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Jon Favreau's Star Wars TV Show May Start Filming This Fall
Lucasfilm and Disney's Star Wars live-action series, headed up by Iron Man director Jon Favreau, reportedly may begin filming this fall. The slow box office performance for Solo: A Star Wars Story may have put a slight ding in the biggest of all entertainment franchises, but that won't stop Disney and Lucasfilm from flying ahead at light speed as it continues developing more projects in the Star Wars universe.
Of course, Star Wars: Episode IX remains on tap, with J.J. Abrams handling writing and directing chores. And there are continued reports that Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi will both get standalone films in the future. Other down-the-road projects include Last Jedi director Rian Johnson's trilogy set in a previously unexplored corner of the galaxy, and another Star Wars saga being developed by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
But Disney and Lucasfilm also have plans for the small screen, with the top priority being a live-action Star Wars series intended to launch Disney's new streaming service, which is set to go live in Fall 2019. Jon Favreau has been tapped to head development of the series, and now Omega Underground reports Favreau may have the cameras rolling by Fall 2018. Favreau himself will produce and write on the series, but likely will not direct any episodes himself.
In a May interview, Favreau gave a few details about the new series, saying it will be set about seven years after the Battle of Yavin, placing it on the timeline after Return of the Jedi but well before The Force Awakens. Favreau has been busy getting together a creative team for the series, recently hiring his Jungle Book production designers Doug Chiang and Andrew L. Jones. The report of a late 2018 start date for the series makes sense given Disney's intention to launch the show along with their streaming service in late 2019.
With Disney and Lucasfilm making a big deal about on-screen diversity in their Star Wars projects, some leveled criticism at the companies for sticking with non-diverse behind-the-camera hiring practices in picking Favreau to steer their new series. But opportunities are still available for women and people of color to play a big role on the show as Favreau goes about the process of hiring episode directors. And of course we will have to see about the make-up of the cast, and what kinds of stories Favreau and his team choose to tell. If recent history is anything to go by, the show will likely have a lot of big on-screen roles for a diverse array of actors.
