The Star Wars Rumor Zone - Mando Edition

It’s been a while since I talked about rumors, well, this time it’s more “leaks” than “rumors”, one of the sources is even The Hollywood Reporter. So no YouTube shenanigans really this time, more like credible leaks about upcoming things! Of course this article will be spoilerific to the max, so if you are allergic to spoilers please avoid! Click through for all the rumours and leaks!

You are about the enter the Star Wars Rumor Zone!

As expected leaks for The Mandalorian & Grogu movie are coming in. I talked about them in the comments before, but I think it would be nice to gather them all in one place.

Source is usually Bespin Bulletin who is a no nonsense leaker.

Ok, let’s talk about the Mandalorian movie first.

Sigourney Weaver is reportedly in it. Only a small role, apparently. She’ll portray a New Republic Colonel or so.

The movie itself, and this is truly bizarre, is kind of a sequel to the animated Clone Wars movie from many moons ago. This movie had a plotline where Ahsoka, Anakin and co have to rescue a baby hutt after being kidnapped. Well, it turns out that hutt is now an adult but still in a lot of trouble. The reports suggest that the hutts last seen in The Book of Boba Fett have placed a bounty / hit on him. And while it’s not 100% confirmed, the New Republic apparently tasks Din Djarin with rescuing Rotta the Hutt (formerly known as Stinky) from the villains, rumors suggest that it is indeed the NR that hires Din to save Rotta.

Bespin Bulletin has more to say about Rotta… and I reiterate, he’s a no nonsense leaker and does not post BS rumors for clicks. So according to his exclusive report Rotta the Hutt is “buff” and is actually a gladiator. Ehm… ok. I bet it will be lots of fun and really, really credible to see a giant slug creature slowly crawling around the arena, taking out opponents left and right??? A hutt as a buff gladiator? His weapon of choice is a vibrosword or a similar weapon. Rotta will be voiced by a person named Jeremy Allan White (he starred in the hit streaming show “The Bear”).

Mando’s antagonist is a bounty hunter last seen in The Clone Wars: Embo. And when people voiced disbelief on social media and hoped this may merely be a sideplot it was confirmed that no, this is indeed the main plot of the movie. Mando saves Rotta the Gladiator from another bounty hunter trying to kill him.

Zeb will help Mando along the way.

My two cents: this sounds utterly horrible. Favreau and Filoni recycle one of the worse TCW stories and produce a kind of sequel with characters most moviegoers will have no clue who they are. Will they properly introduce Rotta and Embo? Or will they do it like in Ahsoka, where nothing was explained at all and everyone who did not watch Rebels just scratched their head in confusion?

Ever since learning about these leaks my confidence in the movie has hit almost “zero”. I expected many things… but this literally feels like a recycled season 4 script, stretched to movie format. This sounds neither epic nor interesting. Almost like a random monster of the week episode. This would have been fine on Disney+ as the middle part of season 4 maybe, but as an actual feature film?

There’s one more leak I want to talk about, and this time The Hollywood reporter broke the news.

Shawn Levy is still tasked with making a Star Wars movie (this was known before, only very little has been talked about it). This movie is supposed to be a standalone project, not connected to the Skywalker saga or Rey at all. And THR learned that Lucasfilm are in talks with Ryan Gosling of all people to be the star in that movie. Nothing else is really known about that movie though. There are no plot details yet. But filming is rumored to begin as early as fall 2025. Which could mean this movie sees a mid 2027 release maybe for that fabled date in May?

Levy is known for movies like Deadpool & Wolverine (most commercially successful R rated movie of all time), Stranger Things (he directed 8 episodes), Free Guy and he also directed the Night At The Museum movies. So while Levy is certainly no wannabe auteur like Rian Johnson, Levy has proven to be able to make movies that are fun and generally well liked and entertaining and he’s made several genre/SciFi movies. So him making a Star Wars movie is probably one of the best choices Lucasfilm has made in recent times.

But I wonder what happened to the philosophy of hiring mostly unknowns as the lead in Star Wars movies, so people going in have no preconceived ideas about the character/actor. Ryan Gosling is a fine actor of course and he starred in various SciFi movies, and while Blade Runner 2049 was not a commercial success, the movie, like the original, was actually pretty good, but Gosling comes with a ton of ideas about him and the character he may play.

To me it sounds as if Lucasfilm and Disney are getting a bit desperate, seeking A list actors to star in their movies to maybe attract audiences, maybe even of the female variety, since Gosling is of course quite popular with women. And men would of course, in theory, have someone to identify with as well. So someone like Gosling could be a win win scenario, but to be honest, I actually prefer the approach Lucas had who hired mostly unknown actors and very young actors as his leads and had the reputable and well known actors more in minor roles. But none of that means a movie by Shawn Levy with Ryan Gosling as the star could not be good. I would say if this project is not cancelled (do not hold your breath) it may have pretty good chances to be successful. Unless The Mandalorian & Grogu movie leaves behind a radioactive wasteland. Then all bets are off.

One last thing: there were rumors about Lucasfilm being in talks with Natalie Portman to reprise her role as Padme in Ahsoka. However, other reports posted only somewhat later claimed that this rumor is false. Make of that what you will. Since we already know that Hayden will be in Ahsoka season 2 it would make sense to also have Padme in flashbacks and to give us the four core characters of TCW in live action: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka and Padme. Then the question of course is… why would Lucasfilm just not make a proper TCW live action series?

And that’s all for today.

What are your thoughts about all of that? Do you think Favreau & Filoni will succeed with The Mandalorian movie or will they give us more something like Iron Man 2? And how about a Star Wars movie starring Ryan Gosling directed By Shawn Levy?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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