Happy Sunday, and welcome to the first edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away” of 2026. Just like last year, I’ve dedicated this entire issue to an outlook for what the year in Star Wars might entail. We’re doing so by asking 26 questions that will be key to defining the year, and just like in 2025, we’ll look back at them in December.
As it was pointed out in the comments section of that last column, we don’t know for sure that Ahsoka Season 2 is coming out this year, because Lucasfilm has never said as much. But if everything works out in the schedule, the show should be out around Q3 of this year — judging by how the first season went. We will know more as the year progresses, but for the sake of the argument, we will be assuming that it does come out in the calendar year 2026.
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26 Star Wars Questions for 2026
General Management and Star Wars Development Questions
1. Who will succeed Kathleen Kennedy as Lucasfilm President?
This is the question for me going into 2026. Based on reporting from last year, we know that the plans were for Kennedy to step down sometime between late 2025 and early 2026. Judging by how Lucasfilm typically operates, I suspect they wanted to wait until January to make such significant changes, so I think an announcement could be made within the next few weeks.
But even if Kennedy decided to stay on until Bob Iger leaves, for instance, I believe that an announcement on her successor will be made this year. So, who will it be? Ever since they were promoted to chief creative officer and head of development, respectively, my money has been on Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck being groomed to take over for her. But that was in late 2023. Has anything changed? I’m still betting on these two.
2. Who will succeed Bob Iger as Disney CEO?
Though this is above Lucasfilm’s paygrade, whoever the next Disney CEO is will inevitably affect Star Wars. Bob Iger has been a fundamental piece in shaping Star Wars into what it is now: from ordering the sequel trilogy or installing a one-movie-a-year mandate, to keeping the Solo May release date, or refocusing the strategy towards streaming and now back to theatrical. As such, the next head of Disney will also play an important part here.
The search committee at the company is expected to announce its decision this year. The current favorite is believed to be Josh D’Amaro, the head of parks, with Dana Walden having led the polls for many years. An outside candidate could still be named. D’Amaro has been a big driver of price hikes at the parks, while Walden has been holding down the fort of TV for many years. Two very different profiles, and both could bring very different perspectives to the job.
3. What happens to Jon Favreau after The Mandalorian and Grogu comes out?
Favreau signed a (lucrative) five-year overall deal at Disney back in 2019. That partnership supposedly ended in 2024, and though no renewal was ever announced, we assume he’s been hanging around at the lot to finish work on The Mandalorian and Grogu.
But the question now becomes: What next? If the movie is successful and gets a sequel, does he come back to write and direct? Or is he simply an executive producer and moves on to something else? Will he still be developing shows for Disney Plus? And perhaps most importantly: Does he want to keep working on Star Wars? This ultimately affects the endgame of the New Republic-era interconnected story too, of course, since we don’t really know how long it will go on.
4. What will be the next Star Wars movie to enter pre-production now that Starfighter has wrapped?
This is my biggest question concerning development; it always is. After The Mandalorian and Grogu wrapped, we knew that Lucasfilm was eager to keep that momentum and put another movie in production quickly; we just didn’t know which one. A few weeks into 2025, we learned that it was Shawn Levy’s movie, which was then titled Starfighter. But what now?
Will Taika Waititi finally get his shot? His Klara and the Sun is due out this year, and Poor Things writer Tony McNamara has been reworking the script for a while. Also, despite having signed a deal with Paramount, James Mangold still has a Dawn of the Jedi movie in the works for Lucasfilm that hasn’t been canceled, and which had some momentum in late 2024. Andor‘s Beau Willimon was also penning the script. Or it could be Dave Filoni’s movie, now that the director has wrapped Ahsoka Season 2. Or perhaps the first entry in Simon Kinberg’s trilogy. Heck, it could even be Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order movie (!)
Bonus question: Do any of these movies actually start shooting in 2026?
5. What will be the next live-action Star Wars show to enter pre-production after Ahsoka Season 2?
Same question, but on TV. And here is where things get even more interesting. As of this writing, we only really know about one set of writers working on a new Star Wars series. Aside from Ahsoka Season 2, due out this year, none of the already-released TV shows have a new season planned. If the experiment at the movies doesn’t really work, we could see The Mandalorian go back to the small screen. Or perhaps Nick and Carlton Cuse’s secret show will be announced. Or maybe it will be another thing entirely.
