Star Wars, Marvel, and Alien, Oh My!
Disney unleashed an avalanche of exciting news, today! Holy guacamole!! Let’s dig in, starting with all of the Star Wars news.
There’s a LOT of huge news, but what am I most excited about…?
It’s this: Ahsoka Tano is getting her own show!! Rosario Dawson will be back, and the series will be “set within the timeline of The Mandalorian”, whatever that means exactly. Is this before or after the end of Rebels? Does this mean Ahsoka’s search for Grand Admiral Thrown might again cross over with future seasons of The Mandalorian? I’m intrigued! Also intriguing: another spin-off show “set within the timeline of The Mandalorian”: Rangers of the New Republic. Will this be about the (sort-of hapless) X-Wing pilots we’ve glimpsed the season on The Mandalorian? The concept of a show about X-Wing pilots sounds awesome, and I’d love to see a deeper exploration of what life was like in the Star Wars universe in the early years of the New Republic (after the events of Return of the Jedi and years before The Force Awakens).
I’m also super-pumped by this trailer for the newest animated series, Bad Batch, picking up on the unit of Clone troopers introduced at the end of The Clone Wars series:
To be honest I wasn’t super in love with the Bad Batch concept on Clone Wars. But I AM extremely excited for a series exploring the time immediately after Episode III and the fall of the Republic. There are still so many questions about what happened to the Clones and many of the other characters from Clone Wars. I’m very eager to see what stories this series is going to tell. And I LOVED seeing Tarkin in that trailer!! I can’t ever get enough of Tarkin.
Also, there’s another animated show in the works called Star Wars: Visions, a series of Star Wars animated films created by Japanese anime creators. OK, color me intrigued.
We finally got confirmation of the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, to be directed by Deborah Chow (who did an awesome job directing on The Mandalorian) and starring Ewan McGreggor and Hayden Christensen. I am super-excited to see Mr. McGreggor back as Obi-Wan. I am… less than enthused about Mr. Christensen back in the fold. He’ll be playing Darth Vader… but will we also be seeing him out of the mask? I’m a little concerned about how Vader and Obi-Wan could be in a story together during the years when Vader didn’t know Obi-Wan was hiding ion Tatooine. But I’m excited and very curious to see what this show will be about!
Here’s a cool look behind the scenes at Andor, the Rogue One prequel show, focusing on Cassian Andor:
On the feature-film side, the next Star Wars film is going to be Rogue Squadron, directed by Patty Jenkins. Wow, I didn’t see that coming! I love the idea of Ms. Jenkins directing a Star Wars film. The idea of a film focused on X-Wing pilots is very cool. (But how will this be different than the Rangers of the New Republic show??) I wonder when in the timeline this story will be set? I hope they move the Star Wars story forward.
Then there’s the Marvel news. Get comfy. Ready?
In the cinematic universe:
I am so, so happy that, at long last, Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four, will be entering the MCU. The film will be directed by Jon Watts (who directed Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home), which is terrific news, as he seems to me like a great fit for the FF.
The third Ant Man film is happening, and it’ll have the goofy title of Quantumania. Here’s the logo. Ok, that’s silly, but I can go with it!
Christian Bale, who of course played Batman in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, will play the villain in the fourth Thor film, helmed by Taika Waititi (who directed Thor Ragnarok). That sounds fun!
I cannot believe how many Marvel TV shows are on their way to Disney+!!!
WandaVision is right around the corner, premiering on Disney+ on January 15th, and here’s a new trailer:
That is far out. I love the concept of classic TV/sitcom imagery being used for the false reality Wanda has apparently created for herself. I can’t wait to see this show.
Coming on March 19 is Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Here’s our first trailer:
I’m excited for Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Sam to reprise their characters and to get more time in the spotlight. There’s some great action in that trailer. I wonder if we’ll see the Falcon dressed in full Captain America garb before the end of that series…? (Cap gave Sam Wilson his shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and Sam has stepped into the Captain America role previously in the comics.)
Loki is coming in May, and here’s our first trailer:
That looks like a LOT of fun! I am SUPER-EXCITED to see the TVA (the Time Variance Authority, which I believe was first introduced by Walt Simonson during his short but brilliant run on The Fantastic Four) brought into MCU continuity!!! I’m pleased that this series is addressing the dangling plot-point from Avengers: Endgame of Loki from the past’s escape with the Tesseract.
Speaking of fun, here’s the first trailer for What If…?:
Oh, wow that looks like a blast. I am absolutely tickled that this goofy but much-loved concept from the comics is being brought to life. The animation looks beautiful and it’s so fun hearing the voices of so many MCU cast-members who have reprised their roles.
Here’s our first look at Ms. Marvel:
I’m excited to see this popular new character from the comics brought to life. Also cool: another terrific young, new Marvel character from the comics will be getting her own show, too: Riri Williams in Ironheart. I loved the comic book series by Brian Michael Bendis that introduced Riri a few years back. (Now when will we get a live-action Miles Morales??)
They also announced a new Secret Invasion show, with Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn reprising their roles as Nick Fury and the Skrull Talos (last seen in the stinger at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home). The original Secret Invasion comic book series told an awesome story of an invasion of Earth by the shape-shifting Skrulls. I’d love to see that story adapted!
That’s not the only classic Marvel comic series coming to life: Don Cheadle will be back as Rhodey in a new Armor Wars show! Armor Wars is a very famous, classic Iron Man storyline from the comics. Very cool.
James Gunn is going to write and direct a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+, to be shot at the same time as Guardians 3??!!! Wow, that sounds fun! Apparently they’re also working on a series of Groot-focused shorts, called, of course, I am Groot.
We also got confirmation of the in-the-works She-Hulk show; apparently both Mark Ruffalo (who played Bruce Banner/the Hulk in many MCU movies) AND also Tim Roth, who played the villain the Abomination in the 2008 The Incredible Hulk film (which is sort-of a part of MCU continuity, despite Edward Norton’s playing Banner/Hulk in that film) will be appearing on the show! Cool!
We also got confirmation that Hailee Steinfeld will be playing young Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, teaming up withy Jeremy Renner, who will be reprising his role from the films (something which has been rumored online for ages).
Aaaaand a Moon Knight show is also in the works, as we already knew. (No new info on that show today.)
In other news:
Chris Evans will be playing Buzz Lightyear — not the toy, but the actual person upon whom the toy line was apparently based, in a new theatrical Pixar film called Lightyear? What a bizarre idea!
Finally, FX announced that Noah Hawley (mastermind behind awesome TV shows like Fargo and Legion) is planning an Alien TV show, apparently in partnership with Ridley Scott! Well, I am certainly interested in that…
Wowsers!! I want to see every one of these shows and movies!!! I can’t wait.
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