The future is Disney, and the language is Star Wars, as Lucasfilm preps 11 shows, plus Indy and Willow

The last time genre fans had a news release as big as this week’s Marvel and Star Wars news was from Disney about the ten Phase IV Marvel projects announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. In addition to yesterday’s Marvel news, Disney previewed eleven major Star Wars projects in the pipeline. Not a surprise so much as a wish fulfilled for millions of Star Wars fans is a spin-off live-action TV series called Ahsoka, featuring the return of Rosario Dawson as the Force- and lightsaber-wielding Ahsoka Tano. An actor returns on the franchise, a preview for a series that started filming last month, Disney reveals the title of the next Star Wars movie, plus news on new movies for Willow and Indiana Jones. And Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy had more surprises.

Produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau and written by Filoni, Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka will be a limited TV series, likely for Disney+.

One movie is on the big slate for Star Wars, and it will be titled Rogue Squadron. A pilot-centric action movie, Rogue Squadron will be directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman). Expected to take the story beyond all the past adventures, the movie is slated for Christmas 2023.

We already knew Ewan McGregor agreed to reprise his Obi-Wan Kenobi in a developing project, and we now know fellow prequels actor Hayden Christensen will don the black helmet and cape again as Darth Vader. Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) will direct the series, titled Obi-Wan Kenobi,set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith. No release date yet.

Rangers of the New Republic will be a live-action series in the era of The Mandalorian, also produced by Favreau and Filoni, with intersecting stories into the other Star Wars shows.

There’s little to say about the next project other than a Lando series is in the works. No mention whether it will star Don Glover or Billy Dee Williams, or a new actor as the scoundrel with a large cape closet.

Along with Ahsoka spinning out of The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch is an animated series spinning out of this year’s seventh season of The Clone Wars. This is about the motley band of clone troopers we discussed in our review here at borg earlier this year. No release date announced yet, but it will air on Disney+.

Here’s the video for this project:

Visions will feature ten anime short features across the Star Wars universe, created by Japanese studios.

Taking place in the final days of the “High Republic,” The Acolyte will be a mystery series slated for Disney+.

R2-D2 and C-3PO will be joined by a new character for the animated movie A Droid Story. Not only animation, this is expected to tie in other visual effects.

The current crown of the Star Wars galaxy, look for more of The Mandalorian with Season 3 expected in 2021.

Much has already been released about the in-production Disney+ series Andor. Diego Luna will reprise his character from Rogue One. It co-stars Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma. Look for it coming in 2022.

Twelve episodes, 100 named characters, and 6,000 extras–here is a behind the scenes video:

Beyond Star Wars, Disney announced Warwick Davis will return as Willow in a new movie set decades after the original, directed by John Chu. It begins filming in March and will stream on Disney+. It arrives in 2022.

And finally, Logan director James Mangold will direct the next Indiana Jones installment, expect to begin filming in Spring 2021, and in theaters in 2022.