IF YOU SPEND enough time on Star Wars Twitter — the third angriest,
most divisive Twitter behind Football Twitter and Cupcake Twitter —
amidst the million voices crying out in terror, you’ll fi nd the occasional
whisper of hope suggesting a radical thought: there has never been a better
time to be a Star Wars fan.
And, from a certain point of view, this is correct. Small-screen Star
Wars has never been more alive. The Mandalorian is bringing a new kind
of spice to the franchise, at once familiar and fresh — a second season is
already fi lming. The seventh and fi nal season of The Clone Wars looks
set to give the fan-favourite animated series the send-off it deserves.New TV outings for Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor and Ewan McGregor’s
Obi-Wan Kenobi are coming down the pike, even if both have teething
problems. The former has brought in Rogue One writer Tony Gilroy to
work alongside original showrunner Stephen Schiff , with Gilroy also
directing episodes.
According to Variety, original Obi-Wan writer Hossein Amini has
left the project and the production gone on hiatus while the scripts are
reworked; McGregor and showrunner Deborah Chow remain on board.
Despite the hiccups, Star Wars’ streaming game is still looking strong.
In other media, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has brought back the
primacy of single-player gaming to the galaxy far, far away, aff ording players
20 hours as surviving Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, wiping out stormtroopers
while rocking a poncho. And on the experiential front, you can go to
Galaxy’s Edge in Florida and California, fl y the Millennium Falcon, drink
blue milk until you fall over and buy a Salacious B. Crumb — or, more
precisely, a Kowakian Monkey Lizard — plushie for $69.99. Alongside the
welter of novels, comics and action fi gures that actually resemble the
characters on screen, this is arguably the best we’ve had it since 1977.ONCE YOU’VE WATCHED THE MANDALORIAN,
WHAT’S NEXT? CONTRIBUTING EDITOR IAN
FREER ON WHERE STAR WARS COULD — AND
SHOULD — GO ILLUSTRATION CHRIS MALBON