Star Wars Weekly: The Sequel (09/06/25 to 15/06/25)
Spaceballs 2, The High Republic, and more...
This week, Star Wars: The Acolyte: The Visual Guide will be released by Lucasfilm and DK Books.
We’ve known this is coming for a while; the book was announced last summer during San Diego Comic-Con. It was part of a larger Acolyte tie-in publishing initiative that included the novels Wayseeker by Justina Ireland and The Crystal Crown by Tessa Gratton.
In and of itself, the news was not all that surprising. Visual Guides are a beloved part of new Star Wars releases, giving fans a closer look at background details, as well as some backstory information about the characters. Every film has had one. But what’s intriguing about this is that it underscores a point that’s been obvious for a while, but we keep getting reminders of:
Lucasfilm expected The Acolyte to be a massive hit.
Instead, Disney cancelled it after just one season. And we’re left with the ghosts of what might have been with a publishing campaign that was clearly meant to bridge the gap between seasons one and two.
No other Star Wars series has gotten this much tie-in material. The Mandalorian was supposed to, but outside forces led to a lot of those plans being scrapped. None of Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, or The Book of Boba Fett got even a dedicated tie-in comic book one-shot. The closest was Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide, released in 2023, combining details from Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, Andor, and more into one book.
But for The Acolyte, there’s a comic book one-shot, a YA novel, an adult novel, and now a Visual Guide, all coming in 2025. But no second season. The books will likely be the final chapter in the Acolyte saga.
What went wrong with The Acolyte has been discussed at length already. The toxic nature of much of the discourse was a big part of it. As was the uneven nature of the series, with episode quality swinging wildly between the weeks (the difference between the fourth and fifth episodes, from worst to best, is enough to give audiences whiplash).
It’s a shame. Through everything, an interesting, worthwhile story was told. And one that would have benefited from a second season to flesh out the ideas. It’s hard not to look at the conversation around The Rings of Power’s second season, generally viewed as a great success built off an uneven first season, and wonder what might have been for The Acolyte. Never mind that the second season would have explored one of the saga’s biggest mysteries in Darth Plagueis.
But hey, at least we’ll have the Visual Guide.
Top Story
Spaceballs Sequel Officially Announced
Comedy legend Mel Brooks announced this week that the sequel to his 1987 comedy, Spaceballs, is officially happening. The original film, a parody of the original Star Wars trilogy and other 80s sci-fi films, is a classic and still beloved by many (myself included).
Brooks will reprise his role as Yogurt from the original film. Also back are Bill Pullman as Lonestarr and Rick Moranis, making his return to on-screen acting for the first time in almost 30 years, as Dark Helmet. They will be joined by Keke Palmer and Lewis Pullman (yes, Bill’s son) in the new film.
Though he’s back as star and producer, Brooks won’t be directing this one (he is 98 years old, after all). Instead, Josh Greenbaum (Strays, Will & Harper) will take over the director’s chair, with Benji Samit, Dan Hernandez and Josh Gad writing the script. All three writers have past Star Wars experience. Samit and Hernandez wrote and directed last year’s Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy animated mini-series, while Gad voiced a character in Star Wars Rebels and has hosted panels at Star Wars Celebration.
A teaser for the sequel was released with the announcement (see above), featuring a Star Wars-style crawl that points out how much more material there is now for them to caricature (Star Wars and beyond).
The film is slated to hit theatres in 2027.
Headlines
The High Republic Creative Team Looks Back on the Series, Teases the Future
The High Republic publishing initiative is almost at the finish line. This week, Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi by Charles Soule, the final novel in the series, will be released. Yes, there’s still a handful of comics left, but for all intents and purposes, the series ends on Tuesday.
To celebrate the series reaching its conclusion, StarWars.com posted a roundtable interview with many of the authors behind the stories. Michael Siglain, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, George Mann, Zoraida Cordova, Alyssa Wong, and Cavan Scott reflected on the time spent working on the series and shared some behind-the-scenes tidbits on the series.
But the big question on everyone’s mind is what comes next for the High Republic characters and era. While there was no concrete announcement, Siglain, director of creative franchise at Disney–Lucasfilm Press, teased that more is in the works.
“It is absolutely not the last time you'll see the High Republic era,” he reassured fans. “It's the end of this particular story, but it's definitely not the end of the era. And we absolutely have plans for other stories. I wouldn't say it's Phase IV, but you could say it's sort of Phase More.”
While Siglain’s tease for what comes next will get all the attention, the rest of the roundtable interview is well worth a read. And while we await news of an official continuation of the High Republic, some “spiritual sequels” have already been released. This includes The Living Force by John Jackson Miller and Wayseeker by Justina Ireland, which bridges the gap in Vernestra Rwoh’s story between The High Republic and The Acolyte.
Temuera Morrison Is Still Hoping For The Book of Boba Fett Season Two
Boba/Jango Fett, himself, Temuera Morrison, is campaigning for his return to the galaxy far, far away, preferably in a second season of The Book of Boba Fett.
In a new interview with Collider, Morrison said he was “sad” that a second season of the series, which ran from late 2021 to early 2022, had not been commissioned by Lucasfilm and Disney+. The star empathized with fans, also hoping for his return, saying, “I'm sad too. Where is The Book of Boba Fett Season 2? Where the hell is Season 2? I know they're doing Ahsoka Season 2. I'm going, ‘Ah, where's my Season 2?’”
He also recounted meeting Book of Boba Fett executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration and lobbying them for a second season. However, he acknowledged that they were busy with other projects and that he would have to wait for his next return to Star Wars.
