New Star Wars movies and Disney Plus shows explained, plus known release dates
TechRadar breaks down all of the new Star Wars movies and shows that are in development
It's a busy time for Lucasfilm's iconic galaxy far, far away. Indeed, with so many new Star Wars movies and Disney Plus shows in development at the acclaimed studio, your head might be a tailspin over when each production will officially debut.
You won't be as confused as you were by the time you reach the end of this guide, though. Below, we've rounded up the latest intel on every forthcoming Star Wars series and film, including any known release dates, cast details, story teases, trailers, and the creative minds behind each project. Once they're all out, our guide on how to watch the Star Wars movies in order will be twice as big as it once was – but hey, that's our problem to deal with, not yours.
Anyway, enough stalling: this is the new Star Wars movies and TV shows article you've been looking for, so read on to learn everything about each production, Padawan.
New Star Wars projects: the full list
Here's a complete list of every Star Wars film and TV series that are currently at various stages of their development, plus any known project titles and months/dates we know:
- Young Jedi Adventures season 2 – August 14
- Skeleton Crew – December 3
- The Mandalorian & Grogu – expected 2026
- Ahsoka season 2 – TBC
- Andor season 2 – TBC
- The Jedi Origins movie – TBC
- Lando – TBC
- The Mandalorian-Ahsoka team-up movie – TBC
- Rey's New Jedi Order film – TBC
- Rogue Squadron – TBC
- Untitled Shawn Levy-directed film – TBC
- Untitled Taika Waititi-directed movie – TBC
New Star Wars TV shows
Young Jedi Adventures season 2
Release date: August 14
Confirmed cast: Jecobi Swain, Emma Berman, Juliet Donenfeld, Dee Bradley Baker, Nasim Pedrad, Trey Murphy, Piotr Michael, and Gunnar Sizemore
Prepare to hit those hyperdrive engines, kids, because the second season of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures is gearing up to entertain you and your families this month. For those unfamiliar with the animated show: it's set 200 years before Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and follows Jedi younglings Kai Brightstar, Lys Solay, and Nubs as they get to grips with using the Force, traversing the galaxy, and helping anyone in need.
Per a Disney press release, season 2 "follows the younglings as they continue their training and embark on even bigger missions across the galaxy. Helping to lead the younglings on these missions is Master Zia’s new Padawan – Wes Vinik – and his astromech RO-M1. As they continue their training and grow in the ways of the Force, the young Jedi will travel to new planets with new and old friends and encounter adversaries like The Ganguls, who are growing in their pirate ranks…".
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Skeleton Crew
Here's your first look at the upcoming Star Wars Original series, #SkeletonCrew, streaming December 3 on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/QkMxeE8Kn8July 31, 2024
Release date: December 3
Confirmed cast: Jude Law, Kerry Condon, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Robert Timothy Smith, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Tunde Adebimpe, and Jaleel White
Despite being yet another show set in The Mandalorian's increasingly crowded sector of the timeline, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will have a very different mission briefing to its predecessors. Jon Watts, director of the three MCU-set Spider-Man movies, reportedly pitched the show as The Goonies in space.
Disney say it’ll focus on a group of kids – named Wim, KB, Neel, and Fern (per People magazine) – trying to find their way home after making a mysterious discovery. Luckily for them, they won’t be making their journey across a dangerous galaxy alone – Jude Law is coming along for the ride as their protector Jod Na Nawood (again, via People).
Revealed on July 31 alongside some first-look images and the cast's identities, Skeleton Crew's release date was confirmed to be December 3. It's possible we'll finally get a trailer at D23 Expo 2024 in mid-August, too. It should be a good series, though our expectations are tempered somewhat because we still believe Skeleton Crew has a lot of convincing to do, not least because some of its Disney Plus brethren have underwhelmed us.
