A second live-action Star Wars TV show has officially been announced. Diego Luna will reprise his role as Cassian Andor in a currently untitled Rogue One Prequel series to be produced for the upcoming Disney service, which has officially been named Disney Plus. The news was announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger and was later confirmed by Lucasfilm via the official Star Wars website.
According to Lucasfilm, the series will go into production next year and will follow Cassian Andor during the formative years of the Rebellion prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As we learned in that movie, Cassian spent years with the Rebellion fighting the Empire and dirtied his hands quite a bit, blurring the lines of what it means to be a good guy. Diego Luna had this to say about the new series in a statement.
“Going back to the Star Wars universe is very special for me. I have so many memories of the great work we did together and the relationships I made throughout the journey. We have a fantastic adventure ahead of us, and this new exciting format will give us the chance to explore this character more deeply.”
At the present time, it hasn’t been revealed who, creatively speaking, will be at the helm of the series. Rogue One was directed by Gareth Edwards, with Tony Gilroy stepping in to help get the movie in shape during reshoots. So it wouldn’t be surprising to hear Edwards is somehow involved. This comes not long after production started on The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars TV series, also set to debut on Disney Plus next year. Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) is the chief creative force behind that series.
The untitled series is described as a spy thriller that will explore tales filled with espionage and daring missions to restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire. It’s not too surprising to learn that Disney is going to make more Star Wars shows for the streaming service. What is somewhat surprising is that a character like Cassian Andor, above all others in the vast galaxy of characters in the Lucasfilm canon, is getting his own show. Rogue One was quite well-received and grossed a total of $1.05 billion at the box office.
Bob Iger also finally revealed the title of the service to be Disney Plus after months of having very little information on that front. Disney will be holding an event in April to reveal more details on the upcoming service, which will launch sometime in 2019. At the present time, the Rogue One prequel series doesn’t have a premiere date, but with production slated to begin early next year, a 2020 release seems realistic. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more details on the project are made available. This news comes to us from StarWars.com.