The Force Of New Star Wars Series

Star Wars hasn’t been doing so well since Disney took over. Longtime fans were upset about the novels and Dark Horse comics going away even though they could contradict each other and would be hard to follow, the emphasis on Rey has gone into Mary Sue territory since she can do things no other Jedi have done despite having less Jedi training that I’ve had, and even the good movies (I haven’t seen Solo or Rise Of Skywalker yet, but I plan to) haven’t had that Star Wars feel. George Lucas was inspired by old serials and samurai movies while the DisneyFilm movies have been less and less inspired by Star Wars.

However on TV…or rather the streaming service Disney+ they’ve done much better. And by “they” I mean The Mandalorian. I haven’t seen it or the resumed Clone Wars series because I don’t have Disney+ but fans have celebrated…the baby not-Yoda Gorgu and the bounty hunter himself. Maybe it’s because I don’t follow more modern Star Wars watchers but that seems to be all the Disney-owned LucasFilm has going for it and the reason people have flocked to Disney+…and not the huge variety of Disney and Fox shows and movies, the Marvel stuff, and other offerings. (I still hear the Artemis Fowl fans crying…you know the pun that’s coming.)

So it shouldn’t be a surprised that at the Disney Investor Day posting I was on vacation (in theory) for they announced a new batch of Star Wars streaming series. Two had been in the works for a very long time back when they were aiming for television, a prequel for Ben “Obi-Wan” Kenobi and a story featuring Boba Fett, originally planned as another “Star Wars Story” movie. However, they also announced eight more shows they’re putting in the works for a grand total of way too much Star Wars in one shot. They really want Disney+ and Star Wars to succeed but Mandalorian fans are happy they’re getting something that resembles (though I don’t know how well) actual Star Wars and the question is whether or not these will go that route and if indeed there is way too many Star Wars shows coming out while the movies are supposed to be taking time to actually strategize this time and the multi-format “High Republic” series is not winning a lot of the longtime fans over. Well, let’s see what they have planned.

Rangers Of The New Republic is supposed to be spinning off from The Mandalorian, There’s only speculation as to what it will be about other than it’s set at the time that Mandy and Gorgu were having wacky adventures of a bounty hunter and his Force sensitive eating machine. Ahoska is also going to be taking place in this time period with the further adventures of Ahsoka Tano, beloved Clone Wars character who may now be suffering from being Dave Fioni’s pet character. I want to be positive about this one but once a character reaches “pet” status with the writer all bets are off. Just look at Grimlock in any Transformers story written by Simon Furman. Also the logo is rather lame compared to most of the others.

We’re also getting a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story showing the early days of the Rebellion and Cassian Andor. Because we all know that “prequel” and “Star Wars” always end in happiness for everyone.

Wow, Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s logo has less effort than Ahsoka. Didn’t call that, and yet still not as lame. Go figure. Apparently Hayden Christensen is supposed to show up not as an Anakin flashback but as Darth Vader. Not sure how well that’s going to work out.

While Ahsoka Tano comes from the cartoons she’s getting a live-action production. The Bad Batch follows a squad of clones that needed more time in the oven but they get the job done, and were also popular from the Clone Wars show. I’m not sure we want to see them working for the Empire, though. In case you forgot, THEY’RE THE BAD GUYS!

I’m mixed on this one. I have the manga adaptation of the first Star Wars and I found the take interesting, but if these are canon stories they’re going to have to find directors who honestly enjoy and understand the franchise if this is going to work. They might get it right and they might not. We’ll have to see on this one.

I’ve heard mixed reactions to the Lando from Solo but I haven’t seen the movie yet to judge. Again, prequels and Star Wars…this rarely works out.

I want to be excited. I love solo adventures of R2 and 3PO whether in their own series or in episodes of other series. I’m just not sure these people can do it right. Maybe if they bring in writers from the original show (since this sounds like a concept out of the old Droids cartoon) or the Dark Horse comics it might have a chance. This is probably the one I most want to be good. No word about Anthony Daniels coming back but given how rare it is to see a Star Wars production or even crossover with a different voice actor (Daniels loves playing him that much) I’d be surprised if he didn’t as long as his vocal cords still work properly.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Boba Fett is highly overrated as far as the movies go. He doesn’t do much in the second film, takes taken out by a blind man and falls into a Sarlacc at the end and I don’t buy that he got out just because fans love his cool armor, which the Mandalorian now shares. Later novels and Dark Horse stories might have made him cool; I haven’t read a lot of them with him in it. I just don’t see the love for the character outside of the armor and the infamous reworked toy that used to have a working missile launcher. So I really don’t care about this one.

Finally there’s The Acolyte, the supposedly female-led Star Wars series that Kathleen Kennedy is so excited for. That alone makes me wonder. Look, I agree the franchise could use a few more badass ladies outside of the animated series, but I have trouble believing the current creators are the right people to do it given their more extreme feminist perspectives. It didn’t help Charlie’s Angels (the more recent movie) and it ruined any member of the Birds Of Prey not Harley Quinn in that movie. (Still haven’t forgiven how they @#$#ed up Cassandra Cain so royally.) So this one does nothing for me. According to the article I got all this from the show will be part of the “High Republic” event. That killed ANY excitement I might have because so far that event doesn’t impress me.

Honestly I’m not really excited for most of these shows. Maybe the Droids show and the Rangers show might be good…and I’d like to think Fioni can keep his pet character urges in check for Ahsoka (good luck with that), but overall these aren’t stories I feel need to be told. Maybe you can make the case for Boba Fett, but I don’t need Obi-Wan to still be having adventures while watching over Luke, I don’t care about Lando’s shady dealings or watching the clones hunt Jedi, and none of the rest of it draws me in either. They don’t seem to have learned from the movie overload and now we’re going to get series overload. Maybe just complete The Mandalorian and Clone Wars and then try to tell a new story. I even heard talk of a show for Doctor Aphra, the crazy scientist and her mirror universe style R2 and 3PO from the new Marvel comics run, and I can do without that.

What about you folks? Any of these getting you happy to give Disney your subscription money?