Lucasfilm announced in March that producer, actor and director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) has signed on to executive produce and write a live-action Star Wars TV series for Disney’s new direct-to-consumer platform. Now he has confirmed that development is pretty far along with half the Season 1 scripts already written, and told Nerdist that the series will take place seven years after Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi. Favreau also stated that the show will feature all new characters, and use cutting edge CGI and motion capture technology similar to his The Jungle Book and The Lion King movies.
“I’ve written half of the season already for the new Star Wars show that I’m working on,” Favreau confirmed on the red carpet last night.
This news is sure to excite fans, as the period between Episode VI and Episode VII is fertile ground, with only a few brief flashbacks and backstory exposition in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to imply what went on in that part of the timeline between the Empire’s fall and the rise of The First Order. Lucasfilm also recently announced a new animated series taking place just before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens titled Star Wars Resistance, which will have an Anime-inspired look and debut this Fall.
Of course, just because Favreau has written scripts does not mean the show is a sure thing: George Lucas and a team of writers famously developed 50 scripts for the aborted Star Wars: Underworld live-action show. In other words, don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Star Wars fans.
Disney’s collaborations with Favreau extend back a decade, when he helped launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe as director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 and as an executive producer of the Iron Man and Avengers films for Marvel Studios. For Disney, he directed and produced the massively successful The Jungle Book, which won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking visual effects. He is currently in production on Disney’s highly-anticipated reimagining of The Lion King, set for release in 2019.
Favreau is no stranger to the Star Wars galaxy having voiced the Mandalorian Pre Vizsla in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and as the CG creature Rio Durant in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The untitled Star Wars live-action series does not yet have a release date but the Disney direct-to-consumer platform will launch in late 2019.