The way things are going, we might not get a live-action Star Wars series in 2027. But we don’t need to have one, as we’ve confirmed in recent years that Star Wars is better in limited doses, and these shows are not really make-or-break for Disney Plus. This is where the next Disney leadership might chime in.
6. Will we get a definitive statement saying that one of the Star Wars movies in development is not happening?
That’s probably the complementary question to some of the above, right? Recent trends in Lucasfilm development have trained us to expect that some of these movies that get announced will not, in fact, come to light — most of them, actually. At the moment, there are several movies that the company keeps insisting are not dead, including New Jedi Order, Dawn of the Jedi, Dave Filoni’s untitled movie, Taika Waititi’s project, or Simon Kinberg’s trilogy. And there’s always the question of Lando.
So, will we hear this year that Filoni’s movie is actually going to be a four-part event on Disney Plus? Or that the New Jedi Order script is being folded into the first chapter of Kinberg’s story? Or that perhaps James Mangold is busy with many other commitments and, with Kathleen Kennedy no longer running the shop, he’s peacing out?
7. Will Maul: Shadow Lord get another season?
Speaking of unknowns for 2027, we don’t know whether we will have an animated show either. Sure, Visions Vol. 4 might get released, but that’s a one-day, non-canon thing. Will there be a long-running series coming out on Disney Plus? At the moment, our best shot is another season of Maul: Shadow Lord, but that’s a question of its own.
The way the concept was presented at Star Wars Celebration Japan, we don’t really know if the story is set up to span multiple seasons, or if they are just buying time until they find their next Rebels or The Clone Wars. But you could have made the same argument for The Bad Batch in 2020, and we still got three long seasons of that.
8. Will another Tales Of miniseries come out this year?
Both in 2024 and 2025 we got animated miniseries on May the Fourth in the Tales Of anthology format. Tales of the Underworld in 2025 came as a complete surprise one month in advance; at least Tales of the Empire had been telegraphed by Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration 2023. But we know nothing of another one being in the works. Will they surprise us again?
9. What other big announcements are coming for the 50th anniversary?
It was just over the past couple of months that we learned the original, theatrical cut of A New Hope is getting a restoration and a wide release in movie theaters in February 2027. We know that Disney and Lucasfilm want to go big for the 50th anniversary, but how big, exactly?
They have a new feature film scheduled to come out three days after the anniversary, on May 28, 2027, and a big event in Star Wars Celebration Los Angeles in April 1-4. They have even put together a logo and will sell a ton of merch. But what else are they thinking about? I mean, obviously they will have a lot of tie-in books and all that, but I’m thinking bigger picture here. We will probably learn about it this year.
10. Will the fan support for The Hunt for Ben Solo achieve anything substantial?
This was, I think, the biggest surprise of 2025. Lucasfilm had been able to keep under wraps a feature film set post-Rise of Skywalker from director Steven Soderbergh and starring Adam Driver as Ben Solo. And on top of all of that, as they were ready to green light it, Disney said “thanks, but no thanks”. The internet was up in arms, and the fan outrage was strong with the Force. But will that fan outrage lead to anything more?
For now, it seems not. Disney and Lucasfilm went defensive for a few weeks to weather the storm, and shortly after, it started to die down. But it didn’t really go away. Daisy Ridley still gets asked about it, and every now and then, we get news of a big stunt in New York or LA. It will probably haunt Adam Driver forever. Hence the question: will Disney reverse the decision? Soderbergh and Driver have their schedules pretty clear for now.
The Mandalorian and Grogu-Related Questions
11. Will Boba Fett return in The Mandalorian and Grogu?
Every couple of months, we see Temuera Morrison doing some interview in which he’s basically telling Disney that they know how to reach him to return as Boba Fett. There were heavy rumors that the character was due to come back in Season 4, but that was before The Mandalorian and Grogu came to be. With the movie now five months out, we might as well ask the question. The little we know about the story so far doesn’t exactly point to a Boba Fett appearance, but there’s still a lot more to be revealed about the movie.
