Movie and TV News

The Skeleton Crew has arrived! Goonies in Space! To say that 2024 has been a very rough year for Star Wars is putting it mildly… so how does the year end for Star Wars?

I’ll elaborate further in my review but let me just say this: the show is a lot better than expected and much less bad than feared. Yes, it is indeed Space Goonies and episode 1 looks nothing like Star Wars, but Skeleton Crew hits home where it counts the most: it’s just (innocent) fun and perfect family entertainment for young and old. It is good natured, the creators do not insult you or waste your time, the kids, who are of course just kids so not necessarily Marlon Brando, are charming and fine and probably the best kid characters in Star Wars yet (not that Star Wars has a good track record here)… I was, despite criticisms, pleasantly surprised! I look forward to where this is going! I feel this is what we desperately need after the last series on Disney+. Innocent fun and a space adventure!

There is a lot to talk about, so read my spoiler review by clicking here or on the banner and let’s talk about pirates in space!

This will surprise literally no one. The mythological Rey movie has now been removed from the release schedule according to the Hollywood Reporter. Star Wars was originally supposed to have two movies in 2026. The Mandalorian & Grogu in May and the Rey movie in December. But with the latter still not having a script and not a writer – yet again (this is the second time now) – it was inevitable that the movie would be removed from the schedule. There simply would be no time anymore to finish the movie in time for a December 2026 release. Click through for a discussion!

Mandatory photo of Rey crying

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The headline says it all. Earlier today an official release date for Andor season 2 was given. Nothing else was said and no trailer was released. My guess is that marketing for Andor will only begin once Skeleton Crew has finished to avoid any confusion and overlap.

Are you excited for season 2 of Andor? Will anyone who initially did not watch Andor season 1 watch season 2?

As of now Andor will be the only new Star Wars on Disney+ in all of 2025. Nothing else for 2025 has been announced. Which means Andor will be the last new Star Wars before The Mandalorian and Grogu movie hits theaters in May 2026.

According to Deadline (a reputable trade magazine with actual inside sources) Lucasfilm is at it yet again… according to Deadline’s sources Kathleen Kennedy hired Simon Kinberg to make an all new trilogy of Star Wars movies, he will be the sole writer and producer (alongside Kennedy). According to the article there is some dispute about whether Kinberg will write episodes X-XII of the Skywalker saga or make an all new trilogy. Deadline’s sources told them it’ll be actually Episodes X-XII.

Now, Lucasfilm themselves have not announced anything, Kennedy did not walk out on some stage and talked about this new project. But you can usually trust Deadline to be correct when they post these things on their front page.

Kinberg has worked for Star Wars before, he was co-creator and writer for Rebels, he’s also the person who wrote the horrific Dark Phoenix X-Men movie and he’s also the one who wrote the 2015 Fantastic Four movie. So let’s just say my confidence in Kinberg is not particularly high. Even if other works like the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movie were received a lot better.

But since this is Lucasfilm let’s just all have a good laugh and wait for the inevitable report by any of the Hollywood trades that Kinberg no longer works on yet another trilogy. He can join Rian Johnson, Benioff & Weiss, Taika Waititi, Leslye Headland, Colin Trevorrow, Damon Lindelof, Steven Knight, Patty Jenkins et al in the clubhouse soon!

Why is Kathleen Kennedy still in charge over at Lucasfilm, planning nonsense things?

Read the original report by Deadline here!

Another day at the Lucasfilm offices

The latest Star Wars series Skeleton Crew starts on December 3 on Disney+. Click through to check out the latest trailer and poster art.

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The clown show that is Lucasfilm these days has a new trick: “the vanishing screenwriter”. I’ll make it quick, the fabled Rey movie has lost yet another writer. First it was Damon Lindelof and a writing partner who were “let go” over creative differences… then Kathleen Kennedy hired Steven Knight – the man who co-developed “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and is the showrunner/writer of Peaky Blinders – and 18 long months after that they still have nothing. According to reports Kennedy liked none of the treatments submitted by Knight. Knight himself has done many things, just nothing for Star Wars, he is working on the Peaky Blinders movie, he is busy creating a new studio in Hollywood. So if you followed the news it won’t be a surprise that Knight is now no longer attached to the Rey movie.

According to Variety Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is still attached to the project, Yeah, sure.

Part of me wants Lucasfilm to go through with this and to deliver the biggest Star Wars disaster of all times. The sensible part of me wants them to come to their senses and to stop this before it can potentially end Star Wars for good. But if they want to go ahead… my advice is, hire Leslye Headland, surely a movie about a woman needs a female writer? You may as well end Star Wars spectacularly.

