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Credit: LucasfilmNew information has been reported regarding the future of the Star Wars franchise just days after Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy spoke out about her so-called upcoming retirement and exit from the galaxy far, far away.
After much discourse over the last decade, Star Wars will finally be back on the big screen in 2026. Pivoting away from the three projects Kathleen Kennedy lined up at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) will drop in just over a year on May 22.
While it is still unclear whether Favreau’s movie is replacing the fourth season of The Mandalorian on Disney+, it can be expected that the film will tackle the aftermath of Ahsoka Season 1 where both Grand Admiral Thrawn and Jedi Ezra Bridger–played by Lars Mikkelsen and Eman Esfandi, respectively–escaped the planet Peridea and made their way back to the galaxy they once knew.
The New Republic era has been a staple part of Disney’s Star Wars expansion, with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the most recent entry, Skeleton Crew, fleshing out the timeline after Star Wars: Episode VI–Return of the Jedi (1983).
Lucasfilm shows no sign of slowing down, either, with Ahsoka Season 2 on the way, the potential fourth season of The Mandalorian, and Dave Filoni’s Mando-Verse/Heir to the Empire movie joining The Mandalorian and Grogu further down the line.
In her interview with Deadline, Kennedy explained the current status of the New Republic era.
“And Mandalorian really stands on its own because there, we’re dealing with a whole other era in the New Republic. We have other development going on in that space as well,” the long-time Hollywood executive said. “So that’s the space that we’re pretty much focused on right at the moment, because obviously with Mandalorian we have a pretty good sense of where that’s going.”
When it comes to Ahsoka, the first season–which saw Rosario Dawson reprise her role as Anakin Skywalker’s former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano–debuted in 2023 to mixed reviews.
While it expanded the lore of the franchise with the arrival of the aforementioned Peridea and introduced new characters like Ray Stevenson’s Baylan Skoll and Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati, many were left disappointed by the popular animated character’s live-action breakthrough.
That said, Ahsoka Season 2 was greenlit along with The Mandalorian and Grogu back in January 2024, and Dave Filoni recently confirmed he is still the sole writer on the project and that work is commencing to bring the sophomore outing to the small screen. With a projected filming start of this summer, it can be presumed that Ahsoka Season 2 will drop after Pedro Pascal’s big screen debut as Din Djarin.
Now, reports have surfaced regarding the fate of the Star Wars show, not long after news broke that Lucasfilm was looking to replace Kathleen Kennedy after she retired.
“Ahsoka Season 2 will begin filming imminently with two new cast members attached, according to industry insider Daniel Richtman,” The Direct reported. “Richtman reiterated on his Patreon that Ahsoka‘s second season will begin filming at the end of April 2025. In addition to that, Richtman revealed that the series is casting for ‘two new supporting female roles.'”
It is unclear whether these two roles are original characters or two pulled from the animated canon, perhaps Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels, where the majority of Ahsoka Tano content lies. Aside from Rosatio Dawson’s involvement in the series, the rest of the cast is uncertain.
It can be expected that Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Eman Esfandi will return in their respective roles of Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, and Ezra Bridger.
In addition to those, Rory McCann will enter the franchise to play Baylan Skoll, taking over from the late Ray Stevenson. Stevenson died in May 2023, not long before the Ahsoka series began airing on Disney’s streaming service.
After clearing up reports that her days at Lucasfilm were numbered (they aren’t), Kennedy confirmed that the next movie to be produced after The Mandalorian and Grogu will be Shawn Levy’s movie, which is set around half a decade after the end of Disney’s sequel trilogy.
Expected to be a standalone narrative in the galaxy far, far away, Levy’s movie is reported to feature Academy Award-nominee Ryan Gosling in the lead role.
Further afield in the franchise are movies from James Mangold and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, as well as a trilogy by X-Men executive Simon Kinberg.
“We’re absolutely rolling fast and furiously. That has gone exceptionally well, and he’s literally going to script as we speak,” Kennedy told Deadline about Kinberg’s project for the studio. “We’ll see something probably around June. Simon, if you remember, he did some work with us years ago with the animated show, which was a really wonderful collaborative experience.”
Kinberg is expected to begin a new saga for the iconic science-fiction franchise, leaving the Skywalker Saga behind–at least for the time being.
How do you feel about these Ahsoka Season 2 updates? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below.