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Credit: LucasfilmThe Mandalorian Season 2 wrapped — with an incredible finale episode that brought Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker (CGI Mark Hamill) back to the Star Wars universe — right around the time The Walt Disney Company hosted its 2020 Disney Investor Day event.
During this presentation, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirmed nearly a dozen new Star Wars streaming series and several upcoming feature films. Among the shows were The Mandalorian Season 3, Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic.
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These three series — all led by Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni — were set to function as a “trilogy”, of sorts, culminating in an epic live-action streaming event on Disney+.
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Ahsoka will star Rosario Dawson as Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, while Rangers of the New Republic was expected to featured Gina Carano’s Cara Dune in the leading role. However, after Carano was fired from the Star Wars franchise in February 2021 for her controversial Tweets and months of online drama, it seemingly threw a wrench into the plans Lucasfilm had for the Mandalorian saga’s future.
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Rangers of the New Republic is “no longer in active development” and, according to leading man Pedro Pascal (Din Djarin), The Mandalorian Season 3 hasn’t even begun production. This means we are unlikely to see the show until late 2022, nearly two years after Season 2 began airing in November 2020.
Shockingly, per a recent poll on Reddit, Star Wars fans aren’t especially looking forward to the third season of The Mandalorian and are much more excited about other Star Wars series — one in particular.
As you can see in the screenshot [above] over 4,500 members of the Star Wars Speculation fan community have voted in the poll, in which The Mandalorian Season 3 took fourth place out of six shows — only Diego Luna’s Rogue One prequel series, Andor, and Leslye Headland’s High Republic show, The Acolyte, received fewer votes.
The most likely reason for fans’ lack of excitement about the hit series is that we simply know very little about what to expect — other than the fact that Grogu has been taken away by Skywalker to complete his Jedi Order training and Djarin now wields the Darksaber, details are scant (true to form, of course, for Favreau and Filoni).
Many people may also be less excited about the third season of the show since we don’t for sure that Grogu will appear and he is arguably the most popular character in the Star Wars series.
It is, however, worth noting that fans are looking forward to both Ahsoka — which is expected to see the live-action debut of Star Wars Rebels character Ezra Bridger — and The Book of Boba Fett.
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The latter was announced during The Mandalorian Season 2 finale episode’s post credits scene and will serve as “the next chapter” of the story. Temuera Morrison will reprise his role as iconic bounty hunter Boba Fett, while Ming-Na Wen will return as Fennec Shand.
The vast majority of voters, though, are most excited about Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series, which will be set approximately 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), will see the return of prequel trilogy actors Ewan McGregor (Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker) during Kenobi’s exile on Tatooine.
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It may also give us a glimpse of Luke Skywalker’s childhood with his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen Lars, played by Bonnie Piesse and Joel Edgerton, respectively.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, and The Mandalorian Season 3 are all expected to debut in 2022. The Book of Boba Fett will premiere in December 2021.
Which Star Wars series are you most excited about? Do you agree with the apparent lack of anticipation about The Mandalorian Season 3?