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…
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MONOPOLY: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains Gets a Release Date, Trailer, and April Reveal Event
Lucasfilm Games has officially kicked off the rollout for MONOPOLY: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains, and yes, this is exactly what it sounds like: a Star Wars-flavored, team-based spin on Monopoly with heroes, villains, and a full reveal still on the way. The first teaser confirms that the game launches on June 11, with the full reveal scheduled for April 29 during a May the 4th event push. Ubisoft has now published the game’s store page and a news post confirming the release window and broader platform plans. This Is Not Just Standard Monopoly With a Star Wars Skin That is the part that makes this a little more interesting. According to Ubisoft’s official description, MONOPOLY: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains is being pitched as a dynamic team-based twist on the classic board game, with reimagined gameplay, cinematic moments, themed spaces, and dynamic elements designed to keep matches from playing…
New Star Wars Games Are About to Start Appearing Inside Fortnite
Star Wars is about to get a lot weirder inside Fortnite — and potentially a lot bigger too. Epic’s official Fortnite creator channels have now teased that Star Wars tools are landing in Unreal Editor for Fortnite this week, opening the door for creators to start building their own Star Wars games and experiences inside the Fortnite ecosystem. The official Fortnite Developers account used the line “That’s no moon… it’s a toolset?!” in a teaser post, while Epic had already confirmed back at State of Unreal 2025 that official Star Wars features, templates, and assets were coming to UEFN. This Is Bigger Than Just Another Fortnite Crossover That is the key angle here. This does not sound like another limited-time skin drop or a temporary blaster event. The bigger story is that creators are about to get official Star Wars building tools inside UEFN, which means fan-made experiences can start…
Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and Grogu Just Turned the Oscars Into a Star Wars Moment
The Oscars got an unexpected Star Wars detour when Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver took the stage with Grogu as part of a presentation tied to The Mandalorian & Grogu. Fantha Tracks highlighted the moment as a standout bit of crossover promotion, while The Hollywood Reporter noted that Weaver even played into her sci-fi legend status by “protecting” Grogu during the segment. Grogu Was the Real Scene-Stealer This probably will not shock anyone, but Grogu once again behaved like a tiny green celebrity with elite attention-stealing instincts. The Oscars appearance was not just Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver showing up as presenters. It was also a reminder that The Mandalorian & Grogu has one of the easiest marketing hooks in Hollywood right now: put Grogu on stage, and people will immediately pay attention. The Hollywood Reporter specifically singled out Grogu’s appearance as one of the memorable beats from the ceremony’s…
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…
Matthew Willig Says He’s in The Mandalorian and Grogu, and That Is a Fun Little Casting Update for Mando Fans
Sometimes a Star Wars casting update does not arrive with a glossy Lucasfilm press release or a dramatic trade headline. Sometimes it just shows up because the actor is understandably excited and decides to say, more or less, “yeah, I’m in the movie.” That is basically what happened with Matthew Willig, who posted that he will be making an appearance in The Mandalorian and Grogu and thanked Lucasfilm for helping him fulfill “a kid’s dream.” This Looks Like More Than a Rumor at This Point The reason this one feels solid is that it is not just floating around as recycled fan chatter. Willig said it himself on social media, and Jedi News followed that up with a report tied to his upcoming Rebel Scum Con III appearance, stating that he is playing an as-yet unnamed Iktotchi character in the film. That takes this from “internet speculation” to something a…
Ludwig Göransson Just Won His Third Oscar — Which Is a Pretty Nice Flex Ahead of The Mandalorian and Grogu
