Star Wars Celebration: James Mangold, Dave Filoni To Direct New Films, ‘Indiana Jones’ Footage & Series Details Revealed – Full List Of Announcements
Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Celebration event hit London on Friday, when Lucasfilm execs and creatives have revealed some of the projects the studio is set to blast into a galaxy far away.
First up, Lucasfilm studio exec Kathleen Kennedy rolled onstage and welcomed the 4500-capacity crowd to the event, which is the 15th Star Wars Celebration.
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The event is at the ExCeL Centre in London, which holds the UK’s largest auditorium. But it’s still barely big enough to accommodate the weekend’s festivities, where thousands of fans have turned up with their lightsabers to celebrate the Jedi universe and its many iterations. Events at the ExCel Centre run across the Easter weekend, ending Monday evening.
Here’s a list of what has been announced:
‘Andor’ To Debut In August 2024
Andor creator Tony Gilroy said the show’s second and final season will debut in August 2024 before debuting a teaser trailer for the series, which is still in production.
“We started shooting in November. We’re halfway. We will finish shooting in August, a year on post, and we’ll come out in the following August,” Gilroy said.
The teaser trailer was introduced by Gilroy who was joined onstage by the majority of the show’s cast including lead actors Diego Luna and Andy Serkis. The teaser featured footage of Luna’s character free and on a mission against time.
Later when asked about the show ending with the upcoming season, Gilroy said he and the crew are “very pleased” the show is ending in the near future because they know exactly where the story is heading.
“We know exactly where we’re going so you know what you have to deliver,” he said. “It was a decision born of survival, but it’s been creatively potent. We’re very pleased, it’s good to know there’s an ending coming.”
‘The Acolyte’ First Footage Revealed
The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland told the London crowd that her new original Star Wars series will be set during a time period between the high republic and the beginning of the prequel films. Headland added that this is the furthest back in the past the Star Wars series has been in the live-action universe.
Headland was joined on stage by the main cast including The Hate U Give actress Amandla Stenberg, Squid Game Emmy Award-winner Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, and Star Wars veteran Joonas Suotamo, who plays Kelnacca.
“I’m really in love with Leslye’s work,” Stenberg told the crowd. “She has a really emotionally profound way to approach the darker parts of ourselves. For a show like this that’s set in this time period, that style is perfect.”
Jung-jae added: “I play the Jedi Master. It was the first time I touched a lightsaber and I’m still shaking from the experience.”
The show is currently shooting in London but a teaser trailer was shared with fans in London. The footage features Carrie-Anne Moss as a Jedi Master in battle with Stenberg. Jung-Jae can also be seen wielding a lightsaber.
When asked about the theme and structure of the show, Headland said she pitched the idea for Acolyte to Kathleen Kennedy as a “mix between Frozen and Kill Bill” with inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s films of the 1950s.
‘Skeleton Crew‘: Jude Law Shared First Footage
Jude Law and Jon Favreau debuted the first trailer for Skeleton Crew on stage at the ExCel. The trailer features new characters centered around the lives of a group of rebellious kids traveling the galaxy. Jude Law features in the trailer as a Jedi with a new look: a clean shaved head.
On stage, Favreau confirmed the series will feature episodes directed by Jon Watts, David Lowery, The Daniels, Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung.
“I was six years old when this galaxy gripped me, blew my mind, and I feel like I’ve been in prep ever since,” Law said of his role in the show.
‘Ahsoka‘
Rosario Dawson confirmed on stage that the Ahsoka series will debut in August 2023. She was joined on stage by Mary Elizabeth Winstead who confirmed that she is playing Hera Syndulla in the series. The pair also shared a teaser trailer for the show, which you can watch here.
The trailer opens in the desert, with a voiceover featuring Dawson who says: “Something is coming, something dark.”
‘Star Wars’ Films: Daisy Ridley To Return As Rey
Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that a new series of Star Wars films are on the way from directors James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Daisy Ridley will reprise her role as Rey in Obaid-Chinoy’s film.
Introducing the new series, Kennedy said Mangold’s movie will be set during the time period of the dawn of the Jedi while Filoni’s project will be based around the escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic. Kennedy added that Filoni’s project will connect the worlds explored in the TV shows. Obaid-Chinoy’s film, however, will chronicle events following the Rise of Skywalker. Obaid-Chinoy said her film “will tell the story of the rebuilding of a new Jedi order.”
Last month, Deadline confirmed that Academy Award nominee Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) had taken over as the screenwriter for Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars movie following the recently announced departure of scribes Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson. Sources tell us that the film will likely be one of the first out of the gate for the studio, if not the first.
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘: Footage & Characters Revealed
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen debuted a new trailer and shared six minutes of footage from the final movie onstage. The new trailer sets out the plot of the film: Indiana Jones is about to retire when he is coxed into a final adventure by his god-daughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The Fleabag actor is in her usual witty form and can be heard describing Harrison Ford’s Jones as an “aging grave robber.”
Watch the full trailer here.
Last week, the Cannes Film Festival confirmed that Dial of Destiny will get its world premiere on May 18 at the festival. Harrison Ford and director James Mangold will be among those to tread the red carpet to a John Williams soundtrack.
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