Disney+ and Lucasfilm have dropped a brand new trailer for the upcoming Star Wars series, Ahsoka. The 8 episode first season is debuting with a 2-episode premiere, on Disney+, August 23rd. The series takes place in the same time period as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Ahsoka follows Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, the former padawan of Anakin Skywalker, as she deals with reemergence of a deadly former adversary, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Check out the trailer right here:
I’m particularly excited for this new series for a number of reasons. Ahsoka is one of my favorite Star Wars characters, I’ve followed her journey from when she was introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars to her surprise return in Star Wars Rebels to her live action debut in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Which brings me to another reason this series is such a big deal for me, it’s basically a live-action sequel series to Star Wars Rebels. Rebels is easily among my most beloved pieces of Star Wars canon. As you can see in the trailer, the show features the live-action appearances of almost all of the Rebels cast…
General Hera Syndulla, captain of The Ghost, my favorite starship this side of The Millennium Falcon…
Mandalorian warrior and artist, Sabine Wren, the onetime wielder of The Darksaber…
Chopper, the best droid in all of Star Wars not called R2-D2…
…and exiled Jedi Knight, Ezra Bridger.
Additional characters like Captain Rex and others are returning as well.
However, the biggest draw has to be “The Big Bad” of the series, fan favorite villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn first appeared in The Heir to The Empire trilogy of books written by Timothy Zahn in the 90’s. As part of Star Wars Legends, the books chronicled the events following Return of The Jedi. Thrawn was one of The Empire’s highest ranking officer’s and The Emperor’s right hand, second only to Darth Vader. Though he wasn’t a Force user, his brilliant mind, working like an evil Sherlock Holmes, made him just as dangerous (if not more so) than Vader or Palpetine. He was such a cunning tactician, that he very nearly succeeded in rebuilding The Empire and crippling the nascent New Republic. When Disney bought Lucasfilm the novels were no longer considered canon. However, the character was restored to canon when he appeared in Star Wars Rebels as the main antagonist of the final few seasons. Lars Mikelsen who voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels is also returning to play Thrawn in Ahsoka, which is really cool.
The last few Star Wars miniseries from Disney+ have left me a little cold, so hopefully this show will be a return to form for a galaxy far, far away.
Ahsoka premiers on Disney+ August 23rd.
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Over the weekend Lucasfilm held it’s annual Star Wars Celebration event, showcasing what the future holds for a galaxy far, far away. In addition to several interesting trailers, which you can watch below, there were several major announcements to come out of the event. The most notable being, that three new Star Wars movies are currently in development.
Jon Favreau (L) & Dave Filoni (R)
The current stewards of The Star Wars Universe (the good stuff anyway)
No official release dates have been announced so I’m not certain what order these films will be released in, but I am going to break each of them down. First, will have an Avengers-style, team-up movie, directed by Dave Filoni, bringing together the characters from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ashoka. The series will act as the epic culmination of the overarching storyline that began with The Mandalorian and serve as an ending to the story of Din Djarin and Grogu. But don’t freak out yet! We still have multiple seasons of The Mandalorian before the film will hit theaters. At the very least we know Season 4 is already in early stages of production.
The second film will be directed by James Mangold. Mangold is a fantastic director, behind movies like Logan and the upcoming 5th Indiana Jones film. The movie take place thousands of years before The Skywalker Saga and chronicle the origins and beginning of The Jedi Order. As much as I love The Mandalorian, this is the film that I’m most excited for. Mangold is a great director and the story has a lot of potential. Taking place in a completely different time period, with all new characters, is something a lot of Star Wars fans have been wanting for a while now. I think going back as far as the beginning of The Jedi, has the potential to be very unique and cool.
The third and certainly most controversial film, will focus on Rey from the sequel trilogy, and take place years after The Rise of Skywalker. The story will follow Rey, as she attempts to rebuild The Jedi Order. Considering how divisive The Sequel Trilogy was, especially Rise of Skywalker, this seems like a somewhat surprising and misguided, move on the part of the leadership at Lucasfilm. We’ll be following the production of these movies and keep you updated as new details come to light these films begin to come to light.