Ludwig Göransson has now won his third Academy Award, taking Best Original Score for Sinners at the 2026 Oscars. That is already a big headline on its own. But for Star Wars fans, the timing makes it even better: Göransson is also the composer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, which hits theaters on May 22, 2026. So yes, Lucasfilm’s next big-screen Star Wars movie is arriving with a composer who just added even more hardware to the shelf. This Was Not Just Another Nomination According to Pitchfork, the Sinners win was Göransson’s fifth Oscar nomination and third win. The Academy’s own Scientific & Technical Awards page is obviously not relevant here, but multiple awards-night reports and winner lists all line up on the same point: he won Best Original Score for Sinners at the 98th Academy Awards. That puts him in a pretty absurd tier for a composer who still…
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…
The Clone Wars Cast Is Heading to MCM London 2026, and Honestly, That Is a Pretty Great Excuse to Be There
MCM London Comic Con has landed a genuinely strong Star Wars animation lineup for its May 2026 show, with a full group of The Clone Wars voice actors now confirmed for the weekend. The event will run from Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24 at ExCeL London, and all three days will feature Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Nika Futterman, Catherine Taber, Dee Bradley Baker, and Ashley Eckstein. That is not just one nice guest announcement. That is basically MCM looking at Clone Wars fans and saying, “Yeah, this one’s for you.” This Is a Proper Clone Wars Reunion, Not Just a Random Guest Add-On That lineup covers a lot of the core emotional wiring of The Clone Wars. You have Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Dee Bradley Baker as the clone army and Captain Rex, Nika Futterman…
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…
The Mandalorian and Grogu May Be 2 Hours and 20 Minutes Long — But Treat That Runtime Carefully for Now
A possible runtime for The Mandalorian and Grogu is now floating around online, and for once it is not coming from some random account with a blurry screenshot and too much confidence. Odeon Cinemas is currently listing the movie at 2h 20m on its film page, which is obviously the sort of detail Star Wars fans will latch onto immediately. Because the second a runtime appears, the entire conversation becomes: is that good, is that too long, is that secretly perfect, and what exactly is Jon Favreau doing with all that time? Odeon Has It Listed at 2 Hours and 20 Minutes As of now, Odeon’s listing for The Mandalorian & Grogu shows a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes alongside the film’s May 22, 2026 release date. If that number holds, the movie would land in a very normal modern Star Wars feature range, which makes sense for…
Ryan Gosling Says Star Wars: Starfighter Has Its Own Great Story — and That Is Exactly What Fans Need to Hear
There is a very specific kind of Star Wars quote that instantly makes people nervous. It usually sounds like someone involved in a new project saying, “Trust us, it’s special,” which is Hollywood code for “we are not telling you anything useful yet.” Ryan Gosling’s new comments about Star Wars: Starfighter land a little better than that, mostly because they hit the exact concern a lot of fans already have. Speaking to Collider, Gosling said the film has “such a great story on its own,” that the characters are amazing, and that Shawn Levy has the tone locked in. That may not be a plot reveal, but it is a smart reassurance for a movie that really does need to prove it can stand on its own two feet. The “On Its Own” Part Is the Real Headline That is the phrase that matters most here. Not just that Gosling…
Sigourney Weaver Says Colonel Ward Goes Way Back With Leia — and That Suddenly Makes The Mandalorian and Grogu More Interesting
For a while, Colonel Ward felt like one of those Star Wars movie characters who exists mostly as a name, a uniform, and a lot of fan speculation. Sigourney Weaver was in, the trailers showed her looking important, and everyone more or less assumed she would be the serious New Republic authority figure who sends Din Djarin off to deal with a mess. Which, to be fair, still sounds true. But Empire’s new coverage adds one much better detail: Ward apparently has history with Princess Leia. And just like that, she stops feeling like generic “new character in a control room” material and starts feeling like someone with real roots in this era of Star Wars. Colonel Ward Is Not Just Some Random New Republic Officer According to the new Empire details relayed by Jedi News, Weaver says Colonel Ward and Leia “go way back.” That is the kind of…
Ludwig Göransson Says The Mandalorian and Grogu Is Going Bigger Than the Series — and Honestly, That Matters
