.”
In saying this, Favreau provides a response to the possible delays that could arise for a third season due to the pandemic, giving hope that any possible delays might not be as extended as one would initially think.
In any case, this is fantastic news and a veritable step forward for Star Wars’s flagship series.
For MORE news on the Mandalorian, scroll down to our story on the first official trailer for Season 2 possibly coming next week, and also be sure to tune in to the TELLING THE ODDS PODCAST, every Sunday at 12pm AEST!
Kenobi Series to Start Filming NEXT MONTH?!
In a time of great uncertainty not just related to all things in life, but the development of our favourite Star Wars projects, this story will certainly bring a smile to your face.
Up until this week, the latest of updates we had received on the Kenobi series coming to Disney+ led by Deborah Chow of Mandalorian fame, was that filming and overall production of the project had been indefinitely delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and subsequently slabbed the series for an undetermined 2022 release date. One would begin to think if we would ever get to see Ewan McGregor back as the lord of the high ground.
Until this week, when the Making Star Wars website (Link below) reported that early, principal photography for the Kenobi series will begin in just under a month! Specifically, the showrunners are planning to begin filming exterior shots in Southern California, in a filming district commonly dubbed, ‘The Trainyard.’ This filming site is in fact the same setting chosen for the exterior shots seen in The Mandalorian episode 5, which took place on Tatooine.
As a large majority of the upcoming Kenobi series will follow the Jedi Master’s 19 year exile on the desert planet, it's not a difficult puzzle to assemble. Additionally, it has also been reported that once filming for these exterior shots have been completed, filming and subsequent production of the series will be carried out further at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
So it appears that the delay on the Kenobi series may not be as indefinite as we had all begun to concede. With set prep work already underway at the trainyard filming location, Kenobi might not be as far off as we once thought.
Stay tuned for further development on this story on the TELLING THE ODDS PODCAST; every Sunday, 12pm AEST!
Making Star Wars: https://makingstarwars.net
Mandalorian Season 2 Trailer Coming Next Week?
Recent reports have discussed the growing possibility that we will be receiving a trailer for the second season of The Mandalorian, as soon as next week.
Up until the emergence of the pandemic, Star Wars Celebration 2020 was meant to take place this month, until it was cancelled. This is one of the many reasons that have given rise to the belief the trailer will be dropping very soon. Otherwise, the trailer is believed to be dropping in the first round of the NBA play-offs, putting the release of the trailer on either the 21st, or 22nd of August. This is more of a growing possibility as Star Wars trailers of the past have directly coincided with this event, including the trailers for both Force Awakens and the Last Jedi.
With Giancarlo Esposito’s recent weight-in on his character’s influence in the second season, as well as providing some insight as to how the infamous Darksaber will play a role in the series, a first trailer for the second season is undoubtedly close-by.
As for what a trailer for the second season of the Emmy-Nominated series could entail, it will hopefully begin to shed some light on the many rumoured characters expected to appear, including possible cameos from Captain Rex, Bo Katan and even the great Boba Fett. With Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano the only confirmed ancillary character to appear, the trailer is highly anticipated by the plethora of followers the show has already amassed.
Adria Arjona Joins Cast of ‘Cassian Andor.’
American-Latino actress Adria Arjona has joined the cast of the Cassian Andor series. With the cast and the overall news regarding this particular project being relatively thin since it's been announced, this news came as somewhat of a surprise. Arjona is the third person to join the cast, following Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk returning as K-2SO.
So far, there has been no synoptic description regarding the series, but it can be obviously insinuated the series will take place prior to Rogue One. Further to this, Arjona’s shared Latino background with Diego Luna leads us to believe that the two characters they play could be closely related, which would also make sense given a large part of Cassian’s backstory involved the loss of people that were close to him. Whether Arjona would play a sister or a possible love-interest is a safe bet.
There is still no release date attached to the series, despite the fact that filming was supposed to start this year.
With any luck, the series may just pull off a once-expected 2021 launch.
An area that has practically become just as vast as the films, with an equally rich fanbase, is Star Wars’ long last partnership with the Lego Group, and the cadre of games that this relationship has given us, since the first Star Wars lego game was released in March of 2005.