Andor season 2
Release date: expected 2025
Confirmed cast: Diego Luna, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, and Ben Mendelsohn
Arguably the most critically acclaimed of Star Wars' Disney Plus shows, Andor’s ambitious and morally complex first season showed us a darker, grittier side to a galaxy far, far away. Creator/showrunner Tony Gilroy will return to continue the story of Cassian Andor, Mon Mothma and the early days of the Rebel Alliance, with Andor season 2's 12 episodes unfolding over a four-year span that leads right up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Luna and O’Reilly are back as Andor and Mothma alongside fellow returnees Skarsgård (Luthen Rael), Gough (Dedra Meero), Soller (Syril Karn) and Arjona (Bix Caleen). Ben Mendolsehn, who played Orson Krennic in Rogue One, has also reportedly been confirmed as one of season 2's returning Star Wars villains.
Filming began in November 2022, but principal photography didn't wrap until early 2024 due to last year's Hollywood strikes, which heavily impacted its development. As such, Andor season 2 was removed from Disney's 2024 release schedule, but its cast have recently suggested that an early 2025 launch is in the offing. Like Skeleton Crew, we hope to learn more about its return at D23 Expo.
Ahsoka season 2
Release date: TBC
Confirmed cast: Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Hayden Christensen, and Ivanna Sakhno
Ahsoka season 2 is in the early stages of development at Lucasfilm. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Star Wars' recently installed new Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni confirmed its scripts are being written, so it'll be a while before the show's sophomore season debuts on Disney Plus, aka one of the world's best streaming services.
Unsurprisingly, little else is known about its plot, but we have some ideas of where it could go, based on how Star Wars: Ahsoka season 1 ended. One thing we do know is that Baylan Skoll, the mysterious Force wielder who was played with such gravitas by the late Ray Stevenson, may not return following the actor's passing in late 2023. He could be recast, but we'd be surprised if Lucasfilm go down that road.
New Star Wars movies
The Mandalorian & Grogu
Release date: 2026 (TBC)
Confirmed cast: Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver
Baby Yoda is coming to movie theaters! That's right, a new Star Wars movie titled The Mandalorian & Grogu is on the way. The Mandalorian & Grogu was surprisingly announced in January and it seems as though it'll be The Mandalorian season 4 in all but name – i.e. picking up the story of Din Djarin and his apprentice, the little green guy formerly known as Baby Yoda after The Mandalorian season 3. Deadline claims, though, that season 4 is also still in development.
The Mandalorian creator, lead writer, and showrunner Jon Favreau will direct the new movie. Per Star Wars X/Twitter fan account MakingStarWars, multiple sets are being built ahead of a late 2024 filming start date. That practically confirms our report that The Mandalorian & Grogu won't launch in theaters until 2026 – but hey, at least we know Grogu and Pascal's Djarin will be joined by some sci-fi royalty in the film, with Alien movie icon Sigourney Weaver being tapped for an undisclosed role.
The Mandalorian/Ahsoka team-up movie
Release date: TBC
The overlapping stories of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and (presumably) Skeleton Crew are all set to come together in a cinematic event that'll focus on the "escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic" as it reaches a climax. Dave Filoni, Ahsoka showrunner and long-time protector of Star Wars lore, is lined up to direct.
"I hesitate to say it’s a big meet-up from just [The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett and Skeleton Crew], because Dave has been developing Star Wars storytelling inside Clone Wars and Rebels and so much of the work he has done for 20 years," Kathleen Kennedy told EW. “So it will be little bits of all that. There are a lot of sources he’s drawing from to see where we’re going.”
It appears, however, that Filoni is playing his Sabacc cards close to his chest when it comes to who'll show up in the big screen ensemble – so close, in fact, that not even his stars know if they'll be called into action. "When I heard they were doing the movie at [Star Wars:] Celebration in London, I was like, 'Maybe one day I'll find out whether I'm a part of that!'” Ahsoka star Natasha Liu Bordizzo told SFX magazine (via GamesRadar). "This is one of those times when I can so happily tell you I have no idea what's going on with that. I'm happy not to, because that way I don't have to lie to you!"
The Jedi origins movie
Release date: TBC
The Acolyte took place around a century before The Phantom Menace but that’s nothing compared to this Jedi origin story. In fact, at the risk of coming over a bit Star Trek, this prequel flick is boldly going where no Star Wars movie has gone before.
