Happy Sunday, and welcome to a jam-packed edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away“. We’re coming to you after a jam-packed week of Star Wars news, so let’s strap in together before we start dissecting it all. We have a preview of what Lucasfilm may look like after Kathleen Kennedy leaves her post, a very insightful interview with Shawn Levy about Starfighter (more than a year before the movie is supposed to come out), and the most boring new picture from The Mandalorian and Grogu yet.
We had the full team on Thursday’s SWNN Live! episode, where we also discussed some of the topics brought up below. And there’s a new Character Spotlight on Oppo Rancisis, the random-looking male Thisspasian Jedi Master from the prequels.
Before we get started, allow me to give the usual reminder that you can join our Discord server by clicking here. It’s a fun time!
Three Things That May Have Flown Casual
It’s awards season: On Monday, nominations for this year’s Annie Awards revealed two nods to Star Wars: Visions Vol. 3, while the big three guilds announced nominations for their respective awards: SAG-AFTRA (the actors) had Andor in their Best Stunt Ensemble category, while the directors (DGA) nominated Janus Metz for his work on Episode 8 of Andor Season 2, and the PGA (i.e. the producers guild) nominated the entire season for the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television (Drama).In boring news…: There is no better way to describe a new reveal for The Mandalorian and Grogu than what Germain Lussier wrote in his headline for Gizmodo: ” Our Latest Look at ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ Sure Is a Picture of the Mandalorian and Grogu”. It sounds like USA Today begged Disney for something to share about The Mandalorian and Grogu in their 2026 movie preview, and Disney met them halfway with this image that simply shows the two titular characters inside an AT-AT cockpit (see below).Larger canon updates: We have a new review for Hyperspace Stories: Tides of Terror #4 (by Jay) as well as a preview of the one-shot Jar Jar comic. Elsewhere in canon, Outlaws is coming to Xbox Game Pass.
Star Wars Movies Are Back: Lightsabers, Random Celebrity Visits, and the Information Thirst
Remember when we would get the occasional random celebrity saying they were on the set of the new Star Wars movie? Or what it was like to gush about every little bit of new information, even if it was just a logical extrapolation of things we knew already? That’s what it felt like reading this new interview that the New York Times did with Shawn Levy on the Starfighter set, which was published this week.
But first things first: Can we just marvel at this amazing headline that our own Josh Atkins put together for our story covering this? “‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ Will Have a Lightsaber Duel Shot by Tom Cruise”. Since we were one of the first aggregators to spot this story, and since many others used a similar angle for theirs, I will shamelessly take credit, on behalf of the site, for leading the charge on how to cover this. It manages, in a simple sentence, to convey two important pieces of information (that there are lightsaber duels in Starfighter, and that Tom Cruise was on the set of the movie), while sounding just so random you have to read it twice and click on it to see what exactly is going on.
It’s true that until this week we didn’t know that there would be lightsabers in the movie, but for whatever reason, I’ve always pictured Mia Goth wielding a red-bladed lightsaber and recklessly going after Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray. I’ve not pictured Gosling with a lightsaber just as easily (I think we’ve all visualized him as a Han Solo type more than an Obi-Wan), but I guess there’s a good chance he will be given one, too. We knew that the kid was Force-sensitive, and yet, most people were still excited to know that there are lightsabers in the movie. In other words, Star Wars fans often refuse to make these assumptions (perhaps not to be disappointed) even though they sound extremely logical to any other observer.
Tom speculated on SWNN Live! on Thursday that the name Starfighter may not be a reference to Gosling being a pilot, but perhaps a codename. I kinda like that idea, even though I do think that the title would be (even more) disappointing if the movie didn’t include at least some exciting space racing sequences.
Another interesting piece of information revealed this week was that both Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg visited the Starfighter set. Spielberg was an executive producer on Levy’s Real Steel, and given Levy’s sensibilities as a director, I could see the veteran filmmaker seeing Levy as a protégé of sorts, similar to J.J. Abrams. Spielberg himself had also been involved in The Force Awakens as an unofficial advisor, and it’s no wonder that he visited this movie too. The Tom Cruise side of things is a bit more out of left field (though he does own property relatively nearby), but it will probably become a random piece of trivia in a few years.