12. Will Grogu speak in The Mandalorian and Grogu?
There aren’t many immediate story-related questions that come to mind when thinking about The Mandalorian and Grogu, but one of the main points of speculation for a while has been about the character development of Grogu in the movie. We’re at the point now where it’d be expected that he makes a significant change, and a key point would be the moment he starts to speak. Will they use the luxury of the big screen to give us the first words from Grogu’s mouth?
13. Will The Mandalorian and Grogu cross $700M at the box office?
My main questions about The Mandalorian and Grogu concern its business feasibility. The movie is coming out after three seasons of a very successful streaming series: can they properly market this movie to let audiences know this is not an extended episode of TV being put in theaters? Will audiences without a Disney Plus subscription care? And bigger picture: has Lucasfilm burned its fans so much over the past few years that they simply won’t care that there is a new Star Wars movie in theaters?
Also, questions to Disney: What will make this movie a success? Last year, Superman was considered a win for Warner Bros., despite making less money than the comparable franchise launcher Man of Steel in 2013 — and that isn’t even considering inflation. Is $600M enough to satisfy the Disney top brass? I’m setting a line at $700M and asking: can it get there? The last time a Star Wars movie opened in May, the results were disastrous. But at least we’re not competing with Avengers anymore.
14. What happens to the New Republic-era storyline after Ahsoka Season 2?
The specific plans for the larger story in the New Republic era are currently unclear to the audience. We know that Dave Filoni was planning on directing a movie that would serve as the culmination to all of the Disney Plus storylines, and based on how Ahsoka Season 1 played out, we assume Season 2 will serve as a direct set up for this movie, where the New Republic forces would face off against Grand Admiral Thrawn and his goons, emulating the Heir to the Empire story from the 1990s. But is this still the case? And when is this movie supposed to happen? I assume Dave Filoni has been working on it almost exclusively in his head until now, as he was busy with the new season, but with that now in post-production, does he have the time to start actually writing?
Ahsoka Season 2-Related Questions
15. Will we see Abeloth in Ahsoka Season 2?
One of the final shots of Ahsoka Season 1 confirmed what Baylan Skoll had been looking for all along. It wasn’t Grand Admiral Thrawn, or the Nightsisters. It was something related to the Mortis Gods. Dave Filoni has already teased that this will be further explored in the new season.
In that shot, Baylan was looking into the horizon and we can see a small, bright light in the distance. The online speculators were quick to jump on the Abeloth train. Only introduced in Legends, she is known as the Mother, and is a powerful entity connected to the dark side. In Legends, she was originally a mortal being with whom the Father fell in love. She drank from a fountain to make herself immortal like the Father and his children, but this twisted her mind, as she became increasingly more powerful with the Force but also more dangerous. To protect the galaxy, the Father imprisoned her.
The ruined statue of the Daughter, who represents the light side, as well as the fact that Baylan is still seeking something else after having found these relics, could hint at Abeloth being the end goal.
16. Will the Ghost crew, sans Kanan, reunite on screen in Ahsoka Season 2?
We know from Star Wars Celebration that all characters from the Ghost crew are set to appear in Ahsoka Season 2, including Zeb, who didn’t show up in the show yet (but who’s already made the jump to live-action). But as of the ending of the first season, Ahsoka and Sabine were left behind on Peridea. So, will they return to the main galaxy? I can already picture the final shot of the season, or at least one of the last episodes, being a family picture of the entire Ghost crew… without Kanan, of course. But what if…?
17. Will Kanan appear as a Force ghost in Ahsoka Season 2?
This is a wild thought, and there haven’t really been any indications that this could happen. But what if Dave Filoni secretly cast an actor for a brief appearance as a Force ghost Kanan Jarrus? I have nothing to back this up, and Freddie Prinze Jr. has claimed he has no interest in returning to Star Wars, but we might as well have some fun with this…
18. Will we see Ewan McGregor back as Obi-Wan in Ahsoka Season 2?
There were plenty of rumors early last year about Ewan McGregor coming back as Obi-Wan for Ahsoka Season 2. Lucasfilm denied these, as well as Natalie Portman also being back for more Clone Wars-era flashbacks, but we won’t really know until we see the show. If we are going back, is Ariana Greenblatt returning too?
