The upcoming Star Wars shows and movies in the works
Star Wars remains one of the biggest entertainment franchises of all time. While it has been three years since the release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker in movie theaters, the franchise has continued with new TV shows and new seasons of prior series on the Disney Plus streaming service. Furthermore, the list of upcoming Star Wars shows and movies continues to expand. In this article, we will give you the info on all the announced upcoming Star Wars shows and movies. Some are in production now, while others are still in the planning stages. All of these projects will eventually show up on Disney Plus. You can subscribe to the service at the link below:
Disney Plus
Disney Plus offers thousands of TV episodes and movies from across the Disney library, including its Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel shows and films, along with exclusive TV series and movies.
Keep in mind that this list is very fluid, and some projects could see release dates change, and some projects could even be canceled. Indeed, we have a small list of upcoming Star Wars shows and movies that were previously announced, but have since been officially canceled.
Upcoming Star Wars shows and movies
The Bad Batch Season 2
Release date: January 2022
The second season of this Disney Plus animated show will once again center on a group of Republic clones who avoided Order 66 and are now mercenaries for hire. Based on the teaser trailer for Season 2, it looks like The Bad Batch will run into trouble with the growing Galactic Empire and its Emperor.
The Mandalorian Season 3
The third (and rumored to be final) season for this Disney Plus flagship series sees our favorite bounty hunter, The Mandalorian, and his companion Gorgu (a.k.a. Baby Yoda) back together once again. The team will have to face off against several enemies this season. That includes a group of hardcore Mandalorians who feel that the removal of his helmet, not once but several times, over the course of the first two seasons, is enough to kick him out of the group.
Ahsoka Season 1
Ahsoka, the Jedi Knight featured in The Clone Wars animated series, was brought into live-action in one episode of The Mandalorian season 2, as played by Rosario Dawson. In 2023, we will see Dawson play the character in her own spin-off series on Disney Plus. Plot details are currently a secret, but we do know that Hayden Christensen will appear in the series as Anakin Skywalker. Also, two characters from the animated show Star Wars: Rebels will appear as live-action characters in Ahsoka. Eman Esfandi will play Ezra Bridger, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo will portray Sabine Wren. Other known actors in the show will include Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ray Stevenson in currently unknown roles.
Skeleton Crew Season 1
This upcoming Star Wars show for Disney Plus is set within The Mandalorian time frame of the Star Wars universe. Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the director and co-writer, respectively, of Spider-Man: Homecoming, developed this new show. There are few details about Skeleton Crew, but we know it centers on four teenagers in a coming-of-age story. There’s also an older person in the cast, and in 2022 it was revealed that Jude Law had been cast as the unnamed character.
Star Wars Visions Season 2
The second season of animated shorts set in various parts of the Star Wars universe and timeline is coming to Disney Plus sometime in late 2023. While the first season has shorts made exclusively by Japanese anime studios, the second season will see new shorts made by studios from all over the world.
The Acolyte Season 1
This series was created by Leslye Headland, who also created the acclaimed Netflix series Russian Doll. Plot details are few at this point, but we do know that it takes place in The High Republic era of the Star Wars timeline, many years before The Original Trilogy of films. Disney says that the show is a mystery thriller involving a Jedi Master teaming up with a former Padawan to look into a series of crimes. The cast includes some up-and-coming actors, including Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, and Dean-Charles Chapman. In addition, Carrie-Anne Moss of The Matrix series of films is in the cast as well.
Andor Season 2
The first season of Star Wars: Andor has already been acclaimed by many critics as the best Star Wars TV series ever, and one of the best ever in the franchise, period. We will likely have a long wait for season 2, which reportedly started production in late November 2022. We do know that the second 12-episode season will span several years in the life of Rebel spy Cassian Andor and will lead into the events of the movie Rogue One.
Lando Season 1
Release date: TBD
First announced back in 2020, this Disney Plus series is supposed to center on Lando Calrissian, as played by Donald Glover, who first played the role of the space scoundrel in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The series is being developed by Justin Simien, who directed the movie Dear White People. In 2022, it was revealed the show is currently on hold while Glover finishes his current commitments, but it has not yet been canceled.
A Droid Story film
Release date: TBD
This upcoming Star Wars movie will be a CGI animated film co-developed by Lucasfilm Animation and Industrial Light and Magic. It will debut on Disney Plus and will feature a new unnamed droid character who receives guidance from C3PO and R2-D2.
Rogue Squadron film
Release date: TBD
In 2020, Disney announced that Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman and its sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, would direct an upcoming Star Wars movie. The movie would center on a new group of starfighter pilots, but aside from that, there’s been no word on what the actual plot and characters will be like. The movie was set for late 2023 release date, but Disney has since taken it off its release schedule.
Untitled Taika Waititi-directed film
Release date: late 2023 (maybe)
Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love and Thunder, Jojo Rabbit, and the season 1 finale episode of The Mandalorian, was announced as the director of an upcoming Star Wars movie, with a release date in late 2023. Details about the movie have yet to be revealed. At the time of the writing of this article (December 2022), Disney has yet to confirm that production has begun on the movie, so we suspect that “late 2023” release date will have to move.
Untitled Damon Lindelof-written film
Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of the Lost TV series and the main creator behind the HBO shows The Leftovers and Watchmen, was reported by Deadline in October 2022 to be co-writing a new Star Wars film. The director of the movie is reportedly Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed several episodes for Disney Plus’ Ms Marvel show. Details about the movie are still under wraps.
Untitled Shawn Levy-directed film
In November 2022, Deadline reported that Shawn Levy is planning to direct a new Star Wars movie. Levy’s extensive credits include directing films like The Night at The Museum movies, and more recently, Free Guy and The Adam Project. Levy has also directed several episodes of Stranger Things. Levy will reportedly start working on the new Star Wars movie after he finishes his next movie project, Deadpool 3, and his episodes on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.
Untitled Rian Johnson-directed film trilogy
Just before the release of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi in 2017, Disney announced that the movie’s writer-director Rian Johnson would write and direct a new Star Wars film trilogy. The movies would “introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored”, according to Disney. Since then, Johnson directed the murder mystery movie hit Knives Out, which led to a deal with Netflix to write and direct two sequels to that film. The first, Glass Onion, will debut on Netflix on December 23 after a brief and limited theatrical run. While he still has one more Knives Out sequel to make, Johnson confirmed recently to Empire Magazine that the new Star Wars film trilogy was still in development.
Announced upcoming Star Wars shows and movies that were later canceled
A number of Star Wars movies and TV shows that have been announced in the past few years are no longer going forward. They include:
- Untitled Kevin Feige-produced film – Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was announced back in 2019 as a producer of an original Star Wars film, but a report from Vanity Fair in 2022 stated the movie was no longer in active development.
- Untitled David Benioff and D. B. Weiss directed film trilogy – Benioff and Weiss, the showrunners for HBO’s Game of Thrones series, were announced as writing and directing a trilogy of Star Wars films back in 2018. However, in 2019, it was revealed that the duo was no longer working on the trilogy due to their new multi-year contract with Netflix.
- Untitled J.D. Dillard-directed film – While not officially announced by Disney, Deadline reported in 2020 that a new film directed by Devotion director J.D. Dillard was in the works. In 2022, Dillard confirmed to TheWrap that the project was not moving forward.
- Rangers of the New Republic TV series – In 2020, Disney announced a new TV series with this title, which was supposed to be set in The Mandalorian timeline of the Star Wars universe. However, in 2021 it was revealed that active development of the show was no longer moving forward.