This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: The Hollywood Strikes End as the Road to Star Wars Celebration Japan Begins

Happy Sunday, and welcome back to 'This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away', where I take a look back at the past week in the Star Wars galaxy and connect with you, the reader, with a more informal tone and combine the latest news with my personal opinions (newsletter style). Today, we're looking ahead at Star Wars Celebration as we close the dark chapter that was the summer of the strikes. (Top image via r/StarWarsCelebration.)



It's been an interesting week in the entertainment business, for sure, with the premiere of Marvel's latest tentpole as well as (personal fav) David Fincher's new film, but most importantly, the announcement that the actors and the studios have agreed to a new three-year contract that guarantees the industry will be back up and running immediately. We'll discuss this shortly, but first, our first edition of...


<h2>This Week, in 'Shocking' News</h2>

• Marvel's Kevin Feige confirms his Star Wars movie isn't happening. I guess everyone had to act surprised, after that Variety report confirmed months ago that it wasn't happening, Feige is busier than ever at Marvel, and literally nobody has included his project in any 'Upcoming Star Wars films' list in months. We can now go back to pretending this was never a thing, just like Kathy Kennedy!
• Disney says they are not going to license any Star Wars or Marvel content to Netflix. I mean, did anyone really think this was a possibility? They've kind of sold Disney Plus to non-parents as a way to get their latest shows and movies from those franchises, so changing that model would not only make them lose subscribers but would confuse everyone even more. Iger essentially described the idea of building Disney Plus as a realization they'd been 'basically selling nuclear weapons technology to a Third World country,' as he told The New York Times last year.
• More on the Disney-Netflix topic: That being said, a lot can change over the next couple of years. The deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery is interesting to keep an eye on, as they are licensing the DC movies sans Aquaman or Joker. Will that give them a boost in subscribers for Max when the sequels come out? Also, Dune: Part Two is due out in March, and the first one feels like a no-brainer to license out to Netflix, to maximize the eyes on it and get everyone excited for the sequel. How will this affect Star Wars now that we are moving closer to the return to theaters?
• Even more on that topic: Iger did say, however, that they are in conversations with Netflix to license out other content. My mind immediately went to something like Willow, which could do solid numbers on Netflix from the same demographic that liked The Dark Crystal a few years ago and which was removed from Disney Plus altogether earlier this year.
• Star Wars: Hunters is getting delayed. What?! But the developers had just released a behind-the-scenes look letting us know this is a real thing... No doubt, biggest shocker of the week.

<h2>Three Things That May Have Flown Casual</h2>

• Anthony Daniels put up for auction his collection of C-3PO memorabilia. He first had to take one last look at his friends.
• The score for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was nominated on Friday for a Grammy Award. Also, keep an eye out on Monday for the Game Awards, where Respawn might have more champagne to pop.
• Louis Leterrier was once part of Lucasfilm's pitching sessions. He wanted to do an Obi-Wan story pre-A New Hope with Luke, and a Boba Fett film. The Fast X director also had the quote of the week: 'Any person, man or woman, American, French, Asian, in their 40s or 50s, who say they are making movies for a different reason than trying to do a Star Wars movie are lying.'

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<h2>The end of the actors' strike and the beginning of the scheduling headache
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There's already been too much ink thrown into this topic, so I will move on quickly. However, if we're recapping the week, it's kind of a mandatory subject to discuss. I've already spelled out thousands of words into what this means for Star Wars in the immediate term, and also mid and long-term. And Disney's immediate late-night rush kind of backed up my thoughts on some of that.



The industry has gone from 0 to 60 in a matter of hours. Publicists and studios, as well as awards strategists, are in a frenzy to try to book their stars and clients on late-night shows or high-profile interviews with the trades that will give them and their latest projects the attention they need to either get nominated or just survive at the box office. Just this week, Disney moved hell and high water to get Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston on The Tonight Show so they could at least somewhat salvage The Marvels' opening and Loki's season 2 finale viewership. And Apple could use some of that airtime to promote Lessons in Chemistry, of course.



In Star Wars land, the Ahsoka cast has started to unload their gazillion photos and videos from the set on social media, now that they're finally able to discuss the show. Will this be the first sign of a wave of post-release promos featuring the actresses, like big media interviews, late-night appearances, and even new YouTube and TikTok reels featuring the cast answering the Internet's hottest questions, or whatever they do these days? I could even see Disney airing a couple episodes of Ahsoka on their linear networks as an excuse for this additional promotion.



[gallery columns='2' size='large' ids='155030,155029']



And speaking of social media promotion, perhaps we can now finally get some news on Skeleton Crew. Did they need additional filming that had been originally planned for the summer, so they just can't release it yet? It's possible, but the show was filed in the US Copyright Records in July, after the actors went on strike, saying it had a finish date planned for December 2023. That could be up to change, of course, and there have been some rumblings of possible trouble with that show. Or perhaps they were just waiting to see when the strike would end to have Jude Law available to promote it and record adorable videos with the kids to go viral on social media.