General Star Wars Canon Questions
19. Is Darth Maul’s apprentice in Shadow Lord Darth Talon?
This was the first thing that came up after I told the SWNN staff about the Maul: Shadow Lord trailer. That red-skinned Twi’lek was immediately associated with the Legends character Darth Talon by some of the fans, and it was probably very intentional. That’s one of the first questions the show will answer: What is their relationship like? Is it master and apprentice? Is it simply a protégé who will be gone in four episodes? Or is it setting up something larger?
20. Will we get another Star Wars: Visions Presents after The Ninth Jedi?
This is likely a question that will not be answered until Star Wars Celebration, but since the Ninth Jedi series is supposed to come out this year, this is a pertinent question to ask as well.
I have many questions related to the actual series itself, but I didn’t want the list to drag on forever. For instance, is the story a sequel to the episode in Vol. 3, or are we going back to the beginning, fleshing out the world and retelling the events of the two episodes from Visions? In other words, how do the episodes and the spin-off series live with each other? Do they co-exist independently or do they feed off one another?
21. What other genre Star Wars books will be announced, similar to Eyes Like Stars?
At New York Comic-Con we had the announcement of a new romance novel titled Eyes Like Stars coming out in summer 2026. In the announcement, author Ashley Poston mentioned that this would be the first in a brand-new initiative combining stories from different genres that also include thriller, horror, and mystery. We assume that more announcements will be made soon, but we don’t know what they will be yet.
22. Will there be more High Republic adult novels?
Trials of the Jedi was supposed to end the High Republic publishing initiative, but it looks like Star Wars creatives realized there was still so much more potential for storytelling left untapped in that era. For now, it’s only a few comics, but Michael Siglain, the creative director of publishing at Lucasfilm, is already referring to this post-Phase III era as “Phase More”, hinting that there’s not really a specific plan or endpoint now. So, could this result in more adult novels coming out soon, even if they are simply one-shots?
23. What will be the state of Star Wars comics one year from now?
At the moment, the various Star Wars comic series are a big question mark. None of the ongoing series from 2025 are planned to continue beyond February, and so far, we only have a few announcements of some minor miniseries — the most significant one is probably the Shadow of Maul tie-in five-issue comic. A year ago, Marvel was riding high, coming off the Battle of Jakku crossover event, and starting with a highly anticipated series in Legacy of Vader. Today? We don’t really know what Marvel is.
24. Will we get any Old Republic stories before The Fate of the Old Republic?
Kathleen Kennedy had been telegraphing for years that Lucasfilm was interested in exploring the Old Republic, but the company had not committed yet to any stories set in that time period. The announcement of James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi seemed to indicate things were changing, but development has apparently stalled. A couple of years after we learned about that, Lucasfilm Games announced The Fate of the Old Republic to be in the making. But is that all?
It will still be a few years until the game comes out, so the question now becomes: how invested is Lucasfilm in this time period? We still don’t know when some of these live-action projects are set (the Cuses’ series or Taika Waititi’s film), or if there are any others that could be set long before The Acolyte. We could even get the announcement of a new publishing initiative set centuries before the High Republic!
25. Will we get a significant update on any Star Wars video game not coming out in 2026?
Aside from Galactic Racer and Zero Company, both of which are coming out in 2026, we know that there are a few other games in development. It will be one of these days, hopefully, that we’ll definitively learn whether Star Wars: Eclipse is actually happening or not. Ditto the Knights of the Old Republic remake. And there’s also Respawn’s Jedi 3 game, which the company could potentially push to get out in time for the 50th anniversary — or they could withhold any news on it until Celebration ’27 and announce it for 2028; after all, they switched creative teams from the first two installments, which might have pushed things back.
26. Will George Lucas return for Star Wars Celebration 2027?
This is perhaps a more pertinent question for 2027, but since I expect some guest announcements for Celebration ’27 to be made this year, perhaps tied to a push in ticket sales, I might as well ask the question on everyone’s minds: Will George Lucas make a big comeback for the 50th anniversary? You know that Lucasfilm has either already courted him or will do so soon.
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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.