Before Disney bought Lucasfilm, before The Force Awakens, before Grogu, Andor, Ahsoka, the sequel trilogy, the streaming era, and the endless online arguments, there was a quieter announcement. On June 1, 2012, Kathleen Kennedy was named co-chair of Lucasfilm. At the time, it looked like a major leadership move. In hindsight, it looks like one of the first visible steps toward the modern Star Wars era. In a later StarWars.com reflection on the future of Lucasfilm, Pablo Hidalgo described that June 1 announcement as one of the early pieces of news that came before the much bigger October reveal: Disney was acquiring Lucasfilm, and new Star Wars films were coming. That is the strange thing about franchise history. Sometimes the biggest turns do not arrive with a lightsaber ignition. Sometimes they arrive as a press announcement. The Quiet Before the Disney Era Kennedy’s arrival at Lucasfilm came months before the…
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Grogu Was Number Two on the Mandalorian Movie Call Sheet
Grogu may be small enough to fit in a floating pram, but on the set of The Mandalorian and Grogu, he was apparently treated like a proper movie star. According to Variety’s feature on how Grogu was brought to life, the character was listed as number two on the film’s call sheet. Yes, right behind the title character territory. Yes, for the tiny green chaos child. And honestly? Fair. At this point, Grogu is not just a cute sidekick. He is one of the central reasons The Mandalorian became a cultural phenomenon in the first place. Grogu Is Not Just a Prop The funny thing about Grogu is that he could easily have been treated like an effect. A puppet. A digital creature. A merchandising miracle with ears. Instead, Lucasfilm has spent years treating him like an actual character, and the call sheet detail says a lot about that approach….
Obi-Wan Kenobi Premiered Four Years Ago and Still Feels Complicated
Four years ago today, Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived on Disney+ carrying one of the heaviest backpacks in modern Star Wars. The series premiered on May 27, 2022, with its first two episodes launching together, bringing Ewan McGregor back as the exiled Jedi Master and Hayden Christensen back into the shadow of Darth Vader. That alone was enough to make it feel like an event. But four years later, Obi-Wan Kenobi still sits in a strange place. It gave Star Wars some genuinely powerful moments, a few unexpected emotional punches, and one of the most anticipated rematches in the franchise. It also remains one of the Disney+ shows people still argue about like the fate of the Republic depends on it. Ewan McGregor Was Never the Problem The easiest part to agree on is Ewan McGregor. He understood exactly where Obi-Wan was supposed to be: broken, guilty, exhausted, and hiding from the…
Ahsoka Season 2 May Be Disney’s Leanest Star Wars Bet Yet
Disney may finally have found something rarer than a peaceful Jedi Council meeting: a cheaper Star Wars production. According to a new Forbes report, pre-production on Ahsoka Season 2 cost around 30% less than The Acolyte, making it one of Disney’s leaner Star Wars projects. That is not the same as saying Ahsoka is suddenly being made for pocket change. This is still Star Wars, where “budget-conscious” probably means someone only built three ancient temples instead of five. But after years of expensive streaming swings, the number is still worth noticing. Ahsoka Is Getting a More Disciplined Season 2 The comparison point matters. The Acolyte became one of the most debated Disney-era Star Wars projects, not just because of the story, but because of its reported cost. Forbes previously reported that The Acolyte spent $49.2 million during pre-production alone, before the full production spend entered the conversation. Now Ahsoka Season…
Can Mando and Grogu Make Star Wars Feel Big Again?
Star Wars is back in theaters, but the real question is slightly more uncomfortable: Does it still feel huge? The Mandalorian and Grogu has finally brought the galaxy far, far away back to cinemas after a long theatrical break. It is the first new Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, and Disney is clearly hoping Din Djarin and Grogu can do more than sell popcorn. They need to remind people that Star Wars still belongs on the biggest screen possible. That is a heavier job than it sounds. The Galaxy Returns With Smaller Expectations According to Reuters, The Mandalorian and Grogu has been projected to open somewhere between $75 million and $100 million in the U.S. and Canada. For almost any other franchise, that would be a strong launch. For Star Wars, it is more complicated. Disney-era Star Wars used to open like a cultural emergency….