On the streaming front, as I mentioned before we got our first look at the Ashoka series in the awesome trailer posted below, as well as several other exciting interesting Star Wars TV projects. Take a look:
Ashoka
Star Wars: Visions Vol.2
Both of these shows look amazing and I can’t wait!
A new series called Star Wars: Acolyte was also announced. The series is set before The Skywalker Saga, in The High Republic Era. Very little is known about the project at this point and is shrouded in secrecy. The show has been fully cast, with most of the roles being kept under wraps for the moment. However, we do know one thing for sure: We’re getting a Wookiee Jedi! Which is worth the price of admission all by itself. I will keep you updated as news of this new series develops.
The cast of Star Wars: Acolyte
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The upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries premiering on Disney+, is the cover story of this month’s issue of EW. They also published these exclusive images from the upcoming show.
Now, Disney’s dropped the first trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi and looks pretty damn awesome. Take a look:
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25th on Disney+
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
May The Force Be With You, my friends! Today we celebrate another Star Wars Day! For those of you who don’t know every year, May 4 is Star Wars day. You know, like “May The Fourth Be With You” (I normally hate puns, but it’s Star Wars so I kind of like this one). One of my favorite things to do is find unique and talented artists all throughout the Internet and see their take, their interpretation, of classic pop-culture characters or stories. Star Wars has some of the BEST art on the internet. From concept art from the films that were never used, to famous artists putting their own spin on a Star Wars character or scene, or all of the incredible amature artists out there who post their fantastic work on Instagram and social media. So to commemorate Star Wars Day, I wanted to share some of the cooler pieces of Star Wars art I’ve come across recently. Check them out below! May The Force be with you, always…
I also wanted to include some of these fantastic photos you’ll see below. Every time a new Star Wars movie has come out of the last 25 years, Vanity Fair wouldsend world renowned photographer Annie Leibowitz to take photos of the production, the actors, the characters, etc. Vanity Fair’s Star Wars issue was usually best look at the upcoming Star Wars movie. Usually a teaser trailer would have been released, but not much else. So Vanity Fair’s in-depth article on each, upcoming Star Wars film was our first and best look at the coming film. The best part was that each article was accompanied by Leibowitz’s amazing images. Through color and texture, she captured so much amazing detail with her photos. Each photo she took was unmistakably an Annie Liebowitz photo. She’s just that damn good. So I wanted to include some of my favorite photos from her extensive Star Wars portfolio…
Thanks You! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. We’re on Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
After 2020’s thrillling 2nd Season of The Mandalorian and the phenomenal Final Season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars both streaming on Disney+, fans are excited about what’s next for our favorite corner of a galaxy far, far, away. In Episode 4 of The Mandalorian’s 2nd Season, titled “The Jedi”, not only were we introduced to Rosario Dawson’s live-action iteration of Ahsoka Tano, but a MAJOR name from Star Wars mythology was dropped as well. A name that has potentially massive implications for the future of the franchise. In this episode, Ahsoka revealed that she is hunting Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. While many viewers likely didn’t understand the weight that his name carries, Thrawn is one of the most fascinating and dangerous villains in the Star Wars Universe. With more seasons of The Mandalorian and the recently announced upcoming shows like Ahsoka, Rangers of The New Republic, and The Book of Boba Fett, all coming down the pipe line, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni plan to keep these shows closely interconnected much like The MCU. The plan being that at some point, there will be some big crossover miniseries or movie on Disney+ that will bring all the characters from the various shows together to combat some larger threat.
Grand Admiral Thrawn would be the perfect antagonist to embody that larger threat in a team up project like this. Not only would he poses an existential threat to the galaxy, but he’s also a fantastic character. Thrawn was first introduced in a trilogy of novels written by Timothy Zahn.
