This Rogue One prequel series is definitely going for high quality. Not only do they have Diego Luna returning as Cassian Andor, The Americans writer and executive producer Stephen Schiff was just hired as showrunner. The Disney+ series will follow rebel spy Cassian in his early days of espionage and daring missions, long before the events of Rogue One.
Stephen Schiff started as a journalist and film critic. He was actually a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism back in the early 1980s, before turning to film work. He wrote screenplays for films like the 1997 Lolita and The Deep End of the Ocean. As Collider noted, he joined The Americans in its second season, writing episodes and climbing the ranks to executive producer until the award-winning series ended with Season 6 earlier this year.
The Americans was one of the best TV series of all time, and it just won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for its final season. The Cold War drama also had a strong espionage angle, so Stephen Schiff sounds like a perfect fit for the Rogue One prequel.
The currently untitled Cassian series does not have a release date yet on the Disney+ streaming service, but it starts production in 2019. It's one of the many series to be announced, but it has to wait its turn. The Mandalorian is currently in production, with a pretty big budget, and just added another star. Disney+ also has series in the works for Loki, Scarlet Witch (and a friend), and many more from the Marvel/Star Wars families and beyond.
Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger announced Lucasfilm's second Star Wars live-action series for Disney+ just a few weeks ago. Diego Luna shared his excitement in a statement on StarWars.com:
Going back to the Star Wars universe is very special for me. I have so many memories of the great work we did together and the relationships I made throughout the journey. We have a fantastic adventure ahead of us, and this new exciting format will give us the chance to explore this character more deeply.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released in 2016 and made more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office, from a fairly even split between the domestic and foreign box offices (as opposed to, say, Venom). Not accounting for inflation, it is the third highest-grossing film in the Star Wars franchise, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Rogue One was the first standalone anthology film, set just before the events of the very first Star Wars film, A New Hope.
Disney+ has yet to announce any release dates for its streaming shows, but the service is meant to debut in late 2019. Here's what else is still ahead on TV in 2018, and what we know so far about midseason 2019.
