If you’re a Star Wars fan but weren’t plugged into the events taking place during the Star Wars Celebration in London on Friday (April 7), you missed a few exciting announcements about two of the franchise’s upcoming shows.
First, David Tennant (Doctor Who) and Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher) have joined the cast of Ahsoka, the limited spin-off series starring Rosario Dawson in the title role. Ahsoka creators Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau broke the news during the event.
Tennant will reprise his role as Huyang, a droid he lent his voice to in the 2012 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In 2013, Tennant won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his performance. “You have to have [Tennant],” Filoni said. “He makes it work.”
Mikkelsen is also returning to a role he played in the 2016 animated series Star Wars Rebels – Admiral Thrawn. Mikkelsen said returning to the Star Wars franchise was “wonderful.”
The Ahsoka news came after Lucasfilm released the first trailer for the upcoming series the day before. During the celebration in London, an expanded trailer was shown to the crowd. It was also revealed that the series would debut on Disney+ in August 2023.
Lucasfilm then unveiled its first look at the second season of the Disney+ series Andor starring Diego Luna in the title role. Series creator Tony Gilroy said the show would wrap production in August and predicted it would hit the Disney+ platform a year after that – August 2024.
“If you know your ending, it really helps,” Gilroy said. “We know exactly where we’re going. You know what you have to deliver emotionally and what the story has to do. It’s a decision borne of survival, but it’s good for us creatively.”
According to Deadline, the footage shared with audiences in London included Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) trying to assemble a rebellion and Cassian Andor (Luna) sporting a new hairdo.
Star Wars Celebration also announced three live-action Star Wars movies from directors Dave Filoni, James Mangold, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Filoni’s film will “focus on the New Republic,” with Filoni and Jon Favreau hesitant to call it the end of our beloved The Mandalorian.
Filoni told IGN, “I don’t know if I’d call it [a finale]. I think of the time period now as the New Republic time period, and it’s something that has existed long before we were ever making The Mandalorian.”
As for the other Star Wars film, Mangold’s film “will go back to the dawn of the Jedi.” But it’s Obaid-Chinoy’s film that we’re super interested in as it will “feature Daisy Ridley back as Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order.” Maybe Oscar Isaac will make his return as Poe Dameron in it?
On the animated side of things, Chilean studio Punk Robot Studio is joining Star Wars: Visions. Director Gabriel Osorio took the stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 to talk about his episode “In the Stars.” According to him, it’s about two sisters who lose everything due to an invasion. And it’s based on the genocide of the Selk’nam people of Tierra del Fuego.
“This happened less than 100 years ago, so this is recent history for us. And despite this, this is still not very well known part of our own history by the vast majority of Chileans and Latin Americans,” Osorio explained, “This is why I felt a big responsibility to tell a story that reflected on the resistance and resilience and all the injustices that the original nations of Patagonia had to endure. And we felt like Star Wars universe was the perfect place to tell this story.”
The cast of Punk Robot Studios’ “In the Stars” includes Amparo Noguera, Julia Oviedo, Kate Kickie, and Valentina Muhr. And it was written and directed by Osorio.
Watch the Star Wars: Visions panel below at 2:30:31.