Rapid-Fire Reaction to the Huge Star Wars, Marvel News of the Day

Holy cow, did Disney fire the big guns today. Disney had a shareholders meeting, and a truckload of nerdy goodness was learned from what Disney has in store for the future. They made huge announcements for two of entertainment's biggest IPs - Star Wars and Marvel - and several other smaller announcements. Check out my super-hot takes on what turned into an early Christmas present from the Internet. Note: some of the actual names of the shows are still working titles. Also, I need to learn how to embed videos in a blog, but for now, go look for the trailers on YouTube or Twitter, because they're awesome.

STAR WARS

-Obi-Wan Kenobi: We knew this one was starring Ewan McGregor, but today we got confirmation that Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Darth Vader. It sounds like they will fight each other once again. The show will take place roughly 10 years after the events of Episode III. There's a lot to unpack here. First of all, this should mean that we'll see Christensen don Vader's suit for the first time outside of the end of Revenge of the Sith. Also, there's potential crossover for characters such as young Han and young Lando, maybe even Ahsoka (she was Anakin's padawan, after all). Also at this point, Obi-Wan is guarding Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, so will we get to see a child version of Luke? Will Obi-Wan need to fight to protect him at any point? Will we get to see Obi-Wan use Yoda's training that he gives him at the end of RofS? So many questions! So many possible connections. I can't wait for this one.

-Rangers of the New Republic: This will be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian. I'd wager we've already seen some of the characters who will appear in this show; the second episode of Mandalorian Season 2 had a couple of X-Wing pilots talking about the New Republic. Hopefully this show fills in more details on the exact state of the galaxy at this point since we only are getting bits and pieces. Cara Dune certainly will play a significant role, too, right?

-Ahsoka - Not a surprise, of course, but glad to see it's an official show happening. I hope Mandalorian ends with Ahsoka going off to find Sabine Wren to team up and search for Ezra (and Grand Admiral Thrawn). Rosario Dawson seemed like a great fit to play that character, so I'm excited to see her as the lead character.

-Andor: It looks like Cassian Andor, everyone's favorite soldier/pilot from Rogue One, will be spying and doing some dirty work for the Rebellion prior to the events of Rogue One. Very exciting, but sad it won't get released until 2022, especially because this was the first Star Wars show they officially announced several years ago (if my memory serves me correctly). Hopefully we get to see a young Jyn Erso, though that probably wouldn't make much sense (maybe she could make a non-descript cameo).

-Star Wars: The Bad Batch: This is very much a spin-off type show from Clone Wars. The catch is we presumably will be following a group of clones that either has something go wrong, or they just do horrific things. It's not that I'm not going to watch the show, but I am getting a bit exhausted of the animated stuff, especially the stuff that's in the same time period and same art style as so much other content they've already made. I suppose the trailer made the show look more visceral and darker in tone, so that's something. But Tarkin is back in animated form, so really, how different can this show be?

-Star Wars: Visions: This will be an anime take on Star Wars. Not sure I need this. I remember the Animatrix series when the Matrix movies were in development. That's my guess on what this show would be like. They did advertise it as original, so it doesn't seem like they'll just rehash the same movies/stories we've already seen in anime form, so that's a positive, at least.

-Lando: I didn't see confirmation that Donald Glover was reprising his role, so it's hard to tell if this show will follow a young Lando or if it will fall in line more with the Lando we see in Empire Strikes Back. I sure hope it's the former, and I would hope that a young Han Solo makes a cameo.

-The Acolyte: This announcement is incredibly exciting, but also a bit worrisome. This show will take place during the final days of the High Republic era, the new era the Star Wars universe is set to explore (200 years prior to the movies). The first books of that era were delayed this year but are set for a summer 2021 release, and now we're getting a show about this same era (with potential character crossover, of course). So why am I worried? We haven't even started the era yet, and already they're mapping out the end of it? I sure hope that doesn't mean it's a short-lived run of stories. My guess is they're going to invest more into this time period if it ends up being a hit with the audience. It's being advertised as a mystery thriller that explores shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers. This could be a lot of things, but I sure hope it's referencing Darth Plagueis. That would be awesome.

-A Droid Story: This will be created by the Lucasfilm Animation team and will be an adventure movie starring a new character, and we'll have R2-D2 and C-3PO guiding us during throughout (no mention of BB-8, though).

Movie notes:

The next film is called "Rogue Squadron" and is set for December 2023. Patty Jenkins, who directed Wonder Woman, will be at the helm for this one. She did a great job with that marvelous DC movie (no pun intended), so I have high expectations for this one. I haven't played the Squadrons video game yet (It's on my Christmas list), so I'd be really curious to see if the movie connects to the game in any way. I doubt it.

