The Star Wars franchise will officially return to the prequel trilogy in January 2025 following the official cancellation of The Acolyte and the reported cancellation of the popular The Mandalorian TV series.
Lucasfilm, the studio that produces the Star Wars franchise, is experiencing significant change. Presently, there is seemingly only one TV show in development, Dave Filoni’s Ahsoka Season 2 and The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) from Jon Favreau for the feature film slate.
There are some other projects in development, however, including Filoni’s own Mando-Verse movie and films from James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, and Shawn Levy. Although, judging by Lucasfilm’s development history, all of the above aren’t concrete in the slightest.
2024 marked another shift for Kathleen Kennedy’s studio and Disney as a whole. The release of the High Republic era TV show The Acolyte from creator Lesyle Headland sparked a level of vitriol not seen since the House of Mouse’s sequel trilogy era.
The Acolyte, a show with the potential for multiple seasons judging by how it was created and what content it included, was canceled earlier this year.
Disney claimed that low viewership was to blame for its untimely end, but the project was not aided by the near-constant backlash it received–something stars like Amandla Stenberg (Osha/Mae Aniseya), Manny Jacinto (Qimir/The Stranger), Lee Jung-jae (Jedi Master Sol), and Rebecca Henderson (Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh) have spoken about, or at least alluded to, in their recent comments.
Not long after The Acolyte was canceled at Disney, reports circulated claiming that The Mandalorian Season 4 would also not be going forward. This was unsurprising because there are two New Republic-era movies on the slate: the aforementioned The Mandalorian and Grogu from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s movie, which is being colloquially called the “Heir to the Empire.”
From a production sense, the cancellation of The Mandalorian Season 4 also seems to make sense because star Pedro Pascal, who plays the titular Mandalorian, AKA Din Djarin, now only lends his voice to the role. The third season largely set up Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze as the new central character.
The Prequel Trilogy Returns
With that in mind, Star Wars will now return to George Lucas’s prequel trilogy era with a re-release of “Star Wars: Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles.”
Set during the same time as Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace (1999), “Jedi Power Battles” was first released in 2000 on the PlayStation platform before debuting on the Dreamcast and the Game Boy Advance. In the game, gamers could pick to play as the Jedi characters, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, and Plo Koon.
From using the Force to wielding lightsabers, the game consists of completing fighting and jumping challenges while moving through a campaign that loosely follows the events of Lucas’s The Phantom Menace.
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In January 2025, almost 25 years after the original game was released, the LucasArts-developed game will find a new life on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X/S.
“Use the power of the Force and your trusty lightsaber against legions of droids, assassins, and other legendary foes as you fight through iconic locations from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace like Theed Palace and more,” reads the synopsis, per Eurogamer.
Watch the trailer for “Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles” here:
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As history shows, Star Wars is not just contained in the feature films many people know and love. While Star Wars: Episode IV–A New Hope (1977) launched an empire, one that has endured close to five decades, the movies have always been supplemented with games, novels, comics, and TV shows.
Most recently, the New Republic era is expanding with the release of a new Star Wars comic book trilogy, “Battle of Jakku. Beginning with “Insurgency Rising” and continuing with “Republic Under Seige,” Star Wars will “reframe” the ending of Lucas’s Star Wars: Episode VI–Return of the Jedi (1983) and explore the fledgling New Republic in the wake of the Galactic Empire’s downfall.
Will you be picking up “Jedi Power Battles” this coming January? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!