With the recent release of the highly-slept-on Star Wars: Visions, things for the galaxy far, far away are looking as bright as ever.
Yoda would chastise the premise of looking to the future and horizon, but it's difficult not to be thinking forward about what's to come for Star Wars over the next year and beyond.
Following a dry spell after the conclusion of The Bad Batch's first season, the anime anthology Visions made its debut on Disney+ and served a pleasant surprise for all fans — so much so that there's already a desire for more content with the characters and scenarios introduced.
Moving forward, the Star Wars faithful should expect to see a marketing ramp-up for The Book of Boba Fett in the near future, with a trailer dropping no later than November 12 ahead of the series' December release. The show will spill over into the following year, and from there the floodgates will open on what should be the most loaded calendar of Star Wars content ever.
In no specific order, Lucasfilm is expected to release Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, The Bad Batch Season 2, The Mandalorian Season 3, and A Droid Story at various points throughout 2022, guaranteeing that fans will have a spectrum of projects to enjoy on a near-weekly basis.
But was this always the plan? The Direct had the opportunity to speak with one of Lucasfilm's VPs on the matter, who suggested things shaped together quite naturally.
Star Wars' Big 2022 Schedule Wasn't By Design
In an exclusive interview, The Direct spoke with Star Wars: Visions executive producer and Lucasfilm VP James Waugh about the influx of content coming in 2022.
As Waugh put it, things weren't necessarily designed to create such a jam-packed schedule, but rather the stars all seemed to align with "the way things lined up for the year:"
"Oh, I don't know... I don't think it was planned on as being a regular... I think it was just the way things lined up for the year. I think there will be ebbs and flows of Star Wars as great creators come in and have great takes on Star Wars, that we believe fans will want to see."
At the crux of it all, Waugh sees Disney+ as "exciting," looking at the platform as the driving force behind the new narrative opportunities:
"I think what Disney+ does offers a lot of rich potential to explore the galaxy in new ways, and that's exciting."
Full Speed Ahead for Star Wars
The Star Wars freight train is coming, and there's nothing that can stop it.
It's easy to remember when 2019 was seen as the biggest year of all-time for Star Wars; it saw the opening of both Galaxy's Edge theme parks, the launch of Disney+ with accompanying debut of The Mandalorian, overwhelming success in the form of the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, and the not-as-successful late year release of The Rise of Skywalker.
In comparison, 2022 is about to make all of that look like child's play.
As Waugh mentioned, Disney+ has truly opened the door for a significant amount of Star Wars stories that otherwise never may have been told. It had been a long wait before 2020's Disney Investor Day event presented what Lucasfilm had up its sleeve for the future of George Lucas' beloved franchise, but the company has gotten its Porgs in a row and looks to have a solid plan going forward.
Something to note is that the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt on the productions of both Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi mid-last year, delaying the projects from potentially releasing in 2021.
While the extended wait has been painful, there's been The Mandalorian Season 2, The Bad Batch, and now Visions to hold fans over on Disney+, and the later releases for the series that have spent a long time in development may actually be better for the Star Wars franchise in the long run.
Lucasfilm is set to drop over ten shows (some of which entail multiple seasons) on Disney+ in just the next few years alone, leading to an inevitable uptick in content on an annual basis.
With fifty-two weeks in a year, some simple math suggests that fans could potentially expect a nice piece of Star Wars content nearly every week in 2022 — a trend that will surely continue as Disney looks to maintain as many subscribers as possible for their streaming platform.
Below is an educated guess at what 2022 could look like for Star Wars:
- [December 2021 – February 2022] The Book of Boba Fett (8 episodes)
- [February 2022] Disney Gallery: The Book of Boba Fett
- [February – March 2022] Obi-Wan Kenobi (6 episodes)
- [March 2022] Disney Gallery: Obi-Wan Kenobi
- [March – July 2022] The Bad Batch Season 2 (16 episodes)
- [July – October 2022] Andor (12 episodes)
- [October 2022] Disney Gallery: Andor
- [October 2022] A Droid Story (Animated Movie)
- [November – December 2022]The Mandalorian Season 3 (8 episodes)
- [December 2022] Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 3
If Lucasfilm was to follow this hypothetical release pattern (all things assuming only the first two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett drop this December), things should add up to precisely the fifty-two weeks in the year, each of which would see something new from Star Wars on the streaming front.
Granted, with The Mandalorian Season 3 still in the early stages of production, it's possible that the project may debut a little later in the year, perhaps following in Boba Fett's footsteps with a December release. However, there's also a great chance that Lucasfilm may throw the fans a few curveballs with some surprise announcements during either this year's Disney Plus Day event or Star Wars Celebration 2022, possibly rolling back the curtains on some currently secret projects that could hit at any point in the Fall.
Next year is absolutely loaded, and the Disney+ projects are just the tip of the iceberg. With the continuation of the High Republic publication narrative, a Spring release for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and maybe even a Holiday drop for the highly anticipated sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, there's something brewing for Star Wars fans of all ages and mediums.
Star Wars: Visions is currently streaming all episodes on Disney+.
STAR WARS Writer