MARVEL

-Secret Invasion: Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn (who played Talos in Captain Marvel), this show almost certainly will pick up on the Spider-man: Far From Home post-credit scene with Fury when he's in outer space seemingly on vacation aboard a Skrull ship. The Internet has come up with a lot of theories about that scene, but it seems Fury will be a part of the Secret Invasion storyline. One prevailing theory is that Fury is creating S.H.I.E.L.D.'s counterpart, S.W.O.R.D. - Sentient World Observation and Response Department (to note, there's also another organization called S.T.R.I.K.E. in Marvel). If the MCU is going to stay in space, this would be a great way to do it. For me personally, this show is the best chance that the MCU will bring back any of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters. Now that AoS ended this year, it's possible some of those actors may want to stick around. Heck, Quake's final scene was in a spaceship, so it's possible she comes back, right? (I've stupidly held out hope that this can happen for many years, so why give up now?!).

-Armor Wars: The pitch is War Machine (reprised by Don Cheadle) faces Tony Stark's worst fears: what happens if Tony's tech falls into the wrong hands? It'll be interesting to see what time this takes place in the MCU. It probably shouldn't be after Civil War, because War Machine was paralyzed from that fall (sure, he's been recovering and seemed mostly fine in Endgame, but still). But if the show is before Civil War, Tony would be around for sure, but since RDJ is supposedly done playing Iron Man, it would seem odd for the character to just be absent. So hopefully this show makes sense within the timeline while still giving War Machine the spotlight.

-Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: I just hope it's better than the Star Wars Holiday Special (I still need an actual copy of this to add to my collection if anyone wants to surprise me with a last-minute Christmas gift).

-I Am Groot: This is a series of original shorts starring Groot and new, "unusual" characters. Disney, of course, wants to make shows for kids of all ages. Who better to do that with than Groot? And no, I'm not too old for this.

-The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The latest trailer showed Zemo in one shot (I think we've known he was coming back, but I don't remember for certain). This show now seems like a more grounded, somewhat smaller story, but the trailer still showed off plenty of action to maintain a bigger scope.

-She-Hulk: Tatiana Maslany stars, but Tim Roth, who played Abomination, and Mark Ruffalo himself will return, too. That's great. Again, I'm curious about where this one fits in the timeline. If the Abomination is still around, it can't be too far after Incredible Hulk, right? Otherwise, where has he been this whole time? But if it's around that early time in the MCU, where has She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters been? Maybe this show has a sad ending.

-What If? This show is coming in Summer 2021. It explores crazy ideas: what if Hayley Atwell's character was Captain Britain, or what if Doctor Strange had an evil twin? There's so many ideas they could run with here. I wonder if they're limiting themselves to characters played by actors who are willing to reprise their roles (it sounded like Atwell and others recorded the VO for the trailer). We'll get to see the Watcher, who will play as the narrator through the episodes.

-Loki: Of course, this show will reveal what happened to Loki during Endgame when he took the time stone and created a new timeline. It was a weird intro. Loki is found in a desert (maybe somewhere in Asia) after crash-landing from his exit through the portal. He gets captured by the TVA (Time Variance Authority), so presumably we'll get more alternate-universe storylines (Owen Wilson is starring as a time policeman!). There's definitely a shot of who has to be Black Widow sitting on a pile of rubble as she watches a huge moon crash into a planet (similar to Infinity War). What's she doing there? Another timeline, maybe? Who knows. The possibilities seem endless.

Notes on movie announcements:

-Glad to hear they aren't recasting Black Panther, but that doesn't mean we can't see him. They could use CG for him while he's in his suit, right? Not sure how they'd voice the character, though, so we probably won't see him at all. The elevator pitch for the story involved following other characters and exploring Wakanda more, which is something they could easily do without Black Panther.

-Ant Man: Quantumania and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness have to be two of the most exciting-sounding generic titles you can come up with.

-Blade: Mahershala Ali is a fantastic actor, and Blade figures to be a more graphic addition to the MCU, but who knows.

-Christian Bale in the new Thor movie? I could see him and fat Thor drinking a lot....

Other things besides Star Wars and Marvel:

Alien: Apparently FX is airing a show in the Alien franchise's universe. That's cool, I guess.

Pixar: We're apparently getting a prequel to Toy Story as we will see a young Buzz Lightyear, voiced by none other than Chris Evans, of course. It's set to release in 2022. They also released a lot of news regarding recent Disney animated films, and they announced plenty of other animated shows and documentaries that are coming to Disney+. I did see that the subscription price will raise to $7.99; it's currently at $6.99, though I pay a slightly smaller amount because I bundled it with Hulu and ESPN+.

#Marvel #StarWars #DisneyPlus