2018 won’t exactly go down as a triumphant year for the Star Wars franchise, with Solo: A Star Wars Story providing the space saga with its first outright box office bomb. Nonetheless, the show must go on, and it’s evident that Lucasfilm will be going harder than ever this year, with plans to bring the franchise to a variety of mediums.
Among the many projects in the pipeline, the work that’s least in need of an introduction is Star Wars: Episode IX, which is set to wrap up the current Sequel Trilogy when it arrives in theaters on December 20th. On the small screen, meanwhile, The Mandalorian is noteworthy as the first live-action TV series of the franchise, with Entertainment Weekly recently confirming that the show will drop on Disney Plus this year.
At the same time, there’s a fair amount going on in the medium of animation, with the season 1 finale of Star Wars: Resistance coming out on January 13th, before The Clone Wars makes its comeback later this year via Disney Plus. Moreover, on the game front, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be dropping on an unspecified date, as will the David S. Goyer-penned VR title Vader Immortal.
Naturally, there’s also a whole load of comic book releases on the way, much of which comes to us as part of the Age of Republic miniseries. We’ve already seen the release of Obi-Wan #1, but the list of Prequel Trilogy characters to get their own stories also includes Jango Fett (out January 9th), Anakin Skywalker (February 6th), Count Dooku (February 13th), Padme Amidala (March 6th) and General Grievous (March 13th). On top of that, we have Star Wars: Age of the Republic Special #1 coming January 16th, followed by Vader: Dark Visions on March 6th and the droid-centered Mechanical Mayhem on March 12th.
In fact, the reading material doesn’t even stop there, with E.K. Johnston’s novel The Queen’s Shadow due for release on March 5th, followed by Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray on April 16th, and Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn on July 23rd. For younger fans, meanwhile, there’s the gloriously titled C-3PO Does NOT Like Sand!, which comes out on June 4th, and for anyone keen for some behind the scenes insight on Lucasfilm’s last cinematic release, there’s Industrial Light & Magic Presents: Making Solo by Rob Bredow, out April 16th.
At the same time, if any fans need a reason to leave the house between consuming all this material, the Galaxy’s Edge region will be coming to Disneyland in Anaheim, California this summer, before arriving in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida in the fall.
So, that’s 2019 in Star Wars for you. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on, and as we move further into the year, don’t be surprised if Disney throws a few more announcements our way.
Published: Jan 7, 2019 09:57 am