In The Armour Now

AS THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE SUITS UP FOR THE MANDALORIAN, RICHARD EDWARDS UNLEASHES THE BOTHAN SPIES TO FIND THE KEY INTEL ON THE HOTTEST NEW TV SHOW OF 2019...

- Richard Edwards

The Force AwAkens Feels A long time ago… and not just because it takes place in a galaxy far, far away. It marked such a triumphant return to the universe George Lucas built that it briefly felt like the Disney incarnation of Lucasfilm could do no wrong –either critically or commercially.

Then The last Jedi arrived last December and split the fan base like a light saber through Darth Maul’s midriff. Things got even less rosy when solo did the unthinkable in May – it became the first live-action star wars movie to flop at the box office, making less than half of rogue one’s take, and a mere 20% of The Force Awakens’.

Even Disney CEO Bob Iger came to believe the world wasn’t quite ready for a new star wars film every 12 months.... “I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast,” he told the Hollywood reporter in September. “I think we’re going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing.”

So while we can expect a pullback on the movies (though it’s full speed ahead on episode IX and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss’s mysterious new saga, the stand alones appear to be permanently frozen in Carbonite), a live-action TV series feels like enticingly unexplored territory. It’s also going to be one of the flagship shows on the new Disney+ streaming service (like Marvel’s proposed Winter Soldier/Falcon spin-off ), so, y’know, there’s quite a lot of pressure on them to get this right. Here’s everything we know so far...