One of the reasons The Mandalorian worked so well from the start is that it never sounded like safe, familiar Star Wars wallpaper. Ludwig Göransson gave Din Djarin a score that felt lonely, strange, dusty, metallic, and just a little mythic. It was not trying to be John Williams cosplay. It was doing its own thing. And now, heading into The Mandalorian and Grogu, Göransson is making it very clear that the movie is not just reusing the TV formula on a larger screen. Musically, at least, this thing is going much bigger. The big headline from Empire’s new coverage is the scale. In the Readly preview of Empire’s “Settling the score” feature, Göransson says the film uses a 105-piece orchestra, up from the 70-piece orchestra used for the series, and adds a 64-piece choir on top of that. He also says he had more time to work on the…
Empire’s Mandalorian and Grogu Coverage Just Made the Movie Feel a Lot More Real
For a while, The Mandalorian and Grogu has had that slightly weird Star Wars-project energy where everyone knows it exists, everyone knows it is important, but it still somehow feels a little abstract. Not anymore. Empire’s May 2026 issue is a full-on world-exclusive preview, built around new imagery and interviews with Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and Jeremy Allen White, and it is very clearly the point where this thing stops feeling like “that Mando movie coming at some point” and starts feeling like an actual event. Empire’s issue went on sale March 12, and Lucasfilm’s official film page still has the release date locked for May 22, 2026. Pedro Pascal Apparently Found Out About the Movie the Same Way We Did The funniest detail to come out of the new coverage might be that Pedro Pascal was not sitting on some giant secret master plan all…
Walmart Collector Con Is Bringing Clone Wars Obi-Wan, an Airborne Trooper, and Two Mini Helmets Star Wars Fans Will Absolutely Pretend They Don’t Need
If you collect Star Wars figures for more than about five minutes, you eventually develop a very specific kind of delusion. It usually sounds like this: “I’m just going to look.” Then Walmart Collector Con happens, a Clone Wars-era Obi-Wan shows up with a 212th Airborne Trooper, and suddenly you are doing release-time math like your morning depends on it. That is pretty much the situation now, because Walmart Collector Con kicks off on March 19 at 10:00 AM ET, and Hasbro’s Star Wars lineup is exactly the kind of thing built to destroy even the flimsiest collector self-control. The Main Event Is the Obi-Wan and Airborne Trooper 2-Pack The biggest draw here is the Walmart exclusive Vintage Collection Obi-Wan Kenobi & Airborne Clone Trooper 2-pack, which goes up for preorder on March 19 at 10:00 AM ET for $32.80. Hasbro’s published details say the set includes a 3.75-inch Obi-Wan…
The Vintage Collection Finally Gets Baze Malbus, and Rogue One Fans Have Every Right to Be Happy About It
Hasbro has officially opened pre-orders for a deluxe Vintage Collection Baze Malbus, and honestly, it is about time. For a character who spent Rogue One stomping around with a cannon the size of a small grievance and delivering some of the movie’s coolest non-Jedi energy, Baze has felt weirdly overdue in this format. Now he is finally here as VC397, priced at $27.99, and yes, this absolutely feels like one of those releases collector shelves have been waiting on for longer than they probably want to admit. This Is Very Clearly a Rogue One Anniversary Play Hasbro is framing the figure as part of the 10-year celebration of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which makes perfect sense. If you are going to start mining that movie again for collector goodwill, Baze is a strong place to do it. He is not background filler, not a blink-and-you-miss-him alien, and not…
New Mandalorian and Grogu TV Spot Keeps the Plot Murky — But the Movie’s Vibe Is Getting Much Clearer
Star Wars marketing loves doing this thing where it gives you just enough new footage to make you lean forward, and then immediately refuses to explain anything useful. That is pretty much where we are now with The Mandalorian and Grogu. A new US TV spot has surfaced, Empire’s new cover story is feeding the hype machine, and while Lucasfilm still is not exactly laying the whole plot out on the holotable, the tone of the movie is starting to come into focus. The New TV Spot Is Small, But It Does Its Job The fresh TV spot is short and pretty cagey, so this is not one of those “suddenly we know the entire third act” situations. But it does add a little new footage and keeps hammering home the same basic idea: this is still very much a Din-and-Grogu movie first, even if the scale is clearly bigger…
Katee Sackhoff Won’t Confirm Bo-Katan for The Mandalorian and Grogu — But She Says Fans Haven’t Seen the Last of Her