How The Phantom Menace Launched the Weirdest Era of Star Wars Games
On May 19, 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace arrived in theaters and detonated like a merchandised thermal bomb. The film itself is still debated, memed, defended, roasted, rewatched, and quoted with suspicious enthusiasm. But for Star Wars gaming, The Phantom Menace did something far more important than introduce midi-chlorians and senate procedure to a confused generation. It opened the floodgates. The prequel era gave LucasArts a new toybox: podracers, Naboo starfighters, battle droids, Gungan battlefields, Sith assassins, Republic cruisers, bounty hunters, clone armies, Jedi starfighters, and planets that did not look like the same three Original Trilogy backdrops wearing different hats. And the games got weird. Gloriously weird. The Movie Was Only the Beginning The gaming push started immediately. Star Wars: Episode I – Racer launched for Nintendo 64 and Windows right as the film hit theaters, turning the podrace into one of the fastest and…
Starfighter’s New Synopsis Makes the Future of the Force Sound Weirdly Huge
Star Wars: Starfighter may have just dropped its smallest big clue yet. A new synopsis has appeared on the film’s IMDb listing, and while that does not carry the same weight as an official Lucasfilm press release, the wording is spicy enough to deserve a closer look. According to the listing, the film follows “a solitary pilot” in a rebuilding galaxy who becomes tangled in a crucial mission as new threats emerge — a journey that “may alter the future of the Force itself.” That is either standard movie-synopsis thunder… or Star Wars quietly loading a thermal detonator under the post-sequel era. The Post-Sequel Galaxy Finally Has a Shape Officially, StarWars.com has confirmed that Starfighter is set roughly five years after The Rise of Skywalker, with Ryan Gosling playing a brand-new character in a standalone adventure from director Shawn Levy. That timeline is the interesting part. The sequel trilogy ended…
Star Wars Celebration 2027 Sold Out Fast — But Fans Are Not Happy About How It Happened
Star Wars Celebration 2027 is sold out. That part is official. The messier part is what happened on the way there. The official Star Wars Celebration ticket page now lists tickets as sold out for the Los Angeles event, which takes place April 1–4, 2027 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. That already made headlines, and we covered the sellout in our earlier piece on how Star Wars Celebration 2027 sold out ahead of the 50th anniversary year. But now the story has a second act: a lot of fans are not just disappointed they missed out. They are angry about the buying experience itself. The Queue Was Not With Everyone According to Gizmodo’s report on the ticket sale, many fans spent hours in the online queue only to come away empty-handed. That is the kind of convention heartbreak that hits differently when the event is tied to Star Wars’…
Star Wars Insider Is Over — And a Huge Piece of Fan History Goes With It
Before Star Wars news lived on YouTube thumbnails, Reddit threads, Discord servers, leaks accounts, and algorithmic chaos, there was Star Wars Insider. Now, after nearly four decades of official magazine history, that run has come to an end. The final issue, Star Wars Insider #237, is out now, closing a publication lineage that stretches back through Star Wars Insider, The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, and the old-school fan-club era when getting official Star Wars news meant waiting for paper to arrive like some kind of ancient Jedi ritual. It sounds dramatic because it is dramatic. For a lot of readers, Insider was not just a magazine. It was the magazine. The Final Issue Has Arrived Lucasfilm announced last year that Star Wars Insider would launch its final issue in 2026, with issue #237 marking the end of the magazine’s current run with Titan. At the time, editor Christopher Cooper described…
Gina Carano Says She Spoke With Favreau and Filoni After Lawsuit Settlement
Gina Carano is back in the Star Wars conversation — though not, at least officially, back in Star Wars. The former The Mandalorian actor has revealed that she spoke with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni after her lawsuit with Disney and Lucasfilm was settled. In a new Entertainment Weekly report on Carano’s Mandalorian comments, she described the January Zoom call as a “let’s touch base” conversation and said it was important for her to “mend whatever” and make sure everyone was good. Cara Dune Is Not Confirmed to Return Before anyone fires up the rumor engines at full power: there is no official announcement that Cara Dune is returning. Carano played Cara Dune in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, before Lucasfilm cut ties with her in 2021 after controversial social media posts. Disney and Lucasfilm later settled her lawsuit, and Entertainment Weekly notes that Lucasfilm’s settlement statement said…
