‘Star Wars’ Celebration Reveals: Three New Movies, Daisy Ridley Returns, ‘Ahsoka’ Premiere Date, Plus More
The first Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker will feature Daisy Ridley as Rey, and will be directed by a woman and person of color for the first time in franchise history. The news, reported by Deadline, was revealed Friday morning at the Star Wars Celebration in London, which featured a guest appearance from Ridley
The movie, which will take place after the events of Episode IX, will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel) from a script by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). The film follows Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order.
Two other Star Wars movies are planned in addition to the one starring Ridley. Dave Filoni and James Mangold will direct two new movies in the franchise, set at either end of the timeline. One will center on the dawn of the Jedi and the other on the New Republic.
In other news, Andor creator Tony Gilroy said the show’s second and final season will debut on Disney+ in August of next year. Gilroy was joined onstage by the majority of the show’s cast including lead actors Diego Luna and Andy Serkis and debuted a teaser trailer for the series, which is still in production, that showed footage of Luna’s character free and on a mission against time.
“We started shooting in November. We’re halfway. We will finish shooting in August, a year on post, and we’ll come out in the following August,” Gilroy said.
Also on stage were Jude Law and Rosario Dawson, the stars of upcoming spinoffs of The Mandalorian: Skeleton Crew and Ahsoka, respectively. Ahsoka unveiled a new trailer, below. It will be released in August 2023 as the next Disney+ series in the franchise.
Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni was joined on stage by Dawson and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Sabin Wren. Wren is a Mandalorian warrior, revolutionary and graffiti artist who first appeared in Star Wars Rebels. Also surprising U.K. fans was Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who revealed she’ll be playing Hera Syndulla from Rebels.
The Skeleton Crew trailer, shown to the assembled crowd but not yet officially released online, features new characters centered around the lives of a group of rebellious kids traveling the galaxy. Jude Law and his cleanly-shaven head star in the clip as a Jedi.
In other series news, The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland talked about her new original Star Wars series which will be set during a time period between the high republic and the beginning of the prequel films, the furthest back in the past a Star Wars series has gone in the live-action universe.
Headland was joined on stage by the main cast including The Hate U Give actress Amandla Stenberg, Squid Game Emmy Award-winner Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, and Star Wars veteran Joonas Suotamo, who plays Kelnacca.
Finally, it was announced that Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) is also developing a feature in which he would direct and star, and Shawn Levy is still attached to direct a Star Wars movie following his work on Marvel’s Deadpool 3 and the Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See.