And this week, we have received a new trailer for Star Wars’ latest brick-based outing, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
This game is set to combine everything that has been done in the Star Wars lego games in the past, and merge them all into one on a much grander scale, including all three trilogies, the redesign of the famous levels we have come to love over the years, as well as much more.
This trailer however, showed us much of what has not yet been seen, including the cutscenes from all the movies that will include originally recorded dialogue from several of Lego Star Wars’ most well known voice actors, as well as gameplay footage like First-Player style Podrace sequences, reimaginings of the Death Star Trench Scene and Starkiller Base aerial battles as you get to pilot an X-Wing, charge at AT-AT’s in a snowspeeder, free roam through the streets of Coruscant and Mos Eisley spaceport alike, reimagined Lightsaber combat, speeder bike chase sequences and even levels from the Anthology Films, as it shows the legendary Rogue One hallway sequence featuring Darth Vader.
As well as the classic, Lego humour that has become a complete normality to the harcore fans of these games, the Skywalker Saga game seems to be bringing together everything you could want from the culmination of Lego Star Wars.
The game is set to release on October 20th this year.
New LEGO Skywalker Saga GAMEPLAY TRAILER
With practically nothing for so long, and to suddenly have an overabundance of developmental news on the Kenobi Series, the Star Wars fanbase is prompted to be optimistic on the quickly growing production of this series. And this week, the series brings even more details, not on filming or casting, but what the show itself will be based around.
Reportedly, the Kenobi series is going to have a heavy emphasis on Clone Wars flashbacks, with both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christiensen returning as Obi-Wan and Anakin, in their famous Clone Wars attire that they made famous in the first two seasons of the show. These flashbacks will aim to develop their time as brothers in war, in a way just as vast as what has already been seen. Additionally, the script for the show will follow the newly formed, and powerful Galactic Empire on the hunt for Kenobi, with one person being personally interested in the hunt for the Jedi Hermit, that of course being...Darth Vader.
There has also been widespread speculation that Commander Cody will be heavily featured in the series, however it is unknown whether his inclusion in the series will take place in these aforementioned flashbacks, or as one of the high-ranking Stormtrooper Commanders under the new Imperial regime.
Clearly, this new series will have strong ties to Kenobi’s past and the people that knew him, and how the subsequently will affect his new life, as the old Tatooine hermit. Given that Hayden Christiensen is said to reappear in his Clone Wars garb, Kenobi’s memories of his fallen brother and the guilt he may feel for leaving him, that day on Mustafar, may have more of a long-lasting impact on him going forward, than we have yet to ever see from the Star Wars Universe.
We will be sure to give you further details as this highly anticipated series continues to develop.
SYNOPSIS DETAILS For Kenobi!
With even us falling subject to it, practically the entire Star Wars fanbase was expecting the trailer for the second season of the Mandalorian to drop last week, during what is currently the NBA playoffs that are taking place. But still, despite putting us on the edges of our seats, we still have not received the trailer, leaving the fanbase to speculate when it will drop, with barely two months left until Mandalorian Season 2 premieres on Disney+.
And yet as of about three days ago, it was reported on the Kessel Run Transmissions channel (Link below), that there is a specific and frankly exciting reason why the trailer has not yet dropped.
According to reports from Lucasfilm that has since been reported on several sites already, the trailer features one whole scene, where Rosario Dawson’s Ashoka Tano gets caught in a brawl with two bounty hunters in a ‘familiar’ cantina. As a result, taking the time to film and produce this extended scene is what has caused this delay, despite the fact that this scene is being specifically for the trailer, and will not actually appear in the series.
The fact that Lucasfilm has chosen to take the time to film a whole scene to act as the first promo for the show’s second season, has left fans wondering how much more of a delay this will cause for the trailer, and when the actual release date of said trailer will now be.
The context of the scene itself however, begs the question as to what Ahsoka’s role will be in the series. If she is forced to engage in a skirmish with bounty hunters, does this mean that the ex-Jedi Togruta is being hunted? As this series obviously takes place after Return of the Jedi, it begs the question what she is being hunted for, as the last we saw of Ahsoka around that time period, was when she appeared to Sabine on Lothal in her mage-like, white cloak and staff, with the two leaving to try and find Ezra Bridger in the series finale of Star Wars Rebels.
Lucasfilm of course has stayed silent on the matter, having confirmed practically nothing about the existence, or the subsequent release of the trailer, but we will be sure to keep you posted.