From Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's final trailer to the return of Rey Skywalker, here’s everything you missed from last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration.
Lucasfilm grouped up in London last weekend to host Star Wars Celebration 2023, a massive event that saw multiple announcements and reveals from a galaxy far, far away. Casts and creators from the full scope of Lucasfilm’s efforts in the Star Wars universe revealed everything they have in the pipeline, including sneak peeks and trailers for TV shows like Ahsoka and The Acolyte, and announcements for upcoming Star Wars films. The latter even includes a sequel to The Rise of Skywalker, featuring Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey.
We also got a final gameplay trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts’ upcoming action-adventure game starring the young Jedi Cal Kestis. It’s a lot to take in, but worry not - we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you missed from Star Wars Celebration 2023:
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes Cal Kestis to Coruscant
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launches later this month on April 28, and it’s shaping up to be even bigger and better than the first game in every way possible. Respawn released its final gameplay trailer for the sequel last weekend, showing off new vehicles like speeder bikes and familiar-faced enemies like the Droidekas. The trailer also confirms that we’ll get to fight Rancors as minibosses, and chances are that these creatures will wreck players if they’re unprepared.
The most exciting part of Jedi: Survivor seems to be its new environments, from harsh red deserts where Cal takes on AT-STs to the capital of the Republic: Coruscant. Respawn has confirmed that players will be able to visit the planet and its Imperial Palace in the game, although it won’t be a wide-open environment like some of the game’s other open world planets. The trailer also gives us another glimpse at what seems to be a High Republic Jedi coming into conflict with Cal.
And speaking of the High Republic…
The Acolyte explores the Sith as underdogs
Lucasfilm showed off an early look at its upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte, which is set in the High Republic era of Star Wars - a golden age for the Jedi when they were at their prime, and the galaxy enjoyed a time of peace. Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca from the sequel trilogy) was revealed to play a Wookie Jedi Master named Kelnacca, and an early trailer for the series was screened exclusively for the audience.
Series showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) told event attendees that she was inspired by samurai and martial arts films, and wants the series to explore the villains’ perspective during a time when they were vastly outnumbered by Jedi peacekeepers. First footage from the series featured a great number of Jedi, including ones played by Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) and Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix). The trailer ended with several Jedi igniting their lightsabers before an unseen foe, which apparently got a huge reaction from the audience.
Hopefully the trailer finds its way online at some point. The Acolyte also stars Amandla Stenberg, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Charlie Barnett and Dean-Charles Chapman. The series will premiere on Disney+ in 2024.
Ahsoka brings Thrawn and the Rebels crew to live-action
Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s padawan first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is getting her own live-action series - aptly titled ‘Ahsoka’. Rosario Dawson returns as the now-older Jedi following her appearance in The Mandalorian, along with several other characters from Star Wars Rebels: Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi).
The series will also rope in a fan-favourite Star Wars villain who has until now only been seen in books and animation: Grand Admiral Thrawn. Lars Mikkelsen will reprise Thrawn for the series in live-action, having previously voiced the character in Rebels. Ahsoka picks up many years after the end of Rebels, with Sabine and Ahsoka still searching for the young Jedi Ezra Bridger. Ezra vanished at the end of Rebels after getting hyperspaced with Thrawn into unknown corners of the galaxy, and the duo still haven’t been found.
This series is pretty stacked. Not only does it have to deal with the introduction of Thrawn and the Rebels crew, but it also includes two new lightsaber-wielding antagonists in Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. Ahsoka will hit Disney+ in August 2023.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a galactic adventure
Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts is showrunning this new series, which is best described as ‘Goonies in space’. The series follows a group of children and a rogue Jedi (Jude Law) stranded in a distant corner of the galaxy, as they search for a way to get back home. The series is set around the same time period as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka.
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) also stars, along with child actors Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter and Robert Timothy Smith. The series is set to debut in 2023, with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Jon Watts, Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian), Jake Schreier (Beef) serving as directors.
The future of Star Wars at the movies
Star Wars has taken a break from theaters since the divisive release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but not for much longer. Lucasfilm revealed a brand-new slate of movies now in development at the studio, starting with the return of Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The untitled movie will be written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) and directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, with a story that picks up more than a decade after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Daisy Ridley plays Rey as she tries to rebuild the Jedi order, just as Luke Skywalker failed to do before her.
Dave Filoni will also direct a film that ties together the story of his interconnected Disney+ series: The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. The Mandalorian Season 3 has been exploring cloning technology while Ahsoka plans to reintroduce a menacing villain in Grand Admiral Thrawn, so expect story threads to be set up in both series that will only be paid off in the upcoming movie. Plus, Grogu on the big screen! The movie is set to end the ongoing story that began with The Mandalorian, so we could also see Din Djarin’s journey end here.
James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) will also direct a new Star Wars movie set a long, long time ago - 25,000 years before Star Wars: A New Hope, to be exact. This movie will explore the dawn of the Jedi, with the tone of, “a Biblical epic,” as it tells the story of how the Force was discovered and who the first Jedi were. Shawn Levy (Deadpool 3) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Love and Thunder) are both directing different Star Wars movies too, but we have little information to go on for both projects right now.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gets a new trailer
We also got a new trailer for Indiana Jones’ final adventure, which hits theaters on June 30, 2023. The new trailer takes Indiana and his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) on a mission to find a mysterious dial, which is currently in the possession of a Nazi played by Mads Mikkelsen. Harrison Ford reprises his role as Indiana for the film, and we even see a bit of CGI de-aging tech at work for a few flashback scenes that will likely dive into the origins of the dial.
The cast of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny includes Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Boyd Holbrook and Toby Jones. James Mangold (Logan) will direct the film. John Williams also returns to compose the sequel's soundtrack.