Star Wars’ mysterious Acolyte show sounds like CSI: Jedi Order

Star Wars is in a very weird place right now. Disney has already completed its own Skywalker trilogy and closed that book on that story, but there are still tons of Star Wars projects that are somewhere on their way to theaters and streaming.

Disney’s upcoming Star Wars lineup stretches as far into the past as the High Republic and may even pass the Skywalker Saga on the timeline one day. There are shows about new characters and old favorites, and plenty of shows to help us better understand the events of one Star Wars movie or another. And while some don’t have formal release dates yet, there’s already trailers for them, like Mandalorian season 3. Then there’s The Acolyte, which hopes to capitalize on Lucasfilm’s EU business in live-action for the first time. As for new movies, Disney is a little bit more quiet, but there are a least a few on the very distant horizon.

With so many things planned for the Star Wars universe, here’s a look at all the shows that we know coming to Disney Plus, the movies that will arrive in theaters, and when you can expect to see each and every one of them.

Image: Lucasfilm

The animated series The Bad Batch is coming back for a second season at the beginning of 2023 with a two-episode premiere. The exploits of the Clone Force 99 are expected to directly follow the end of season 1.

Technically, season 2 of The Mandalorian happened all the way back in 2020, but you could be forgiven for forgetting considering that The Book of Boba Fett was basically Mandalorian season 2.5. But the official third season is on the way to give us more adventures with Grogu and Din Djarin.

Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.

This series will follow Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, but it’s not exactly clear where the story might take her. We do know that the series will include Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, so it’s very likely a prequel to the events of The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett — since Vader is dead by then — but that’s about all we know, and it’s still just a guess. But as of Sept. 2022, Ezra Bridger will be there, played by Eman Esfandi.

Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Confirmed at the 2022 Star Wars Celebration as a 2023 release, Lucasfilm’s other new Star Wars story seems totally detached from key characters from previous movies and shows. Described by creator Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming) a throwback to “’80s Amblin movies” — a catch all for kid-centric adventure movies like Goonies or Explorers or basically anything riffed on by Stranger Things over the last few years — the show stars Jude Law and a ragtag group of (unannounced) kid actors. Little else is known about the plot other that it takes place around the time of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, but knowing that Watts made a similar though edgier throwback with his 2015 chase thriller Cop Car, one suspects Skeleton Crew will also nod to George Lucas’ love of things that go fast.

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

The fact that this movie is directed by Taika Waititi and co-written by Waititi and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) is a comprehensive list of the things we actually know about it. Waititi said in the summer of 2021 that the movie has a story — makes sense — and that otherwise it’s still being written. As for when it might take place, or come out, we’ll just have to wait and see. With Rogue Squadron getting moved back, Waititi’s movie will be the first Star Wars movie set to hit theaters since Rise of Skywalker.

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

Perhaps the upcoming Star Wars movie of which we know the most, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron will be directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), who described her desire to turn it into the “greatest fighter pilot movie of all time.” While this movie was originally slated for release in December 2023, scheduling conflicts led to a delay and pushed the movie off of Disney’s calendar for that year. However since then, Jenkins as reportedly moved a few things around in order to focus more on Rogue Squadron and the upcoming Wonder Woman 3.

Photo: Christian Black / Lucasfilm Ltd.

This Star Wars series will be set in the later days of the High Republic at a time when a new Dark Side power is on the rise. Created by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, The Acolyte is described by Lucasfilm as a mystery series following a former Padawan who reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the pair are met with something more sinister than they imagined. The series will star Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae, Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Manny Jacinto (Nine Perfect Strangers), Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), and is currently filming, which means we might see it in 2023 but guaranteed to get it by 2024.

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

The head of Disney’s Golden Goose, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kevin Feige is also set to try to bring his success to Star Wars sometime in the future, but we have no idea when or if it will even happen. Kathleen Kennedy’s last update on the subject came in a Vanity Fair story from May, when she said, “I would love to see what movie he might come up with. […] But right now, no, there isn’t anything specifically.”

Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars movie

Another creative planning on a trip to the Star Wars universe is Lost and The Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof. Little is known about the movie that movie he’s working on, but he recently enlisted the help of a writer’s room to crack the story, which included names like Patrick Somerville (Station Eleven) and Justin Britt-Gibson (The Strain), who will cowrite with Lindelof. The untitled film is set to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel), and reportedly set after the events of the sequel trilogy. While original series are what Lindelof is most known for, he’s no stranger to hopping into existing and long-running franchises, having work on Star Trek Into Darkness, Alien prequel Prometheus, and HBO’s Watchmen, in the past. There’s no word yet on when this project can be expected for release.