This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Close Look at the Tentative ‘Star Wars’ 2024 Calendar
Welcome back to a very special edition of “This Week, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away“, our weekly series of articles in which I, co-editor of Star Wars News Net, try to break down everything that went down this past week in Star Wars in a more informed, newsletter-type of approach to get closer to our readers. And this weekend it’s our six-month anniversary! Yay, congrats to all of us, and special thank you to those of our readers who have been checking them out on a regular basis. Here’s to many more anniversaries.
It’s been an interesting week in Star Wars land. Following an onslaught of never-imagined announcements the week before, over these past seven days we’ve simply been seeing the payoffs to some of the things that had been promised to us earlier. We had a new trailer for Star Wars: Outlaws that was teased a few days prior, as well as the release of the new edition of Empire Magazine featuring a lot of The Acolyte content.
We also had a new episode of The Bad Batch, which I reviewed here, and which featured the return of a long-forgotten character. Did I scream when his name was brought up? No, not really. I’m not the biggest Bad Batch fan and quite honestly, I hardly remember anything about Rampart. But hey, people were surprised on social media and the chats! We have three episodes left, and way too much to tie up. Look forward to our review of the next episode this Wednesday.
Three Things That May Have Flown Casual
- So much Acolyte: The new issue of Empire Magazine did not disappoint in their coverage of Leslye Headland’s new Star Wars series. As usual, they hyped it up with minor excerpts from the big piece that is featured in the magazine along with new images, but the piece itself also had plenty of goods. We covered it all here, along with smaller articles focused on Leslye Headland talking about Vernestra Rwoh, Joonas Suotamo discussing his Star Wars return, and more. Dafne Keen also explained their approach to lightsaber battles in a different interview with Entertainment Weekly.
- Publishing news: This week saw the release of two new covers from The High Republic Phase III, including Beware the Nameless by Zoraida Córdova, and George Mann’s Tears of the Nameless. We also got an excerpt from the new in-universe history book documenting Palpatine’s rise and fall, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, by Chris Kempshall, which comes out on July 4. Make sure to also check out Nate’s review on Thrawn: Alliances #4 (what the hell is going on there?), Tyler’s The High Republic #6, and Aled’s review of the audiobook for The Living Force, which came out this week.
- Park news (1st edition): Sabine Wren is coming to Galaxy’s Edge, which I guess lucky fans who can get into the park without selling their house can enjoy! Congrats to her, and to those who managed to get tickets!
Quote of the Week
“I am truly honored by this special recognition which means a great deal to me.”
That was George Lucas in his statement thanking the Cannes Film Festival for awarding him the Honorary Palme d’Or, which he’ll be receiving on May 25. Did this happen because someone noticed the Star Wars anniversary was on the same day as the closing ceremony of the festival? Maybe, maybe not. But for someone who essentially reshaped the entire film industry, it was long overdue. It’s not an Oscar-level recognition, but to someone who appreciates cinema so deeply as Lucas does, it must really mean a great deal. I don’t think his statement supporting Bob Iger earlier this year was very truthful, but this does feel genuine.
It’s certainly not a major Star Wars development, and the runner-up from this week might be more interesting, but every time George makes any sort of public statement, it’s newsworthy for us. I don’t know how much he thinks about Star Wars on a daily basis, and whether he should have sold Lucasfilm to Disney or not, but I am convinced that he doesn’t regret for one second that he finally had time to dedicate to his family. For all we fight online, Lucas is the living reminder that not even Star Wars and his lifelong enterprise were more important than spending time with his loved ones.
Runner-up
“Why wouldn’t I [do it]? Yes, they have been divisive, but also they bring a lot of love and joy to a lot of people.”
This was Daisy Ridley talking to Empire Magazine, too, and why she decided to return. It’s a great quote from the lead of one of the next Star Wars theatrical endeavors — and someone who has also become an ambassador for the franchise in the eyes of so many young people. A stark reminder of what this is all about.
The actress also said that by the time they recorded the interview, she was supposed to read the script “next month”. My guess, based on everything else that’s been out there, is that this was done in Austin, during the South By Southwest Film Festival, when Ridley was given a few days off the set of We Bury the Dead to promote her new film Magpie, which premiered at the festival. In other interviews from that time, she also said that she hadn’t read a script yet, so it tracks. By “next month”, then, she probably meant April.
Now I wonder: why April? Is it because she’s now done with We Bury the Dead and has a few weeks before she’s off again to promote Young Woman and the Sea? Is it because they want chemistry reads with some potential candidates to play the major roles? Is it because there’s a new deadline for Steven Knight to turn in the latest draft? Probably the first one, but hey, one can dream.