The Mandalorian & Grogu Is Now Tracking for a Potential $100M Opening
The box office story around The Mandalorian & Grogu just got a little more interesting. After some earlier softer-looking chatter around the film’s commercial prospects, Boxoffice Pro’s latest long-range forecast now says the movie could open in the $90 million to $100 million range domestically when it hits theaters on May 22, 2026. That would be a meaningful shift in tone around the film’s launch outlook, even if the upper end still would not put it near the biggest modern Star Wars openings. That is the key thing here: this is better, but it is not suddenly a “Star Wars is back to automatic $150M openings” story. Better than the gloomier narrative According to Boxoffice Pro’s long-range forecast, a $100 million opening would still rank as the lowest Star Wars debut since Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $84.4 million in 2018. The same report notes that The…
Lucasfilm Turns 55 Today — and That Is a Pretty Wild Star Wars Milestone
Before there was Star Wars, before ILM rewired blockbuster filmmaking, and before Lucasfilm became one of the most important names in modern franchise history, it was just a company George Lucas started on April 20, 1971. That means Lucasfilm turns 55 today. Lucasfilm’s own company history says George Lucas incorporated Lucasfilm in 1971 after making THX 1138, creating the company as a way to support his future projects. A new anniversary post from ILM adds a more precise date, noting that Lucasfilm was established on April 20, 1971, in Mill Valley, California, when Lucas was just 26 years old. And honestly, that is a bigger anniversary than it might first sound. Before Star Wars was even Star Wars It is easy to think of Lucasfilm purely as “the Star Wars company,” but that came later. In 1971, this was basically George Lucas building a home for the work he wanted…
Star Wars Celebration 2027 Tickets Go on Sale May 6 — Here’s What They Cost
If you were waiting for the moment Star Wars Celebration 2027 stopped being a distant dream and became a real money problem, here it is. Official ticket details are now live for Star Wars Celebration Los Angeles 2027, with tickets going on sale May 6 for the event’s April 1–4, 2027 run at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The official Celebration site also confirms the full pricing breakdown, including adult, kids, and Jedi Master VIP options. The big number: 4-day passes are $260.99 For adults, a 4-day ticket costs $260.99. Single-day adult tickets are listed at $76 for Thursday and $91 each for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kids tickets are cheaper, with a 4-day pass at $105.99, while single-day kids tickets cost $36 for Thursday and $46 for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then there is the premium tier for people who believe sleep, budgeting, and moderation are for other fandoms….
Disney’s Rumored Extraction Shooter Could Be One to Watch for Star Wars Fans
A new rumor out of the Epic-Disney partnership may not be a Star Wars announcement, but it is close enough to put Star Wars fans on alert. According to a Bloomberg report picked up by The Verge, Epic is reportedly aiming to launch the first game tied to its Disney partnership in November 2026, and that game is said to be an extraction shooter. The comparison making the rounds is ARC Raiders: a shooter built around combat, survival, and making it to an extraction point before everything goes wrong. That is the rumor. The important part is what it does not confirm. Right now, there is no solid report saying this first game is specifically a Star Wars game. What is confirmed is that Disney and Epic’s 2024 deal was pitched as a massive, persistent games and entertainment universe connected to Fortnite, and Disney’s own announcement explicitly said it would…
Mara Jade Represents the Star Wars Future Fans Lost
There is a reason the Mara Jade story blew up harder than a lot of bigger Star Wars headlines this week. On paper, it was simple: Claudia Gray said Lucasfilm had told her no when she asked about using Mara Jade in canon, and Timothy Zahn said he had asked too and gotten the same answer. That is not a trailer. It is not a casting leak. It is not even an official Lucasfilm statement. But the reaction online made one thing very clear: for a lot of fans, Mara Jade is no longer just a character they miss. She has become a symbol for the version of Star Wars they feel slipped away. That is why the Reddit discussion got interesting so fast. It did not stay focused on whether Mara Jade is “cool” or whether Lucasfilm should bring back more Legends characters. The argument turned almost immediately into…