What are your thoughts?

Here is the Variety article, who repost a Puck story (their newsletter is not available to non paying customers).

Another day at the Lucasfilm offices

Ewan McGregor mentioned at a LA Comic Con panel that Lucasfilm is “exploring” a season 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ewan is eager to return as Obi-Wan and also stated previously that he would like to return as the fan favorite character.

Now while Obi-Wan Kenobi had decent ratings, it is the #2 Star Wars show overall on Disney+, fan reception was “mixed” at best. But that doesn’t mean Lucasfilm could not – in theory – learn from their mistakes, hire better writers, more experienced directors / showrunners and give fans an Obi-Wan Kenobi series that deserves the name. The first season  detracted from the experience too much with Leia and Reva, any potential season 2 should have a laser sharp focus on the actual main character.

Anyway, what are your thoughts here? Would you like to see a second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or do you think Lucasfilm is ultimately incapable of making any good content these days?

One things is clear, there aren’t many options left for Lucasfilm. For all we know The Mandalorian is over, it will never return to Disney+ and at best be a movie series going forward. Skeleton Crew will flop, this is almost inevitable. Andor will not be a crowd pleaser next year, even if it’s great. Ahsoka is just “meh” and the show suffers from a boring main protagonist with the charisma of a wet towel, also, many feel that Ahsoka will result in a discount store Thrawn trilogy. In short: Lucasfilm needs something that attracts people again. And Ewan McGregor, despite the first season of Obi-Wan Kenobi, is the biggest name they still have, who is reasonably young and who can carry a series, without the use of CGI or deepfakes. While a potential Cal Kestis series could also turn out great, it’s unproven how successful this show can be. And Lucasfilm definitely needs more than just one series in the near future. Because after Ahsoka season 2 in potentially 2026 there is literally nothing.

The last best hope for Star Wars on Disney+?

Daniel Richtman aka DanielRPK on X posted a few more Star Wars tidbits… I’ll make it quick: according to him Lucasfilm is developing a Star Wars series based on the Fallen Order video game franchise with main character Cal Kestis. The third and final game is currently in development and could be released in 2026/27. With Ahsoka possibly seeing a 2026 release it would mean the Cal Kestis series could be ready for a 2027 release. As far as projects go this is probably the safest bet after the disastrous The Acolyte. Both “Jedi” games sold more than 40 million copies combined and Cal Kestis is a very popular character with a roster of equally popular companions. And Lucasfilm could give fans yet another show set during the OT/Rebels/Andor timeline.
DanielRPK also reports that The Mandalorian will end with the 2026 movie (to which I say, if this movie made 1 billion at the box office there would certainly be a sequel), the show will also not return to Disney+. But the character will appear in other projects (certainly the Filoni movie with Ahsoka).

And that’s it for today. Would you like to see a Cal Kestis series? He’s a Jedi, he fights the Empire, his girlfriend (as of Survivor) is one of the best liked female characters, Nightsister Merrin (before Ahsoka retconned it all she was the last surviving Nightsister), all the actors in the game could and would certainly appear in the series as well, it would be more OT era nostalgia, they could use Darth Vader (he appears in the games) and various other OT era characters. So on paper it really sounds like the safest bet. And Lucasfilm absolutely needs something that can replicate the overnight success that was The Mandalorian on Disney+. Neither Andor nor Ahsoka (not even mentioning the 2024 shows) are able to fill that role.

You are about the enter the Star Wars Rumor Zone!

Rumors are spreading (the source seems to be DanielRPK on X who has a mixed track record) that the Rey movie is now on hold. Because they still have no script after all this time and the treatments by writer Steven Knight were never met with approval by Kathleen Kennedy.

Make of that what you will… the source seems to be someone who at times is right about things, other times not so much. But one thing is certain: the movie that was supposed to start filming in 2024 will not begin filming this year.

If the higher ups at Disney have some sense left  – and before you say anything, they seem to have, given what we know about the production of Inside Out 2 and just hours ago it was revealed that Disney gets rid of the CCO of their animation department, the animation studio that brought the world such wonderful flops like Strange World and Wish. Jennifer Lee, the now former CCO, says she wants to focus on filmmaking full time instead, and she will work on the next two Frozen movies… so she still has a job (on paper), but is no longer in charge of animation (Lee was basically the Dave Filoni of Disney animation). Anyway, so if they have some sense left Disney will give the Rey movie the Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy treatment. They must know how high the chances are that a movie by an activist feminist director and a sequel to the sequels will bomb spectacularly. And Kennedy may have played her last trump card with The Acolyte which was an outright disaster on Disney+. They let her do this pet project of hers… and it actually harmed Star Wars. This of course after Indiana Jones 5 only not becoming the biggest Disney movie flop of all time because The Marvels managed to perform even worse.