You can always count on Star Wars red carpet interviews to give you the most carefully engineered non-answer in the galaxy. That is exactly what happened when Katee Sackhoff was asked about Bo-Katan Kryze and whether she shows up in The Mandalorian and Grogu. Sackhoff did not confirm it. She did not deny it either. Instead, she pulled the classic “can’t confirm or deny” move — which, in Star Wars terms, is basically the franchise equivalent of waving a beskar key in front of the fandom and then sprinting away. But here is the part that actually matters: she also said fans have not seen the last of Bo-Katan. And honestly? That is the real story here. Bo-Katan Is Not Exactly a Side Character Anymore At this point, Bo-Katan is way past being some deep-cut Clone Wars favorite that only animation nerds argued about online. She is one of the…
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…
George Lucas Is Being Honored With a Major Saturn Awards Lifetime Tribute
George Lucas is adding another big honor to his trophy shelf: he’s set to receive the Dr. Donald A. Reed Founder’s Award at the 53rd Annual Saturn Awards. The Saturn Awards (run by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films) are basically the annual “genre celebration” for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror — which makes Lucas an extremely on-brand recipient. What is the Dr. Donald A. Reed Founder’s Award? It’s one of the Saturn Awards’ special honors, named after the Academy’s founder, and typically reserved for people who’ve had an outsized impact on genre entertainment. This year, that honor goes to Lucas. When are the 53rd Saturn Awards? The 53rd Saturn Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 8, 2026, at Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles, with Joel McHale hosting, and it will livestream on the Saturn Awards’ site. Lucas isn’t the only special honoree Fantha Tracks notes Lucas…
Jessica Henwick Says Losing Rey Was “For the Best” — And Explains Why She Wouldn’t Have Survived the Instant Fame
Jessica Henwick has opened up again about one of Star Wars’ biggest “almost” casting stories: her audition for Rey in The Force Awakens. In a new interview tied to her upcoming projects (Vladimir and How to Make a Killing), Henwick reflects on the experience with a lot more calm than she had at the time — and says she now believes not landing the role was ultimately the right outcome for her. “I much prefer the slow burn” Henwick confirms she auditioned for Rey before the role went to Daisy Ridley, and admits it hit hard in the moment — but says the hindsight is very different. She explains that she doesn’t think she’s the kind of person who could have handled “that level of exposure that fast,” adding that she prefers building a career more gradually. For Star Wars fans, it’s a fascinating “alternate timeline” moment — especially because…
This Call of Duty Zombies Mod Is the Star Wars FPS We’re Still Not Getting
A modder just combined Call of Duty with Star Wars — and it looks like the shooter Lucasfilm will never officially greenlight. Not a concept trailer. Not a “what if.” It’s a real, playable Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Workshop map called Star wars: HOTH beta — and it’s exactly as unhinged as it sounds. When official Star Wars FPS plans go quiet, modders don’t pitch — they ship. What this actually is The project is Star wars: HOTH beta, created by MoiCestTOM and published on the Steam Workshop as a beta build of an upcoming Hoth-themed custom map. The creator says they released a beta because custom maps take a huge amount of time and real-life issues made it hard to guarantee a full release later — so they wanted players to have something playable now. They also say the plan is to expand the map with…
Temuera Morrison Thought The Book of Boba Fett Would Run for Four Seasons
When The Book of Boba Fett premiered on Disney+ in 2021, it looked like Lucasfilm was building a long-term story around one of the most iconic bounty hunters in the Star Wars galaxy. According to star Temuera Morrison, that was exactly what he expected as well. In a recent interview, the actor revealed that while filming the series he assumed the story would continue for multiple seasons — possibly as many as four. Morrison Expected a Long Run for the Series Speaking about his experience working on the show with co-star Ming-Na Wen, Morrison admitted that he thought the series was just getting started. “When you do a series like Boba Fett and work with Ming-Na [Wen], I started to think, ‘Man, this is it. I’m away. Season 2, 3, 4.’” Instead, The Book of Boba Fett ended after a single seven-episode season, leaving many fans wondering whether the story…