The novels told the story of how The Emperor sent Thrawn on a special mission to investigate a strange new threat that took him far beyond the outer rim, for years. He was so far away in fact, that communication between himself and the heart of The Empire was impossible. Thrawn finally returns with a small fleet to find The Rebellion victorious and The Emperor killed after the events of Return of The Jedi. He rallies what’s left of The Empire and with his brilliance and lethal cunning comes damn near close to destroying The New Republic.
From The MCU’S Greatest Hero to The Most Cunning Villain In Star Wars?
This image was created by a fantastic digital artist. I don’t have the artist’s name right now, but as soon as I do I will post it on this article with a link to see more of their work.
Rumor has it, that none other than Robert Downey Jr, old pal of Jon Favreau, is in talks with Disney and Lucasfilm to sign on as the character in upcoming Star Wars projects for Disney+. While it hasn’t been 100% confirmed that Thrawn is the character Downey is meeting with Disney/Lucasfilm and Favreau to discuss, reports have been very clear that the role is not a cameo, it’s a significant part, it would require Downey to wear some sort of prosthetic make up and it would be a departure from the heroic characters he’s been playing over the last 15 years or so.
I think this is fantastic news. Like I mentioned before, Downey is good friends with Jon Favreau, it’s a fantastic role for any actor, and after the unmitigated disaster that was Dolittle, I’m certain Downey is probably looking for a sure thing for his next major project. As an added benefit, I often describe Thrawn as an evil Sherlock Holmes. Considering that Robert Downey Jr. played a pretty damn good Sherlock Holmes in the past, that’s just one more check in the plus column. I really hope this rumor becomes reality. It’s interesting that so many elements from The Star Wars Expanded Universe are being brought into play lately because when Disney bought Lucasfilm they tossed out all of the Star Wars EU stories and filed them under the umbrella of Star Wars “Legends”. Meaning the stories were no longer considered canon. I understand why Disney/Lucasfilm would want to do that at the time, a lot of the EU stories took place after Return of The Jedi. The company wanted to keep the “Post-RoTJ” time period wide open, so they didn’t have any pre-existing stories or characters that would interfere or contradict the direction that they wanted to go in. Which didn’t work out quite as well as we all would’ve hoped, however, I must admit that I absolutely love The Force Awakens.
Thrawn was reintroduced to Star Wars continuity as the main villain facing the fledgling Rebellion in the final 2 seasons of Star Wars: Rebels. An argument could be made that Lars Mikkelsen, who played Thrawn in Rebels, wouldn’t be a bad choice to play the live-action version of the character. So I really like the actor, he played the villain Charles Augustus Magnuson in Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Season 3, he also played the wizard Geralt meets in the first season of The Witcher. Personally I think his brother, Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Casino Royale, Doctor Strange), would be much better suited to play Thrawn. Unfortunately, he already played a pretty major character in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Galen Erso, the man who was forced to design and build The Death Star. BUT he also put the fatal flaw in the space station’s design that allowed Luke to destroy The Death Star during The Battle of Yavin. We’ve even seen Thrawn appearance in some excellent comics recently. Disney also owns MarvelComics, so there of been some fantastic Star Wars graphic novels published, with one miniseries specifically focusing on Thrawn.
With Thrawn already having made his appearance on Star Wars Rebels and now possibly in live action for the first time, as well as Boba Fett officially surviving his trip into The Sarlak Pit (which is also an Expanded Universe concept), it seems that Lucasfilm is getting more comfortable about using EU characters and stories. They seem to be keeping the essence of exactly who these characters are, while changing minor details like when they appear in the mythology. Thrawn debuted on Star Wars Rebels at the height of The Empire’s power, right before the start of The Rebellion. In the EU, he comes into play after Return of The Jedi and the fall of The Empire. So people like Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni seem to be interested in using EU characters, they might just move around where they pop up in the Star Wars timeline and how they fit into mythology, while still respecting the essence of the character. Which begs the question what other EU characters might we see pop-up next? Dash Rendar? Prince Xizor, or a fan favorite character like Mara Jade? My money would be on the latter. Time will tell. Despite the lack luster ending of The Skywalker Saga, it seems like it’s still a pretty good time to be a Star Wars fan!
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. We’re on Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
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