Levy also confirmed another thing we suspected: that there will be a father-son dynamic in the movie. We know that Amy Adams is playing the kid’s mother, but we don’t know what Ryan Gosling’s relation to him is. But since this is Star Wars, it will probably be more of a found family than a blood-related one. However, it will be a few months until we know more concrete details about the movie.
TOKYO, JAPAN – APRIL 18: Shawn Levy, Ryan Gosiling, Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy are seen on The Mandalorian & Grogu at Celebration Stage during Star Wars Celebration Japan Day 1 on April 18, 2025 in Minato, Hyogo, Japan. (Photo by Christopher Jue/Getty Images for Disney)
The Lucasfilm Succession Finale Is Coming Up
If you’ve been reading this column for a while now, you might remember that I’ve been feeling like January would be the month where the big announcement of Kathleen Kennedy’s successor(s) would be announced. You might also have noticed how I got the final picks wrong. Let’s untangle this thing.
On Monday night, Matt Belloni published his Puck newsletter with a bombshell inside: Kennedy has chosen her successors, and she will announce via an interview this month that she will be departing the company, leaving Dave Filoni (the current Chief Creative Officer) and Lynwen Brennan (the current president and general manager of Lucasfilm Business) in charge. Most people may be familiar with this management structure because of DC Studios, which is run by James Gunn and Peter Safran.
I have been predicting Carrie Beck for over two years, ever since she was promoted to head of development at the same time Filoni was promoted to CCO. And honestly, I still believe she was being groomed for the job. In the end, she either passed on it, or was passed. Maybe Kennedy felt like the business side was still an important one and Beck, like Filoni, was more interested in the creative side. Or maybe she just wasn’t ready to take on that burden.
And that’s not to diminish Brennan’s creative capabilities: the GM comes from the visual effects world and rose through the ranks at ILM since she joined the company in 1999, eventually becoming President of ILM in 2009. So she’s also a George Lucas heir, in a way. From her profile at Lucasfilm.com:
Lynwen oversees the Lucasfilm Franchise groups including Marketing and Integrated Planning, Games, Publishing and Consumer Products, Publicity, Asset Management and Content Strategy. She also looks after Lucasfilm Studio operations, including Human Resources, Finance and Legal.
If Filoni was Kennedy’s #2 when it came to creative decisions, Brennan was her eyes and ears on the business side, as well as the execution of the strategy set by the company. And that last part is very important, precisely because of how much it has evolved over the years — many times because of Kennedy changing her mind. This choice also ensures some continuity with the previous regime, as Brennan probably has some relationships with the filmmakers they are working with at the moment, even if it’s just by sitting in at meetings.
However, the specific delegation of duties will likely be clarified by Kathleen Kennedy in this interview that might drop as soon as this week (based on their track record, I would look for it in Vanity Fair). Here are some key points that I hope the interview will answer:
How will the various duties be delegated?Are there any other significant management changes coming? (For instance, is Jon Favreau getting a role at the company, or is Carrie Beck also getting a new business card? Do the roles of CCO and GM get absorbed into the co-President titles?)What are the next projects to enter development on the film and TV sides?What is the future of Jon Favreau in Star Wars? (His overall deal is supposedly up, we don’t know if it’s been renewed but this is why they haven’t announced many new things or why these rumors are popping up about the MandoVerse being on hold.)What is Kathleen Kennedy’s biggest regret of the last 13 years?
That last one may not be answered, of course — it’s probably more of a puff piece, or a glorified press release, than an insightful piece of journalism. And that’s fine, but I would certainly like her to answer that question at some point.
There will be a lot more to say about this topic in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. To quote a space wizard (the other kind), we are in the endgame now!
TOKYO, JAPAN – APRIL 18: Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy are seen on The Mandalorian & Grogu at Celebration Stage during Star Wars Celebration Japan Day 1 on April 18, 2025 in Minato, Hyogo, Japan. (Photo by Christopher Jue/Getty Images for Disney)
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Have a great week!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.