In terms of other shows, Deadline published an article on Thursday that they keep updating with the return shooting dates for TV series. As of this writing, there is still no mention of Andor, which has around 4 weeks left of filming in the UK, or The Mandalorian, which was originally supposed to start shooting in October, pre-strikes. We'll hopefully receive more news on that soon.



ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - MAY 26: (L-R) Tony Gilroy and Diego Luna attend the studio showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration for “Andor” in Anaheim, California on May 26, 2022. The new original series from Lucasfilm launches exclusively on Disney+ August 31. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)



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<h2>The Road to Star Wars: Celebration Japan begins</h2>


Lucasfilm's VP of Franchise Assets and Publicity, Chris Argyropoulos, posted Monday on social media that he'd just returned from Japan as part of the company's advance party to start planning Star Wars: Celebration 2025. There are still another 18 months ahead of the planned April 18-20 event at the Makuhari Messe Center in Chiba, just outside of Tokyo, but it's nonetheless exciting to look into the future and start to fantasize about what the convention will bring.



Word on the convention floor last year, when the event returned to Anaheim after a two-year COVID break, was that Lucasfilm was going back to the yearly mode Celebrations, as they had a ton of projects to highlight -- unlike in 2018, when they took a gap year. That was obviously proven false a few months ago when StarWars.com announced via a throwaway line that there'd be no convention in 2024, and in turn, they wouldn't be coming back until 2025. My wallet started dancing in relief, but it also made sense. A short, 10-month separation between the events was welcome, but it also made the London days feel like a massive dèja vu. It was a ton of fun, but also so many people crammed into so little space.



But we look forward now, and Japan is on the horizon. What could we possibly see there? Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is the next feature film(s). It's kind of amazing to think that by then we might actually have a clear picture of where we're going in terms of our film slate. At the moment, we have a lot of ideas thrown against the wall, but we don't really know what's shooting when, or what's coming out when -- despite my best efforts to try to predict both of them.



Daisy Ridley steps out on stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 to announce she will be back as Rey in an upcoming film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.



From where we stand today, Japan 2025 seems like the perfect spot to have a panel celebrating 10 years of The Force Awakens, 20 years of Revenge of the Sith, and also, should things move forward the right way, a panel on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order-era film starring Daisy Ridley.



I even feel like the Force Awakens panel should/could tie into the New Jedi Order announcements. By then, they might actually have wrapped filming, so a title announcement, if they haven't done it by then, feels kind of guaranteed, along with first-look images and maybe even a small behind-the-scenes reel. Obviously, I'm being a bit optimistic here, but hey, one can dream. As far as the Force Awakens anniversary goes, it's the perfect time to bring everybody back, including Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and maybe even Mark Hamill. I wouldn't count on Adam Driver even sniffing the convention, though. Maybe they can even bring JJ out on stage to prove to the world he's still alive.



Additional panels will likely include another Mandalorian-focused talk, as season 4 will be on the horizon, and by then we might also know more about Ahsoka season 2 and Dave Filoni's theatrical film. And obviously, conversations on other feature films, especially Taika Waititi's, which by then should be in really good shape and even have a release date. Again, I'm being super optimistic here.



Obviously, there's the downside that flying people there might actually be quite expensive. So we'll see. What do you think we could see in 2025? Let me know down below!



Star Wars Celebration Japan



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<h2>Jocasta Nu's Reading List</h2>

• <a style='color: #f7e028;' href='https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2023/11/sag-aftra-announces-2023-strike-is-over-how-does-this-impact-star-wars.html' rel='noopener']SWNN[/url]: A full breakdown by yours truly on how the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike will impact Star Wars productions.
• <a style='color: #f7e028;' href='https://screenrant.com/star-wars-rogue-one-darth-vader-andor-season-2/' rel='noopener']Screen Rant[/url]: Why Andor must stay on track with its tone and avoid big cameos or scenes like the Darth Vader hallway sequence at the end of Rogue One, according to Nathaniel Roark
• <a style='color: #f7e028;' href='https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-ahsoka-achieved-george-lucas-vision-force/' rel='noopener']CBR[/url]: Ahsoka was actually a full realization of George's vision of the Force, Jackie Panella explains.
• <a style='color: #f7e028;' href='https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23951138/ubisoft-montreal-layoffs-hybride-assassins-creed' rel='noopener']The Verge[/url]: Ubisoft laid off a ton of employees this week, including people from a visual effects team that worked on The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.

What did you think of the latest edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your comments, suggestions, and complaints in the comment section. You can also send them to us directly via our Contact page or by emailing us at starwarsnewsnet@gmail.com. Have a good week!





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