Star Wars has brought the action from that galaxy far, far away to the small screen more and more in recent years, and we've known for a bit that a new live-action series set after the events of the original trilogy is in the works with Jon Favreau. Now, more exciting Star Wars TV news has broken. A second live-action series is happening, and this one will be a Rogue One prequel with a movie star reprising his role.
Yes, Diego Luna will be back as Cassian Andor in the new Star Wars series. Its nature as a prequel means that we'll see Cassian in his days before his fateful final mission to Scarif. It will be a spy thriller and go into production next year.
Viewers can expect the show to tackle stories of daring missions and espionage that were only hinted at during Rogue One. The movie had enough time to establish Cassian as a spy for the Rebellion who'd had to cross a lot of lines for the greater good, but it wasn't long enough to really delve into what made him the way he was. In the show, Cassian will attempt to restore hope to the galaxy as the Empire grows stronger than ever.
Like The Mandalorian, the Rogue One prequel will debut on the direct-to-consumer streaming service from Disney. Today brings more good news from Disney; the streaming service finally has a name! When it launches in 2019, it will be called Disney+.
Details about when the show could be released on Disney+ are not yet available. The show is slated to go into production in 2019, with no release date announced just yet. Complicating matters is that fact that Diego Luna is slated to continue work on Narcos: Mexico for another season, according to Variety's Justin Kroll on Twitter, so he has projects to finish before the new Star Wars show.
Despite the absence of a premiere date, Star Wars fans have a lot to be excited about with this new series. The deaths of all the main Rebel characters in Rogue One meant that we couldn't expect them to show up during any shows or standalone movies set during or after the original trilogy. A Rogue One prequel means we get more of a character who had a lot of potential before giving his life in service on the Rebellion.
It also means that we shouldn't count on appearances from other Rogue One characters like Jyn Erso, as Cassian won't have met any of them yet. We can't rule out appearances from characters in Rebel high command, though! Given the sky-high reported budget for the first live-action series, it should be interesting to see how much Disney+ will invest in the Rogue One prequel.
By setting the new show ahead of the original trilogy, Star Wars has opened the door for other Star Wars TV characters to appear. The franchise has already produced two shows set before A New Hope, with survivors who could appear on Cassian's new show. The rebels of Rebels could even make sense, depending on the precise timeline! Hera was involved with the Rebellion for years, even before Kanan knew that they were part of a larger group of rebels. Let's see some Rebels rebels in live-action!
Only time will tell what we can expect. For now, the Star Wars TV show you have with new episodes is Star Wars Resistance on Disney Channel, which is set shortly before the devastating events of The Force Awakens. Resistance was impacted by The Clone Wars and Rebels in some key ways, so there will be a sense of a large Star Wars TV universe if you tune in. For other viewing options, swing by our fall TV premiere schedule.
