Star Wars fans, there will be a point in the nearish future when you won't have to go to the theaters to get all the spacefaring action you can handle. Disney and Lucasfilm have made the grand announcement that Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau has signed on to create a new live-action Star Wars TV series that is set to debut on Disney's impending standalone streaming service. Huzzah!
Someone get the cantina band playing an up-tempo jam, because this is some of the most exciting news we're going to hear all year. Star Wars Rebels just bowed out on Disney XD after four seasons, leaving plenty of questions up in the air for the franchise's future, and we were desperately hoping that the powers that be would announce a TV follow-up project in the immediate aftermath. It's been a few days, but this announcement was definitely worth the wait, since Jon Favreau has consistently proven himself to be a top-notch storyteller. (Can we get some Swingers references wherever this story takes place?)
Details, unfortunately, are pretty much nonexistent for the project itself, which is understandable, since there are probably around 400 people whose job is to keep everything hush-hush. But Favreau does have some Star Wars in his background, as he voiced Pre Vizsla in a handful of Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes, and he's also got a role in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Here's what Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy had to say about bringing the multi-hyphenate star on board.
I couldn't be more excited about Jon coming on board to produce and write for the new direct-to-consumer platform. Jon brings the perfect mix of producing and writing talent, combined with a fluency in the Star Wars universe. This series will allow Jon the chance to work with a diverse group of writers and directors and give Lucasfilm the opportunity to build a robust talent base.
We cannot wait to see who Jon Favreau gets to have in his Star Wars writers room. Will Rian Johnson and Lawrence Kasdan stop by? Will they get Star Wars novelists Claudia Gray or Timothy Zahn involved?
First achieving mega-fame in the early 1990s as an indie writer/director/actor, Jon Favreau dove into big budget projects in the 2000s, such as Zathura and the first two Iron Man flicks. (He also appeared in the latter, and in several other MCU flicks, as Happy Hogan.) He's currently filming the live-action version of The Lion King for Disney, which is set to release in 2019, so his work on Star Wars might get stalled out for a while before picking up the pace.
Currently without a title designed to make fans claw their scalps with curiosity, the upcoming Star Wars live-action series will debut at some point on Disney's streaming service, which itself is set to go wide in 2019. Hopefully it will launch with this Force-filled magic, so that we don't have to wait even longer to watch it come to life.
While waiting, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows on the way.
