When Star Wars Celebration announced that the opening panel on Thursday would be a Lucasfilm Studio Showcase, the podcasting and social media world went into a frenzy speculating what vague language like, “current crop of live-action filmmakers,” might mean. The panel description named three upcoming Disney Plus series — Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and The Mandalorian, but would Lucasfilm announce what’s next for Star Wars in the feature film space? Would filmmakers with rumored attachments to projects in development, like Taika Waiti, Kevin Feige, or Rian Johnson, officially announce?
The answer to these questions is definitively, “No,” as the jam-packed panel, with more thrills than my fan heart could handle, made no mention whatsoever of any Star Wars feature film. From a PR perspective, the core messaging was that the pandemic has changed the entertainment world, and the Star Wars franchise has changed with it. During the segment dedicated to The Mandalorian Season 3, series creator Jon Favreau unveiled a special exhibition of props and costumes from past seasons of the series (and its recent insert series, The Book of Boba Fett, which dominated the collection) called The Mandalorian Experience. But he did so specifically in the context of thanking fans for stepping up and showing up to Disney Plus when it launched. He framed The Mandalorian Experience as a thank you gift from Disney to Star Wars fans, who in part have made this new experiment in Star Wars storytelling a success. Comments from President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy also reinforced this narrative: Star Wars on Disney Plus has been a huge success and will continue to lead Lucasfilm in the future.
The dazzling trailers for both The Mandalorian and Season 3 and new Rogue-One prequel series, Andor, substantiate this messaging. Mando Season 3 appears to focus on Din Djarin’s quest to cleanse his helmet-removing transgressions by returning to the ruins of Mandalore. The amount of action in the trailer and the sheer number of Mandalorians buzzing around — most notably Bo-Katan Kryze — indicates that the story arc for the season will attempt to sort through the possession of The Darksaber and the potential restoration and rule of Mandalore. Bo-Katan wryly says to Grogu, “Do you think your dad is the only Mandalorian?” So it stands to reason that we will see a broadening of Grogu’s horizons, learning more about his adoptive culture and the tensions operating with it. Hopefully this season arc will draw from the rich lore already established in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series.
While I would not have put Andor, which premieres this August, at the top of my most anticipated list, the trailer that dropped at this panel quickly pushed this series up that list. Following Cassian Andor five years before the events of Rogue One, Andor tells not only his personal backstory but the birth of the rebellion on his home planet, Fest. I was especially impressed with how the trailer did so much rich world-building so quickly, and the equal parts political intrigue (with Mon Mothma playing a large role) and tense action show a lot of potential for a kind of series we have yet to see on Disney Plus. Diego Luna was one of the most charming guests to grace the Celebration Stage that morning. His sheer enthusiasm and sincerity was infectious, especially when talking about how much he enjoys being a part of Star Wars and how he loves that Andor tells “the story of the people” more than any other branch of the franchise.
Ewan McGregor apologized for not having any trailer to show the audience, but then quickly made up for it by inviting everyone back later that evening for the world premiere of episodes one and two of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The crowd went absolutely wild at this, but were not nearly as rowdy as when he and Hayden Christensen stood together on stage. At one point the panel host, Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), realized she was standing between them and quickly remedied the situation. “I’m a fan, and I know what the fans want,” she said, pointing at the reunited actors. I suspect all the crazy announcements and celebrity appearances may overshadow any discussion of Brown’s role on the panel, but I want to acknowledge how great a job she did hosting because she always knew when to tap into the emotional resonance of the fan experience, especially being physically together for the first time in years, and when to, alternatively, inject levity into a situation. When she said that she was a fan, I believed her.
In the midst of a strong showing from a slew of Disney Plus series, the one feature film that did make an appearance at this panel was the untitled Indiana Jones 5, which will hit theaters June 30, 2023. One could argue that the presentation of Indy 5 made theatrical releases feel like a relic of the past — the last remaining legacy of blockbuster cinema. The promo segued from a celebration of John Williams’ 90th birthday and a shocking surprise appearance by Lucasfilm veteran Harrison Ford, who notoriously does not attend conventions. Once the crowd settled down, Ford delivered a heartfelt speech about how genuine and wonderful a human being John Williams is, and how grateful he is for the maestro’s career-altering compositions. He got a little choked up in a way that implied that Ford made this appearance — came out of hiding, perhaps — to honor his friend. But were they honoring the history and legacy of a type of filmmaking that, at least for Lucasfilm, may soon be obsolete?
Given the curation and staging of the entire panel, the message from Lucasfilm is clear: this change isn’t a loss we must mourn because a Disney Plus series is just as cinematic, just as deserving of pomp and circumstance as an Indiana Jones film. The panel opened with The Pacific Chorale performing John Williams’ iconic “Duel of the Fates,” complete with dramatic lighting and smoke, but explicitly to introduce the cast and crew of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Similarly, the John Williams performance with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra began under the auspices of premiering the new theme Williams penned for the series. To me, this creates a through line from the feature films of Lucasfilm’s past to the Disney Plus series of its future, as if to not only say that streaming series hold the future of Star Wars, but that they will be no less cinematic than its theatrical predecessors.
Next year’s Celebration may, of course, tell a different story, as theaters could potentially get back on their feet this summer, and as Lucasfilm has more time to prepare announcements for upcoming films. While most other panels I attended had similar pro-Disney Plus messaging: a lot of creators talked up the storytelling benefits of having more time or how serialized storytelling is more in line with George Lucas’ pulpy vision for Star Wars. The one counterpoint to that I can recall, though, was at a Q & A at the end of a screening of the final four episodes of The Clone Wars animated series. Dave Filoni noted that a stadium full of fans excited to watch a series that they could easily watch on their devices when they got home chose to take precious time out of their Celebration weekend to watch the show on a big screen, together. “That’s the power of cinema,” he said.
According to this opening panel, at least, we now know that 2023 will be the year of streaming on Disney Plus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cURr8orSszs
Jen Sopchockchai Bankard is an Associate Professor of Writing at the University of California and has been a Star Wars fan since she wore out VHS tapes of the Original Trilogy in middle school and watched the Prequel Trilogy in theaters in high school and college. She has been a guest on the Rebel Base Card podcast and The ColbyCast. For in-depth reviews of all new Star Wars releases, visit and subscribe (for free!) to The Long Take.
Instagram and Twitter: @sopchockchai
- Hardcover Book
- Insight Editions (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 128 Pages - 07/12/2022 (Publication Date) - Insight Editions (Publisher)
