Lucasfilm kicked off the first day of Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 with a slew of new announcements. These reveals come just under one year after last year’s Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim where the studio officially announced the Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Disney+ series from Spider-Man director Jon Watts, gave the first public look at Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny from director James Mangold, and exclusively unveiled to attendees the first peek at The Mandalorian Season 3 and the Ahsoka series, which had just begun production at the time.
A lot has changed in one year within the halls of Lucasfilm; not only have upcoming shows like Ahsoka and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew wrapped production but The Mandalorian Season 3 is also about to come to a close on Disney+ while Season 4 is in the early stages of pre-production. Previously announced Star Wars shows such as The Acolyte and Andor Season 2 are in the midst of production as well. However, what was uncertain before today was the fate of Lucasfilm’s film division. The studio ended up having no Star Wars film to release in theaters this December with both Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and Kevin Feige’s rumored mystery project no longer in active development. Now, at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy finally announced what the plan will be for Star Wars films going forward from December 2025.
Along with plenty of exciting news related to Star Wars television on Disney+, three new films were revealed with a newly organized Star Wars timeline in place. Oscar-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Ms. Marvel) and writer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) are confirmed to be working on a new feature film with star Daisy Ridley returning as Rey from the sequel trilogy. James Mangold and Dave Filoni were revealed as the directors for the latter two films. It is still unknown which of these projects will actually be moving forward in that coveted December 2025 release date though. This would be 6 years since J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premiered to mixed reception across the board. Plus, although not mentioned at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, Taika Waititi’s Star Wars film was last reported to still be on the table.
Live from Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, we have gathered every new crucial piece of information that was announced by Lucasfilm, including release dates, casting news, and exclusive descriptions of footage that was only shown to SWCE attendees. The only description we chose not to include was from The Mandalorian Season 3 as attendees got to see the first 7 minutes of next week’s episode. Executive producer and writer Rick Famuyiwa is the director of the final two episodes this season. And for those curious, the Star Wars timeline is now divided into these segments from start to finish: Dawn of the Jedi, The Old Republic, The High Republic, Fall of the Jedi, Reign of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, The New Republic, Rise of the First Order, and finally the New Jedi Order. Keep scrolling to see the rest of Lucasfilm’s announcements from Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023!
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 TV Announcements
Andor: Season 2
Directors: Series creator Tony Gilroy previously confirmed that Ariel Kleiman (Yellowjackets), Janus Metz (All the Old Knives), and Alonso Ruizpalacios (Narcos: Mexico) are all directing episodes of Andor Season 2 with Kleiman, in particular, directing half of the 12-episode season.
Cast: Diego Luna, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O’Reilly, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Kyle Soller, Joplin Sibtain, Muhannad Bhaier, & Andy Serkis.
New Details: Season 2 of Andor, which is confirmed to be the last of this limited series, is currently halfway through production and is planned to wrap filming in August 2023.
Exclusive Footage Description: Debuted at Celebration was a near 2-minute sizzle reel showing shots of all of the previously seen characters from the first season of Andor in new costuming and attire. The footage capped off with Cassian giving a smirk dressed in a regal uniform with his hair upwards
Release Date: August 2024
The Acolyte
Directors: DiscussingFilm previously confirmed that Kogonada (After Yang) & Alex Garcia Lopez (Daredevil) are joining creator and showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) as series directors on this 8-episode season.
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Manny Jacinto, Dean-Charles Chapman, & Joonas Suotamo.
New Details: Series creator and showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) confirmed that The Acolyte is told from the perspective of the bad guys – the Sith – and is set in the High Republic Era before the beginning of the prequel trilogy. During this time, dark sider users are outnumbered and, from a certain point of view, can be considered the “underdogs” of the Star Wars universe. The Acolyte is the furthest back in the timeline that fans have seen a live-action Star Wars story.
Leslye Headland originally pitched The Acolyte as “Frozen meets Kill Bill” to Kathleen Kennedy who is already “blown away” with the first four completed episodes that she’s seen. From the show’s main cast, Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae was revealed to be playing a Jedi master along with former Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo who is playing a new Wookie Jedi Master. The Acolyte is confirmed to be wrapping production next month in May 2023.
Exclusive Footage Description: The first-ever footage reel for The Acolyte was shown exclusively to Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 attendees. The footage opens in a Jedi academy on Coruscant with Lee Jung-Jae’s Jedi master character leading a class of younglings. Amandla Stenberg’s mysterious lead character is seen lurking through alleyways and then in a stand-off with Carrie Ann Moss’s martial arts inspired-foe who can block all of her moves with the force in hand-to-hand combat. We cut to Jodi Turner-Smith’s character who looks like royalty in a princess gown-like dress walking surrounded by a crowd in cordial attire. The shot that book ends the footage shows all the Jedi characters (Dafne Keene, Charlie Barnett, etc.) and their master with their lightsabers equipped and ready for battle.
Release Date: 2024
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Directors: The directors list for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew officially announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 are series creator Jon Wats (the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy), the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once), David Lowery (The Green Knight), Jake Schreier (Netflix’s Beef), Bruce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian), & Lee Isaac Chung (Minari).