Poor Daisy – she deserves better

Deadline just released an exclusive article about the cancellation of The Acolyte. With Deadline being a reputable Hollywood trade magazine with actual industry sources there is zero doubt about the veracity of their report. The least watched live action Star Wars Series on Disney+ ever that cost 180 million to make and which also had the lowest watched Marvel or Star Wars series/season finale on Disney+ ever (less viewers than Ms Marvel even) will not get a second season. As reported in my Nielsen article from a few days ago The Acolyte series finale had not even one quarter of the audience of The Mandalorian season 2 finale and performed worse than the Ms Marvel series finale even, which is a new absolute low point. An overwhelming number of fans ignored the series and refused to watch it. News of the cancellation breaks mere days after Nielsen reported their series finale numbers for The Acolyte, of course internally Disney knew about the viewership weeks ago.

And with that Leslye Headland and The Acolyte will both become obscure footnotes in Star Wars history. The woman who tried to destroy the Jedi and wanted people to root for psychopathic murderers she identified with and considered her “avatar” will never work for Lucasfilm again. And quite frankly – the best Disney could do is to give The Acolyte the Willow treatment and to erase the show from existence or at least to officially label it non canon.

And with that I think we will finally never have to talk about The Acolyte again. Let’s forget about it all. And to the twelve people who wanted a season 2: welcome to the real world!

One final question remains: why does the woman who greenlit both Willow and The Acolyte on Disney+ (two of the worst flops on Disney+) and is reponsible for the massive box office disaster that is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny still have a job?

Read the exclusive Deadline article here!

Dead!

Lo and behold, after weeks of absence The Acolyte did manage to enter the Nielsen Streaming Charts for original shows with its last episode. The numbers are however nothing Lucasfilm can be happy about. In fact, the numbers are abysmal. Click through for all the details!

The series is as dead as Sol

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I’ll make it super quick. The Acolyte is not on the top 10 Nielsen Streaming charts, not in the overall top 10, not in the original series top 10, it’s nowhere to be found. In fact, a brand new Star Wars series with an all new episode is now even outperformed by a show which released its currently most recent episode two years ago. A job well done, Leslye Headland and Kathleen Kennedy! You really turned a once successful phenomenon on Disney+ into a bad joke no one is watching. This is with episode 7, the second flashback episode, added. Click through for a short discussion!

In search of the modern audience

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The Lando series is officially dead. If anyone remembers: this series was originally announced in 2020. Alongside other projects like “Rogue Squadron” (giggle), “Rangers of the New Republic” (snort) or “Droids” (huh?!?).

Deadline quotes series director / showrunner Justin Simien who told them the project is not moving forward at Lucasfilm.

Simien said this to Deadline:

“It was pretty developed. There was a Bible. There was concept art. There were scripts. But it just wasn’t meant to be.”

No particular reason was given for the cancellation of the project. Last year it was still said that Glover and his co-writer want to turn the series into a movie instead. No word about that here anymore. And let’s be honest: a Lando movie would tank hard. He’s a supporting character who works in the greater context of a Star Wars movie, but few would be eager to watch his solo adventures. It’s certainly for the best we will not get a Lando solo project.

And Kathleen Kennedy can add one more failed/cancelled project to her impressive list of things she announced which then never happened.
Now all we really wait for is Deadline reporting that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is livid that sexist and misogynist Disney dared to cancel her Rey movie and how this is an outrage.
If only Lucasfilm had had this kind of foresight they show with the Lando series for The Acolyte…

Leave all the usual funny remarks in the comments section if you feel like it. Maybe someone can post an updated list of Kathleen Kennedy’s Star Wars projects that never materialized.

Deadline has the full story

I’ll make it quick. Because at this point it really is beating a dead horse. The Acolyte with episode 6 (the Qimir bathing episode) failed to enter the Nielsen charts. Which comes as no surprise, since the show dropped out of the charts after its third episode (week 2). This corroborates Luminate’s all new streaming charts where The Acolyte also dropped out.

House of the Dragon meanwhile has 1,296 million minutes and Amazon’s The Boys is listed with 1,125 million minutes as the #2 original series. Disney has only one real highlight, but it’s not even a Disney+ show, the FX series (for Hulu) The Bear is #1 on the original shows charts (all episodes were released on the same day), this is the second success story for FX/Hulu this year after Shogun. Disney+ proper only has three entries, the usual suspects: Bluey (again, not even a Disney IP), Moana and because of the successful sequel also Inside Out.