BB-8 Puppeteer Says Sequel Backlash Is Repeating Prequel History
Brian Herring, the puppeteer and performer behind BB-8 in the sequel trilogy, thinks Star Wars fans have seen this cycle before. In a new interview with Gamereactor, Herring argued that the sequel trilogy is “no more polarising” than the prequels were when they first landed, suggesting today’s online backlash says as much about generational turnover as it does about the films themselves. Herring has long been closely tied to modern Star Wars on screen, with StarWars.com previously spotlighting his work bringing BB-8 to life. The Internet Changed the Volume, Not the Pattern Herring’s basic argument is pretty sharp: people angry about the sequels are often too young to remember how intensely fans pushed back against the prequels when those films arrived. His point is not that everyone has to like Episodes VII-IX. It is that the reaction pattern feels familiar, only louder now because every debate gets amplified online. In…
Ryan Gosling Says Star Wars: Starfighter Will Use Practical Puppets
Ryan Gosling has confirmed that Star Wars: Starfighter will feature practical puppets, dropping one of the most reassuringly Star Wars details fans could have hoped to hear this early in the film’s rollout. The comment came during press for Project Hail Mary, when Gosling was asked whether the upcoming Lucasfilm movie would include practical puppets. His answer was brief, slightly cautious, and very on-brand: “Yes… I think I can say that.” That may sound like a tiny production note, but in Star Wars terms, it is not. Puppets, animatronics, suits, and tactile creature work are part of the series’ visual DNA, from the Mos Eisley cantina to Yoda, Jabba, the porgs, Neel in Skeleton Crew, and just about every weird little alien that makes the galaxy feel lived-in. Star Wars has a long history of blending practical creature effects with digital work, and Lucasfilm has continued highlighting that mix in…
Lucasfilm Is Building Hype for Maul’s Return With a New Official Look Back at His Darkest Moments
Lucasfilm is turning up the heat on Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord with a new official StarWars.com feature that revisits some of Darth Maul’s most devious moments across the saga. The piece, titled “Maul’s Most Devious Moments,” looks back at the former Sith apprentice’s most important battles and appearances in film, animation, and comics ahead of the new Disney+ series. It is clearly part of the bigger push toward Maul – Shadow Lord, which premieres on April 6, 2026. StarWars.com Is Framing Maul as More Than Just a Villain One of the more interesting things about the official feature is how it presents Maul not as a one-note bad guy, but as one of the most persistent and unpredictable figures in Star Wars history. StarWars.com highlights Maul’s journey through The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rebels, and Marvel’s new Star Wars: Shadow of Maul…
Bob Iger Steps Down as Disney CEO Tomorrow — and Lucasfilm Became One of His Biggest Franchise Bets
Bob Iger is set to step down as Disney CEO in March 2026, with Disney naming Josh D’Amaro as his successor. Reuters reported that D’Amaro will take over in March, while Iger will remain a senior adviser through the end of the year. For Star Wars fans, that makes this more than just a Disney boardroom story. Iger was the CEO who pushed Disney to acquire Lucasfilm in 2012 for about $4.05 billion, a deal Disney announced officially at the time as a major long-term franchise play. Lucasfilm Was One of the Defining Iger Moves When people look back at the Iger era, Lucasfilm is going to be one of the first things they mention. Under Iger, Disney did not just buy Star Wars. It turned Lucasfilm into one of the company’s most important franchise engines across films, streaming, merchandise, and theme-park strategy. Disney’s 2024 proxy-fight materials, as reported by…
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord Official Trailer Has Arrived