Cast: Veteran Jude Law leads the main cast of the series with child actors Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, & Robert Timothy Smith. Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Insherin) also stars.
New Details: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew follows a group of 4 kids who go on an adventure throughout the galaxy. Director Jon Watts pitched this idea to The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau during the production of Spider-Man: Far From Home. The kids get chased by aliens of a kind and run into a Jedi played by Jude Law and soon get taken under his wing. Kathleen Kennedy specifically likened Star Wars: Skeleton Crew to the children-led films of Amblin’s glory days like Goonies.
Exclusive Footage Description: The first teaser trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew was shown exclusively to Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 attendees. The footage starts off in a suburban type of community that seems much more grounded and almost earth-like. We see the main group of kids at school and hear a narration of one asking another if they want to go on an adventure. Kerry Condon plays the mother of one of the kids and we next see a hologram of her pleading the kids to come home from their dangerous journey. There are some quick cuts to colorful aliens, including Vane the surviving Nikto member of the Shard’s pirate gang from The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere. We finally see all four kids behind bars when Jude Law’s character, a Jedi, arrives with levitating keys to free them.
Release Date: 2023
Ahsoka
Directors: Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), Steph Green (The Book of Boba Fett), Jennifer Getzinger (Mad Men), Geeta Patel (House of the Dragon).
Cast: Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, David Tennant as Huyang, and Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno as new villainous dark side users. Lars Mikkelsen is set to reprise his role as Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars Rebels. Chopper the astromech droid returns as well.
Synopsis: Ahsoka follows its titular warrior as she makes old connections with allies Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and more former rebels in the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn as remnants of the Empire and the dark side threaten to resurge in the era of the New Republic.
Exclusive Footage Description: There was only an extended trailer shown to attendees at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023. While most of the footage is already available to be seen in the public trailer, there were some significant moments shown in the Celebration extended trailer. These include our first look at Thrawn in live-action, portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen who voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels. Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s Sabine was featured even more in this version of the trailer, as she wields the green lightsaber, formally used by Ezra Bridger, in a duel with Ivanna Sakhno’s mysterious villain.
Sabine also had a small sequence in Lothal during this trailer where she drives and crashes a speeder on the highway previously seen in the Rebels series. The extended trailer ended with another iconic shot from that show, with Ahsoka and Sabine flying towards a Purgill. Also important to note is that Sabine sported the same short purple hair as she did in the Star Wars Rebels series finale during this scene.
Release Date: August 2023
The First Teaser Trailer for Ahsoka was released to the public:
Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 Film Announcements
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, and Boyd Holbrook.
Exclusive Footage Description: Not Star Wars related by Celebration Europe attendees got to see 6 minutes of footage from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Director James Mangold said the scene shown takes place at the dead center of the film. It’s an automobile chase in Morocco where Indy, his goddaughter Helena Shaw, and a kid named Teddy are going after Mads Mikkelsen’s villain named Jürgen Voller who has the “dial of destiny” while they’re being chased by Helena’s fiancé. Helen rips off her sleeves and takes a pole out of their tuk-tuk car and then jumps onto the Nazi getaway car driven by Boyd Holbrook to start beating out the back window. She finally gets in and takes Mads by the tie but Indy pulls her back into their tuk-tuk before she gets crushed by another car.
The Final Trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released to the public:
Untitled Star Wars Film Set 15 Years after The Rise of Skywalker
Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Writer: Steven Knight
New Details: What is rumored to be Lucasfilm’s next theatrical release is set during the “New Jedi Order’ 15 years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Daisy Ridley will return as Rey who is now a Jedi Master training a new generation of Jedi Knights. Fans should note that this continuation or spin-off is not being sold as Episode X in The Skywalker Saga. While some fans are already theorizing that this could potentially be the start of a new trilogy, this project is still in the very early stages of development to even guess that. Writers Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson reportedly left this project last month.
Release Date: TBA
Untitled Star Wars Film about the First Jedi
Director: James Mangold
New Details: This will be a Star Wars film that follows the origins of the very first Jedi in the Star Wars timeline. This era is now officially labeled as the “Dawn of the Jedi” set 25,000 years in the past, before the Old Republic. Writer-director James Mangold, who will be hot off the heels of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is staying at Lucasfilm to helm this as potentially his next project, which he describes as a “biblical epic” à la The Ten Commandments about the dawning of the force. This film is still in the very early stages of development.
Release Date: TBA
Untitled Star Wars Film Culminating the Events of the “Mandoverse”
Director: Dave Filoni
New Details: This will be a Star Wars film that wraps up the events of what fans are now calling the “Mandoverse,” which is basically the interconnecting story of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and other possibly upcoming Disney+ shows set during the “New Republic Era” (after the “Age of Rebellion” in the original trilogy and before “Rise of the First Order” in the sequel trilogy). Having directed episodes across both shows, George Lucas’ own protege Dave Filoni will be helming the project. This film is still in the very early stages of development.
Release Date: TBA