It will be interesting to see what subscriber numbers Disney will report for its streaming service in the upcoming earnings report next week.

The Nielsen Streaming Charts

Dead as a doornail

We had some leaked images before, but about 4 months before Skeleton Crew will come to Disney+ Lucasfilm is slowly gearing up its marketing efforts for the next Star Wars series. They released a couple of official photos from the show and some basic info. Skeleton Crew was ready for release in 2023 but was delayed because of Bob Iger’s new content strategy, filming ended in January 2023, this has been sitting in the vault for some time already. Click through for the images!

This is an old leaked set photo… inside the article you see it after post!

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Let’s make it quick. The Acolyte failed to enter the Nielsen charts in week 4, just like last week. This means the big lightsaber battle episode and Qimir reveal interested very, very few people. I talked about it last week what this means for Star Wars and how embarrassing it really is for a once successful and popular franchise. But it all adds up, GI Joe HasLabs utterly wipe the floor with current Star Wars offerings (almost 11k backers now), and now the streaming shows cannot even remotely compete anymore with other genre shows like House of the Dragon (1,047 million minutes) or The Boys (1,179 million minutes). A job well done, Ms Headland and Ms Kennedy!

The Nielsen Streaming Charts

No one cares

While marketing for Skeleton Crew has not yet started what seems to be an official promo poster / artwork has now been found in a thrift store (of all places), according to someone who posted the photo on X. This is a color version of a metal ingot revealed previously, maybe this will be the official poster for the series.

The theory is that maybe someone who worked on the show sold some of the swag crewmembers usually get when production wraps. Skeleton Crew was ready for release in 2023 already and thus production ended quite a while ago, but Iger decided to delay the release as part of his new Disney+ content strategy, which is why we’ll get the show in November this year.

One noteworthy thing is that Jude Law is absent, unless you count his silhouette walking in the background with the four kids in tow. This may imply the kids truly are the main focus here with Law only being a support character. One would think they would feature the only known actor in this show a bit more prominently.

What do you think? After so many either at best average (Mando S3, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett) or outright disastrous (The Acolyte) shows I have doubts Lucasfilm under Kennedy will get a series right that is meant to have kids as main characters, especially when we look at the child characters in previous Disney+ projects. But of course no one will know for sure until release and I will certainly watch the pilot episode.

Found in a thrift store…

UPDATE: Luminate have already released their numbers for week 7 of The Acolyte, i.e. for the series finale. And episode 8 also failed to enter the top 10 Luminate original series like the previous two episodes. The #10 entry on the Luminate charts has 228.5 million minutes viewed (Sausage Party: Foodtopia, which is a sequel series to the movie) which is just embarrassing. The Acolyte must have had less then 228 million minutes watched, maybe even less than 200 million. According to Luminate the finale was watched by maybe as few as 4.4 million people (or even fewer)! In the update I also discuss some statements made by Headland in a Collider interview that reveal she literally considers Qimir aka Smilo Ren as somewhat of a self insert. You find the Luminate update and the interview quotes at the end of the original article!

Well, that escalated rather quickly… while The Acolyte remained in the top 10 Luminate Original Series charts until week 4 and episode 5 and only dropped out when episode 6 was released in week 5, The Acolyte has already dropped out of the top 10 Nielsen original series charts in week 3 with episode 4! The #10 show has 298 million minutes on the Nielsen charts. The Acolyte must have less than that. According to Luminate The Acolyte had 262 million minutes in week 3 (episode 4). Click through for a short commentary.

The Acolyte is as dead as this wookiee

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It’s finally over… the last ever episode of The Acolyte was released Tuesday night… but Headland’s show ends with a massive middle finger to almost all Star Wars fans. All in all things develop as you’d think they develop, there are no surprises really here. The plot is more than just predictable.

But Headland creates one of the most toxic romances in history (only rivalled by Rey and Kylo Ren) and has the gall to even include a cameo of a certain Jedi we all know… and I do not care about spoilers. The Phantom Menace is more like “The Super Duper Obvious Menace, We’ve Known About For 100 Years” now because at least two members of the high council should know about it all, and knew about it for about a century… which is just laughable. And that other cameo may make some fans even more angry…

There are quite a few things to talk about, none of them pleasant, but Lucasfilm should hear it loud and clear from the normal majority of fans that this is nothing most fans want (in case the lousy ratings do not tell Lucasfilm how a majority of fans reject this). While the two dozen Reylos who now have Oshamir scream on Twitter about how they want a season 2. Anyway, click here or on the banner to read my spoiler review for The Acolyte series finale.