James Mangold is the filmmaker lined up to take the franchise back a few millennia to what StarWars.com describes as the "Dawn of the Jedi". The official summary says the film "will take audiences deep into the past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression". According to THR, Beau Willimon is penning the script
"I want to be part of the saga, but I also don't want to be holding so much lore in the air that you can hardly tell a story," Mangold explained to iO9. "What I told [Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy] was, can we make a kind of Ten Commandments of the Force, a kind of origin story of how this Force came to be known, understood, wielded and harnessed."
Understandably, little else is known about this one. However, Simon Emmanuel, who worked alongside Mangold on Indiana Jones 5, seemed to accidentally reveal its title (unless it's a working title) to SFX magazine (thanks to Reddit for the catch): Jedi Prime.
Rey’s New Jedi Order movie
Release date: TBC
Confirmed cast: Daisy Ridley
The first release to expand the Star Wars chronology beyond The Rise of Skywalker, this movie reunites us with Rey roughly 15 years after Star Wars Episode IX, in the recently ordained 'New Jedi Order' era. Ridley will return as Rey, as she rebuilds the Jedi Order, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face, Ms Marvel) is signed up to direct, and Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) is writing the screenplay. In April, Knight told NME that things are "going well" on the script front. Per Star Wars fansite The Bespin Bulletin, filming isn't expected to start this year.
"We're coming off what was a major war with the First Order," Kathleen Kennedy told GamesRadar. "And now, Rey has made a promise to Luke, and that's really the core of where we're going and what this story will be. And I think it offers just a tremendous opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something fresh, because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating, and now we take all of that and move it to the next chapter."
In January, Ridley told AlloCiné (via Deadline): "I think it’s a really fantastic exploration of the Star Wars world. It's a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction". Speaking to THR in May, Ridley expressed her interest in seeing Rey reunite with John Boyega's Finn – comments that came less than a year after Boyega exclusively told TechRadar he'd be "open" to reprising that role.
Lando
Release date: TBC
Confirmed cast: Donald Glover
The one and only Lando Calrissian had been set to front his own TV series, with Dear White People creator and Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien attached to write the show, and Glover reportedly keen to return to a role he first played in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story. Things went rather quiet until, surprisingly, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told IGN at Star Wars Celebration 2023 that "[Lando's] still happening."
It's since gained significant momentum. Simien has left the project (per EW) and Glover is now writing it with his brother (and frequent collaborator) Stephen.
Calrissian's unexpected shift to the big screen was confirmed by Stephen Glover during his September appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, noting: "It's not even a show... The idea right now is to do a movie. Right now, because of the [Hollywood writers/actors] strike, it's kind of like telephone, all of the information." Variety has since confirmed the project's transfer to theaters through its contacts at Lucasfilm.
Other Star Wars movies in the works
Yoda once said: "Always in motion is the future" – and the diminutive Jedi Master could've been talking about the Star Wars movie slate since the release of 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. Several projects been released and/or canceled since the franchise made its last visit to theaters, but, three high profile movies remain in the pipeline.
Rogue Squadron, the pilot-focused movie that was pulled from its original December 2023 slot (per Variety), is seemingly still in the works. Kennedy told IGN at Star Wars Celebration in April 2023 that this Top Gun in space blockbuster "definitely is something that we still talk about. Whether it's a movie, or whether it ends up being in the [TV] series space, that's definitely something." Meanwhile, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, who was thought to have departed the project, revealed in March that she's working on a new draft of the Rogue Squadron movie.
Meanwhile, Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi (who’s also directed, and starred in, episodes of The Mandalorian) continues to orbit a Star Wars movie of his own. "Taika is still working away," Kennedy told Variety. "He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that". Updating fans on how things were progressing last November, Waititi teased his film will aim to "capture that joy and the entertainment of those early ones [Star Wars movies]."
Lastly, Shawn Levy, who's been involved in hugely successful projects like Stranger Things and Deadpool and Wolverine, is also still slowly developing his Star Wars flick; Levy confirming as much to Deadline. He's since also confirmed that Jonathan Tropper, who worked with Levy on Netflix's The Adam Project film, is penning its screenplay (via On Demand Entertainment).
For more Star Wars coverage, see which productions in its extensive back catalog made it onto our best Disney Plus movies and best Disney Plus shows guides.
Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.
- Tom PowerSenior Entertainment Reporter