Star Wars: TEN New Shows – Say Hello To The New ‘Expanded Universe’!

Let’s talk about all the new Star Wars shows & projects Disney just unveiled! It’s a lot.

Today is a pretty big day for Star Wars fans. Today at the Disney Investor Day event Kathleen Kennedy announced a whole slew of new Star Wars projects coming in the next few years. This includes not only new movies but an unprecedented number of new TV shows.

While we’ve had new non-movie Star Wars before now, in the form of books, comics, and TV shows, they’ve still been pretty limited. A huge number of them were simply devoted to setting up the sequel trilogy. All these new releases, including a huge number of live-action shows, as well as the High Republic stuff coming out soon however really feel like they are blowing open the doors on this. This feels like a kind of return to the old days of the Expanded Universe, though Disney won’t call it that, with a huge number of projects, some stand-alone and some tying together. It’s super exciting so let’s take a look at what’s coming.

Ahsoka

OH MY GOD IT’S REALLY HAPPENING! A lot of people said that they felt like Episode 5 of the Mandalorian felt like a backdoor pilot for Ahsoka and I guess it was true.  Rosario Dawson will of course continue to play Ahsoka in this show run by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. It’s been written by Filoni, and based on the teaser image, which shows designs similar to the world between worlds for Rebels, I’d expect some crazy Jedi stuff to go down here. It’s described as a limited series, so it may be shorter and is set during the time frame of the Mandalorian.

Rangers of the New Republic

Also by Favreau and Filoni this show (not described as limited, so maybe it will be longer?) is set during the Mandalorian and said to tie into other events and stories. We know next to nothing about it right now, but it seems likely it will deal with New Republic, which has slowly been having more of a presence on the Mandalorian.

Mandalorian Season 3

In the least shocking news of the night, the Mandalorian is getting a 3rd season. With Favreau and Filoni running three live actions shows set in the same time period I would expect a lot of tie in’s and cross overs. They’ve hinted at some major event bringing everything together and I’d bet that’s going to involve Grand Admiral Thrawn. This right here really feels like a mini MCU or Star Wars EU, with concurrent shows under the same runners telling a larger story.

Kenobi

Next up, we can say “Hello there!” to the long rumored and awaited Kenobi series. We don’t know a whole ton about it other than it has Kenobi and Vader and is set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith. Now I love McGregor as Obi-Wan so I’m super stoked for this. Interestingly we got the news that Hayden Christensen is returning as Vader. I’m not really sure how that’s supposed to work, outside of like a quick flashback. Vader and Obi-Wan aren’t supposed to have met between RoS and A New Hope and with Vader in a suit the whole time I’m not sure what Christensen would be doing. My best guess is either a quick cameo or a lot of flashbacks to the Clone Wars.

The Bad Batch

Speaking of the Clone Wars, we’ve got a new animated show in the form of the Bad Batch. This unit of super-elite and mutant Clones was introduced in the final season of the Clone Wars. The show will take place during the transition from the Old Republic to the Empire and has a similar art style and feel to the Clone Wars, so if you liked that show you’ll probably like this. Coupled with Kenobi it seems to carry forward some of the plots and such from the Clone Wars into the so called Dark Times. I’m kind of getting a “The A-Team but Star Wars” vibe from it, which I am here for.

Lando

Also announced was a new “event series” (whatever that means) called Lando, which will be about, you guessed it, Lando. (Que Lando on a Mando jokes). Pretty much all we know is that it’s being developed by Dear White People creator Justin Simien. No clue yet if Donald Glover is back to play the role (or Billy Dee Willaims for that matter) or when the show will be set, but I’m hoping for some fun hopping around with Glover.

The Acolyte

The first show set in the High Republic Era is the Acolyte, headed by Leslye Headland, creator of the series Russian Doll. It set at the end of the Era and described as a mystery thriller dealing with emerging dark side power. Could this be a story about or told from the point of view of a Sith Acolyte? That would be pretty cool and unique. Either way, it’s going to be cool to see the High Republic brought to life and should make for a good departure from the other shows.

 Andor

Another one that we already knew about and are excited about is Andor. Set before the event of Rogue One it follows Cassian Andor as he fights for the Rebellion. We’ll be getting seeing some well-known faces and getting a lot of Rebel vs Imperial action, which is perfect to me. This should be a show free of any Jedi and seems likely to be grittier than some. It’s already started production so I expect we will get more news on it soon.

Visions

Hey, remember a few months ago when I wrote that Disney should make a Star Wars Anime? Well, I guess they listened. Visions is a series of short Star Wars anime films. It appears to be being made by actual Japanese anime studios, rather than western studios copying the style. We don’t know much more than that but this is another one I’m really excited about.

 A Droid Story

This is kind of an odd one as the description makes it seem like it’s not a normal movie or show. I like R2 and 3OP fine but they are hardly my favorite duo to watch. Depending on what this is it could be really cool or not for me.

Rogue Squadron

Dear God in heaven they are making a Rogue Squadron movie. I don’t know if I could have asked for a better Hanukkah present.  Kid Abe is super ecstatic right now. I mean, X-Wings? The Galactic Civil War? Dog fights? Wedge? Yes, yes, yes.

The movie is being run by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, who I already love. What’s more, as she mentioned in the video, her father was a fighter pilot and she grew up on bases, meaning she knows a thing or two about pilots and how they think and act. All of this just has me super jazzed. Since it’s a movie and not a show there shouldn’t be any budget issues and I’m guessing we get some real star wars in our Star Wars.

Taika Waititi’s Star Wars 

Lastly, we got confirmation that the always amazing Taika Waititi is working on another unnamed Star Wars movie. The only thing we know is that it’s going to be… different. I love his work, so I’m on board for this as well. Overall it looks like the next few years are going to be really good for Star Wars fans.

Let us know what you think about this “new EU” down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.