Star Wars, A reset - What's next for the franchise?

Here at the Nerds Kingdom I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m a Star Wars fan. With the completion of the Skywalker Saga in Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker for the first time the series looks to have real potential to tell new and exciting stories. I thought I’d go over what we might be seeing in the next couple of years.

  

The Mandalorian

Disney+’s first live action Star Wars show was a hit out of the gate with everyone falling in love with the Madalorian and of course Baby Yoda. Season 2 will be out in the autumn and speculation is that it will focus more on the Jedi and the fallout of the Original trilogy. Fan favourite characters such as Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex are rumoured to be joining the cast which certainly has the attention of many fans to see how they translate to live action. You can binge the entire first season and the making of series now on Disney+ 

The High Republic

The High Republic is to be set 200 years before the prequel trilogy and tells stories from an era that has largely been unexplored with new characters other than Darth Vader across Novels, Comics and Young reader books. It is very possible we may see a younger version of Yoda as well since he would be about 700 years old.When we first got news about this series we were told we’d have new characters to meet and how it is very similar to the old west with the Jedi acting as marshals on the edges of the galaxy. We’ll get our first glimpse into this new era in August with the first novel Star Wars: Light of the Jedi hitting shelves. 

Obi Wan Series

The Obi Wan series has had a long journey. It had been rumoured to be happening as a film for years and every time it was brought up Ewan McGregor was evasive. Then last year at D23 he came on stage and Kathleen Kennedy asked him one last time if he was going to play the character ever again. The answer we got was not only would he play Obi Wan again but, we’d get him in a TV series! Speculation amongst the fan community is that it will tackle Kenobi dealing with the fall out of the Clone Wars, keeping a watchful eye over Luke in his infancy and becoming the hermit we saw in A New Hope.

Jedi Fallen Order II

Jedi Fallen Order came out last autumn and was a breath of fresh air into the Star Wars video game landscape since it didn’t rely on micro-transactions or have a major scandal around it. What it did have was a tight story that focused on character development and making you feel like Jedi Knight Cal Kestis. Since then people have been clamouring for more, and while the free DLC that came out to commemorate May the 4^th was welcome, it didn’t quite hit that story itch. Developers, Respawn Entertainment haven’t hidden the fact ,that they are working on a sequel and given the climatic final boss fight, it’s a well educated guess that the crew of the Mantis will be chased down by Darth Vader. If you haven’t played it yet now is the perfect chance to since it has seen a drop in price and can be found on PC, Playstation and Xbox now.

Cassian Andor Series

Rogue One is largely considered to be one of the best Star Wars films for the Disney era (some say it’s the best period). One of the things that made it so strong was the conflicted Rebel Captain, Cassian Andor played by Diego Luna. Not much is known about what the series is about other than it will follow Cassian and K2SO doing missions for the fledgling Rebel Alliance and is due on Disney + in 2021. 

Star Wars: Squadrons

This past Monday we got our first look at the latest game in the franchise with Star Wars: Squadrons. From the trailer we can see that it’s set after Return of the Jedi and you play as members of both the New Republic and the Empire. Other than that, not much is known except that it is a first person, multiplayer game and you can Pre-Order it now. Let’s hope it lives up to the legacy. 

The future of Star Wars seems assured there will always be Film, TV, Comics, Video games or novels there will always be a way to get content from a galaxy far far away. Let’s hope that this rest will allow the fan base to come back into balance as well.