The official trailer for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord has landed, and Lucasfilm is clearly done playing coy. The new footage pushes Maul back into full spotlight mode, with revenge, lightsaber combat, and a much clearer sense of where this series is heading. Lucasfilm says the show begins with a two-episode premiere on Disney+ on April 6, 2026, with two episodes releasing weekly through the finale on May the 4th. The Trailer Makes the Tone Crystal Clear This is not being sold as a quiet character study. According to the official trailer coverage, Maul – Shadow Lord is a “pulpy adventure” that follows Maul as he tries to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a world untouched by the Empire. Along the way, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who could become the apprentice he has been looking for. Maul Is Back in Full Revenge Mode The…
Exclusive Mandalorian and Grogu IMAX Footage Is Reportedly Playing in the UK, and It Sounds Like Lucasfilm Is Leaning Hard Into the Big-Screen Upgrade
One of the easiest ways to tell Lucasfilm knows The Mandalorian and Grogu needs to feel like a real movie is this: it apparently is not just pushing trailers anymore. According to Bespin Bulletin, an exclusive behind-the-scenes-style featurette has been playing at Odeon IMAX screenings in the UK over the last few days, giving audiences a little extra look at the film before its May 22, 2026 release. That alone is enough to make Star Wars fans perk up, because once studios start attaching exclusive footage to premium screens, they are not just selling a title — they are selling the idea that this thing belongs in theaters. The Reported Footage Sounds More Cinematic Than Routine Promo Filler Bespin Bulletin says the IMAX-exclusive material includes Din Djarin walking down a dark urban street at night, Din unmasked in a cave with water up to his neck, more shots of the…
ILM’s Award-Winning “Lama” Tech Is the Kind of Star Wars-Adjacent Magic Most Fans Never See
Not every big Star Wars story is a trailer, a casting reveal, or somebody saying one vague sentence in Empire and sending the fandom into orbit for three days. Sometimes the interesting stuff is deeper in the machine. That is the case with Industrial Light & Magic’s layered shading system Lama, which has now picked up one of the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards. ILM says 2026 marks its 39th Sci-Tech Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and this one goes specifically to the team behind Lama — a production-ready layered materials system that has become a key part of how ILM builds believable digital surfaces. This Is Not a Movie Award in the Usual Sense To be clear, this is not “ILM won an Oscar for one specific Star Wars project.” This is one of the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards, which recognize the tools…
Kathleen Kennedy Confirms Grogu Still Won’t Speak in The Mandalorian & Grogu — and Says Filoni’s Lucasfilm Transition Was a 10-Year Plan
Kathleen Kennedy just dropped two very clean, very quotable Star Wars updates in a Variety interview — one about Grogu, and one about Lucasfilm’s leadership shift. And both are the kind of details that quietly tell you what era of Star Wars we’re walking into next. Grogu is going big-screen… and still won’t say a word Asked what it was like the first time she “heard Grogu speak,” Kennedy flipped the premise and used Grogu as the perfect example of a character that has to emote without dialogue. Her answer is blunt: audiences are going to fall even deeper in love with him on the big screen, and he never speaks a word. She also explicitly confirms Grogu won’t suddenly gain speech in The Mandalorian & Grogu — despite Yoda’s famous broken-English cadence. In other words: no “Grogu talks now” twist. No “cute sidekick monologue.” The character is staying in…
Kathleen Kennedy Is Picking Up Another Major Industry Honor — and Whatever You Think of Modern Star Wars, That Part Is Not Debatable
Kathleen Kennedy is adding another major industry honor to a résumé that was already ridiculous. At the 73rd Annual Golden Reel Awards on March 8, 2026, Kennedy is set to receive the MPSE Filmmaker Award, one of the honorary awards handed out by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. The event listing from MPSE names Kennedy as the Filmmaker Honoree, with sound editor Mark Mangini receiving the Career Achievement honor. That is the dry version. The more interesting version is this: whatever arguments people want to keep having about modern Star Wars, Kennedy’s status inside the film industry is still massive. Variety reported the honor back in December, noting that the MPSE Filmmaker Award goes to someone outside the sound community whose work has had a meaningful impact on the art of sound in film. That makes the award less about fandom discourse and more about the size of Kennedy’s overall…