This week you’ll get yet another pretty short article. Because The Acolyte failed to make the top ten original series Luminate streaming charts for a second week in a row, this time with episode 7, that other flashback episode. Last time the series was on the Luminate charts it had around 220 million viewing minutes, by far the lowest figure for any Star Wars live action series ever – if the numbers will be reflected on the Nielsen charts in a few weeks from now we will know for sure. But week 2 figures agreed very well between the two charts. So it is not unreasonable to assume that we may see very similar trends in upcoming Nielsen streaming charts. Click through for a few comments about this embarrassing performance on the Luminate charts.

No wonder hardly anyone is watching this

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Nielsen have a somewhat erratic release schedule currently, they released their early June numbers earlier this week… and on Friday they already followed up with the numbers for the next week. Whatever… Nielsen have therefore now added The Acolyte episode 3 (the flashback episode about the power of maaaaannyyyyyyyyyy) to their charts. And we can finally compare one full week of The Acolyte on the Luminate Streaming charts to one full week on the Nielsen charts. How do the numbers compare? It’s very interesting! Click through for all the details!

The power of… none…

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I thought the worst was behind us. Then episode 7 of The Acolyte was released. “Choice” is a travesty. A twisted mirror universe version of Star Wars that now features current era R&B pop songs and I wish I was just joking, but I am NOT.

This is the nadir. It can’t get any worse… Nothing makes sense. This episode, once more all flashback, is just the amended version of episode 3. All the same things happen again… just with a few more Jedi scenes now. And you know why all of this happened? I will spoil it for you right here and now because you won’t believe me anyway. All of this happens because Torbin is really, really, really, REALLY homesick and wants to go back to Coruscant.

I have no words for this. Okay, I have a few words for this. If you want to know what I have to say about this nuclear catastrophe click here or on the banner and read my spoiler review of “Choice”, the single worst piece of Star Wars ever, and I include The Holiday Special here.

Nielsen have finally released their numbers for early June, which means we now have numbers for The Acolyte. Luminate have their own streaming charts so it will be interesting to see how the two compare. What does Nielsen say about The Acolyte? Click through to find out!

This show is wearing no clothes!

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This week it will be a very short article. Because The Acolyte has, as expected, dropped out of the Luminate Streaming Charts, it was already a very close call last week. It is no longer among the top 10 most watched original streaming shows.

Other websites may try to run interference for Lucasfilm and claim what a raging success it is and how the fans are the issue, not the show, but the cold hard fact is that The Acolyte is a ratings failure on Disney+. And while we still have to wait for Nielsen chances are that they will also confirm that this is the least watched Star Wars live action series yet. Now, in all fairness, Andor also dropped out of the top 10 Nielsen charts for original shows exactly once. So maybe The Acolyte will manage a comeback like Andor did. But Andor dropped out of the charts during the middle of the season, not close to the season finale. It seems naked Manny Jacinto did nothing for the ratings.

And no, it is not istophobes who refuse to watch it. The show is just not good, it’s horribly written, in parts horribly acted and outright nonsensical when it comes to the character arc and motivations of its main characters Mae and Osha. In addition to that it aims to deconstruct the Jedi and portray them as shady people with terrible secrets who feel so guilty they commit suicide and who act as overbearing space cops in the High Republic. Maybe most just do not like this version of Star Wars. Almost certainly so. And to think Lucasfilm spent $180 million on this…

The Luminate Streaming Charts on Variety, without The Acolyte.

Star Wars in 2024

This week’s episode of The Acolyte is the polar opposite of the previous one. Zero action, dialogue only. Sadly, this also means you need good actors, even more sadly, Amandla Stenberg continues to seriously underwhelm as the lead characters in this. And so much hinges on her here. Anyway. In this episode Manny Jacinto (who is actually a good actor) as the newly revealed Sith gives Osha his best sales pitch (the usual routine), while Sol pretends to be clueless but isn’t really… just when this show finally wants to tell us how the Jedi murdered all the poor space witches we fade to black. Why this show has 8 episodes is beyond me, this is at best a 4 part mini series with one hour episodes.

So… there’s not that much to talk about this week, since things were mostly just boring or the same old same old you expect to see and hear when a Sith tries to recruit someone. But of course there are some things worth discussing… like the vague vibe I get they may retcon Darth Plagueis here, if they do I have a feeling many folks may not be so happy about it. So click here or on the banner for my spoiler review of Teach / Corrupt and let’s discuss the latest episode of The Acolyte!

We also get male frontal nudity in this… where is equal representation when you really want it?