Look forward to more journalists trying to get every minuscule detail out of her in interviews promoting Young Woman and the Sea, which drops in theaters late May. The first trailer premiered this week at CinemaCon, which Lucasfilm did not attend. However, if I were to bet, I’d say that they are saving some stuff for D23.
Looking at the (Tentative) Star Wars 2024 Calendar
The big news this week was, of course, the release of a new story trailer for Star Wars: Outlaws. Along with it came a lot of side coverage. Video game fans may be delighted to know that you will not need to climb up to very high towers to unlock more of the map, for instance. However, the main takeaway was that Qi’ra, the character played by Emila Clarke in Solo, will be appearing in the game.
I will take a victory lap here, as I made the educated guess last year that the character would be part of the story — it just made sense that, after her grand return via the comics in 2021 as a crime boss, she’d be part of the underworld-set video game. What I was wrong about, however, was about Emilia Clarke’s return. The actress will not be reprising her role, I was told by a Ubisoft rep this week, though they are not saying yet who is voicing her.
Though I will probably, eventually buy and play Star Wars: Outlaws, I am not the biggest video game expert and I’m not knowledgeable enough to rant for too long on what all of this means. If you’re interested in that, you’ll be delighted to check out the latest episode of SWNN Live! where Jay, Nate, and Tyler broke down everything that’s working so far for them, and also everything that has them concerned.
Today, however, I want to focus on the other half of the Outlaws announcements: the release date. Ubisoft announced that the game will be coming out in late August, perhaps a bit later than was initially expected — but still in line with their tease last year that one of their big 2024 titles would be pushed back slightly. Honestly? This is kinda perfect.
Looking at the 2024 Star Wars calendar (at least for high-profile releases and excluding books and comics, which are a constant in time), it seems like Lucasfilm and their partners have managed to spread the load very well. If there was any sense of fatigue after dropping several live-action shows in a row (The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka were all less than 4 months apart from each other), they decided to wait for The Acolyte until June (seven months since Ahsoka wrapped). Not rush it to make sure we don’t forget that Star Wars exists, but also not wait too much so that we actually do. In the meantime, though, to keep some momentum going, they dropped a 15-episode animated series.
But that’s not even it, because they also had the card of a secret animated series they hadn’t disclosed, and which will be dropping on May 4. This is Tales of the Empire, of course. Then, Leslye Headland & co. will take over for seven consecutive weeks until mid-July, at which point we’re 1) in the final stretch before the release of Outlaws — Aug. 30 — and 2) just a couple of weeks away from D23 (first week of August), where I’m expecting something. At the very least, the trailer and perhaps release date of Tales of the Jedi season 2 and maybe even the same for Skeleton Crew.
Outlaws already puts us in the fall, which is when we’re expecting those two series. I’m a little uncertain about these, though. I’m expecting Tales of the Jedi to debut before Halloween, perhaps in late October like last time, or maybe even before then. It seems pretty clear with all of the above that Skeleton Crew will debut around Thanksgiving or Christmas since they are spacing out their live-action releases.
This is when the Marvel interference comes in, as Agatha: Enter Your Favorite Subtitle is probably dropping in time for Halloween. Perhaps they’ll time it so it’s wrapped before Thanksgiving, as I don’t think they will have two big live-action series running at the same time. I’m already baffled that both The Bad Batch and X-Men ’97 air new episodes on the same day. I think they had a very sour experience with She-Hulk and Andor back in 2022, both of which underperformed during their initial runs, according to third-party data.
With that said, and even considering that they’ve said Skeleton Crew is coming this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed it into early 2025, simply because there is nothing else going on next year apart from Andor. I mean, unless they have a top-secret series production ready to go before the summer, we’re going to have around a year of no live-action Star Wars content on Disney Plus after Andor season 2 wraps.
Ahsoka season 2 is not filming before Q4 2024, and The Acolyte doesn’t seem to have it all lined up to start shooting this year either. Jon Favreau is also busy with The Mandalorian & Grogu, which is currently slated to hit theatres in 2026. This is going to be a problem for Lucasfilm, I think. Maybe not in the eyes of the consumer, but certainly in the eyes of the Disney board. By refocusing their attention on the films, they are divesting efforts from their Disney Plus lineup.
I am sticking to my prediction from the beginning of the year that they will be announcing a new live-action series, and with Favreau and Filoni both tied up with their respective projects, it’s probably not going to be in the MandoVerse (fingers crossed!) But will they get it in front of the cameras in 2024? We shall see on both accounts!
So much reading already, no more plugs this week. What did you think of the latest edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions down below in the comment section. You can also send them, or reach out with any information tips, directly via our Contact page.
Have a great week!
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.
