‘Star Wars’ Rumors: Rey’s Movie Casting Three Co-Leads, ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ Also Shooting in the UK, and More
A few Star Wars rumors have surfaced today via insider Daniel Richtman’s Patreon page regarding upcoming productions. While most of them seemed like no-brainers, let us break them down here.
First, Richtman is saying that The Mandalorian & Grogu will not be shot exclusively in LA, as the cast and crew will fly to the UK for an unspecified time. If true, what does this mean for last week’s tax credit from the California Film Commission? Will they be setting up a second unit in the UK, or is this outside of the 92-day window that the production was approved for to get $21M back from the state? We’ll keep that in the back of our minds for now; the film is reportedly going up in mid-June in California.
With regards to the other film currently in pre-production, the Daisy Ridley-led New Jedi Order (w/t) is currently casting the other three main leads, which include Rey’s two apprentices and the main villain. No details on the characters yet. Richtman also reported recently that Angela Bassett took a meeting at Lucasfilm with regards to a Star Wars role, and we’ve speculated that it could be for this movie. Could she be playing the villain, or perhaps she was contacted about another supporting role for which the studio is hoping to attract some star power?
Richtman also added that the film is not being set up as the first in a new trilogy, but it could set up a sequel. Last week we shot down rumors of the film being titled Episode X: A New Beginning. For now, the only name the film has been given internally is New Jedi Order — though keep in mind they could change their mind and rebrand it, as they haven’t announced an official title yet. Filming is being planned for the UK either later this year or top of 2025. (Richtman said in the comments of the post that it’ll be this year.)
In terms of new seasons of TV, Ahsoka season 2 is currently in the writing stages and could be targeting a late 2024 shoot, which would make sense given the production schedule for the first season and the fact that they already have most of their cast in place. But, if true, they will probably have to announce their plans for Baylan Skoll in a few months — D23, which takes place August 9-11, seems like a good time to do that, though they might as well just put out a press release on a random Tuesday.
Finally, Richtman is saying that The Acolyte season 2 has been planned, which we’ve known for a year now, though he adds that a writers’ room has been set. This also makes sense. They had an overall arc for the show written ahead of season 1’s production start, and they probably want to strike while the iron is hot. Marketing is about to go underway on that show, and what better way to celebrate the first season being well-received than to say that season 2 is filming later this year? Back in 2019, they announced The Mandalorian season 2 had started filming before season 1 aired, and in 2020, The Book of Boba Fett started shooting just a couple of weeks after Temuera Morrison made his return on that final scene of the season 2 premiere.
The Bad Batch is currently the only Star Wars piece of programming going on, but The Acolyte should pick up the baton sometime in the summer (reportedly, June 5). Skeleton Crew is debuting later this year, as is Tales of the Jedi season 2.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
