Disney I buy lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 and immediately started releasing new movies, including a new trilogy, in addition to spin-offs.”Only” Y “rogue one”. But they were mostly panned in reviews (except for the one starring Felicity Jones) and underperformed at the box office.
But the launch of Disney + in 2019 (streaming that today has more subscribers than Netflix), forced us to rethink the star wars saga. Y Jon Favreauresponsible for launching the Marvel Universe with “Hombre de Hierro”, was chosen to lead “The Mandalorian“, the space western that opened with its success, the door for a dozen new projects. Parallel universes for the stellar franchise.
george lucas he had already flirted with the idea of a Star Wars series about the rebel process before selling Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in 2012. It was called “underworld”, and scripts were written and test pictures were shot, but the level of quality the director was looking for turned out to be too expensive for a television budget. But with “The Mandalorian” becoming a global phenomenon, the budget appeared to give life to a handful of ambitious series.
At the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, the third season of “The Mandalorian”, which reunites Pedro Pascal’s helmeted gunslinger with his little green ward (the lovable “baby Joda”). Next year will open with Rosario Dawson What “Ahsoka”, the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. And towards the end of 2023, “The Acolyte” is signed up, set a century before the era of the Skywalkers, to start sowing stories of Jedi and Sith Lords.
The president of Lucasfilm, kathleen kennedyrecognizes that after the transfer of the company to Disney, the main objective was rejuvenate star wars with a new era of movies. But the mix of old and new, with the return of Han, Leia and Luke to accompany Rey and Finn, did not work. Neither JJ Abrams nor Rian Johnson hit the nail on the head. The movies made millions, but the twisty narrative was hated by fans.
“We recognized that we needed to work together to create the architecture where we were going,” says Kennedy. And Star Wars required a higher degree of devotion professional on the part of the filmmakers. “Anyone who enters the Star Wars universe should know that it’s a three, four, five year commitment,” he says.
And Kennedy turned to Jon Favreauwhich had opened the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and was immersed in large-scale serialized storytelling. Favreau came up with an idea about a Mandalorian, the tribe of galactic warriors who often appear as mercenaries or bounty hunters.
The problem was that another esteemed Lucasfilm executive, Dave Philoni, had also devised a series focused on the Mandalorians. Filoni, the mastermind behind “The Clone Wars” wanted to explore narrative lines that would separate from the central axis (some of which can be seen in “Tales of the Jedi” coming to Disney+ later this year and will focus on the Count Dooku Y Qui-Gonand the second season of “The Bad Batch).
Since Filoni and Favreau were friends, Kennedy proposed that they collaborate. “There was many different looksbut we got one that finally clicked”, sums up Favreau.
“The Mandalorian”, had been born as an idea for a film. “Obi Wan Kenobi” also. “Andor” is the ambitious prequel to “rogue one”. “We’re making series that were meant to be alongside our movies with a third of the budget and half the time,” acknowledges Lucasfilm production executive Carrie Beck, who co-executive produced “The Mandalorian.”
“I feel like everyone’s blood, sweat and tears are on that screen,” he adds. Part of that achievement in lowering costs is due to the fact that ILM, the special effects division of lucasfilmmanaged to refine and implement the colossal curved LED wall they call The Volumewhich can envelop a film crew as effectively as any location set, creating an environment that is compelling and photorealistic.
There is no need to send equipment, props and actors anywhere. Sunset or sunrise glow can last the entire workday if needed. It can freeze the sun, or suns, if the planet Tatooine is recreated. A technology that ILM already used for the sequel to “Avatar”, james cameron: It consists of millions and millions of tiny light-emitting diodes embedded in a curved surface.
The technology was used to be able to insert a Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) young in “The Mandalorian”, and many of the scenes in “Obi Wan Kenobi”, in which the old rivalry with Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader, revives.
“I was originally hired to play a very specific part of this person’s life. Most of my work was with Anakin. And now I can go back and explore the character of Darth Vader.” Hayden Christensen, who shares the voice of the man in black with James Earl Jones. A return to the original characters to review the canon, and expand it into new universes.
So they will be added in the next year “The Acolyte“, with Amandla Stenberg: it will be set in the era of the High Republic, 100 years before “the ghost menace”; also “Landau”, where Donald Glover would return as the young version of Lando Calrissian in the Disney + series that Justin Simien will develop; “rangers“, which will follow a group of X-wing pilots in the same timeline as “The Mandalorian” and connect with “Ahsoka”; and “Skeleton Crew“, where Jude Law will star in the series that will take place during the reconstruction after “Return of the Jedi”.
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