“So it made me feel like, did you go to grandma's house?” the actor explained. “And she had that preservative jar of peaches up on the shelf. That's what I think. I'm one of those peaches, and I've been put up on the shelf. I've been preserved for a later date, and I'm going to be tastier. So yeah. So anyway, that's all that's happening. That's all I've heard. I know they're doing Ahsoka 2. Geez, I needed it to be in that Andor. What a show, Andor.”
Star Wars in Technicolour
This past week, the British Film Institute screened a special 35mm print of Star Wars (1977) during their Film On Film festival. The print had been in the BFI’s archives since 1977, meaning it was a rare copy of the film’s “theatrical cut,” without the additions and changes that George Lucas has made to the film over the years.
The BFI posted a special behind-the-scenes featurette (see above) about this rare print of the film. The archivists in the video discuss some of the differences between the original print and subsequent re-releases, as well as what makes the Technicolour process so unique.
Additionally, they discuss the original continuity script for Star Wars that the BFI owns as part of their Ann Skinner collection. Skinner was the continuity supervisor on the film, and their copy of the script is chock-full of notes from the production. The script, along with continuity polaroids, is on display as part of the festival, taking place in London this weekend.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was on hand for the screening, presumably to reassure the audience that what they were watching was not illegal (Lucas had famously resisted calls to re-release the theatrical cuts of his films). She also teased the 50th anniversary of Star Wars celebrations coming in 2027 and reiterated that filming on Star Wars: Starfighter would begin in the UK in September.
Andy Serkis Comments on Kino Loy Not Returning for Andor Season Two
One of the most iconic stories in season one of Andor was the Narkina 5 trilogy, which featured Andy Serkis as the gruff shift supervisor Kino Loy. Though he is initially positioned in opposition to Cassian, Melshi, and their cohorts, when the truth about the prison comes out, he becomes a leader in the prisoner revolt. Though he inspired the men to escape, Loy wasn’t able to make it out of the prison himself because he couldn’t swim.
Though it was strongly implied he died, Serkis, along with showrunner Tony Gilroy and episodic director Toby Haynes, all teased the idea that Kino may have survived. This left the door open for him to appear in season two, with many speculating that this might happen. Ultimately, however, he did not.
Serkis addressed this during a recent interview with Collider. “I ultimately think it’s best for the character,” he said. “It was such a great arc, and it had a very, very definite and heroic conclusion. I think, in many ways, to go back would be difficult because it has left a mark. I was so surprised at how emotionally effective that character was, actually, and so I think it’s way, way better that we leave him in Narkina 5, on his own.”
In other Andor interview news, Variety dropped an Actors on Actors featuring Diego Luna and Javier Bardem, Tony Gilroy and writer Beau Willimon appeared at the ATX TV Festival, and Gilroy, Willimon, Dan Gilroy, and Tom Bissell were interviewed by the Writers’ Guild Foundation.
From The Archive
Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu Published on June 12th, 1983
One of the earliest Star Wars novels was published this week, forty-two years ago.
Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu by Neil L. Smith hit shelves on June 12th, 1983. It was the first of three novels in the Lando Calrissian Adventures series, all of which were published in 1983. Set prior to the events of the original trilogy, when Lando still owned the Millennium Falcon, the novel follows Lando as he searches for a lost treasure on a distant planet.
Though the story now takes place in the “Legends” (non-canon) continuity, it was referenced in Solo: A Star Wars Story. When Donald Glover’s Lando is recording the latest edition of “The Calrissian Chronicles,” before he’s interrupted by the uprising on Kessel, he mentions that he “wasn't all that impressed with the Sharu. No sense of humour or style.”
In Other News
Bob Iger Says Disney Has No Plans To Sell Off TV Channels
One of the biggest stories in Hollywood this week was the unmerging of Warner Bros. and Discovery into two separate companies. One will encompass the film studio and HBO, and the other will be made up of their collection of TV networks. This has led to much speculation that other studios will follow suit.
Disney CEO Bob Iger was quick to reject the idea as something Disney would do under his leadership. During an appearence on CNBC, Iged explained, “Soon after I returned to Disney, I put everything on the table and asked the team to evaluate whether we should buy Hulu or whether we should sell Hulu, whether we should sell our linear television networks or whether we should hold on to them, and after a pretty lengthy process internally, and really taking a long look at what these properties could mean to us, long term, we decided that the best course for us to take was to not only buy [Hulu] in its entirety, but also to hold on to the linear television networks and to integrate them seamlessly with our streaming business.”
He added later in the interview, “It’s also interesting to us that as many others exit that business, I think it gives us a stronger hand to stay in that business. We’re very focused. We will have, interestingly enough, a linear television business that’s paired with a streaming business. So when you think about it, these spinoff companies won’t have the assets from a streaming perspective that we will have.”
Iger’s first tenure as CEO was defined by all his acquisitions of other studios, including Lucasfilm and Marvel, so it’s no surprise he’s not interested in selling things off. The real question is whether his eventual successor will feel the same a few years down the line.
Podcast Corner
Ben and I broke down the news about Mia Goth joining the cast of Starfighter, as well as some of the other new details about the film, on The Star Wars Underworld Podcast this week. We also talked a little about Celebration Japan, a lot about Ahsoka, and plenty about Spaceballs 2.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch above on YouTube!
Coming Soon
Always in motion is the future, but here’s a look ahead at what we can expect in Star Wars over the next seven days:
Trials of the Jedi by Charles Soule, the final High Republic novel, hits shelves on Tuesday, June 17th.
As mentioned above, The Acolyte: The Visual Guide will also be released on June 17th.
The comic book collection, Star Wars Legends: The Rebellion Omnibus Vol. 3 will also be released on June 17th.
And on June 18th, Doctor Aphra (2025) #1 by Cherish Chen will be released.
May the Schwartz be with you!