This story was originally published in the fourth edition of The Lion’s Tale (February 7, 2021).

With the failure of the sequel trilogy and the success of The Mandalorian, many Star Wars fans realized the new way Disney will handle the franchise. Instead of releasing sequel movies on the big screen they would instead expand the universe through the small screen with Disney+ original shows. This idea of how the franchise should continue was confirmed during the Disney Investors Day Meeting. Along with the confirmation of The Mandalorian Season 3, some of the new shows introduced include the following.

Taking place 10 years after the events of Episode lll: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi follows the titular Jedi dealing with the events of losing his apprentice/friend Anakin Skywalker. The show will see the return of Ewan McGregor playing ‘Obi Wan Kenobi’ and Hayden Christensen playing ‘Anakin Skywalker a.k.a. Darth Vader’. The show will begin filming in 2021.

Ahsoka will follow the fan-favorite Jedi of the same name. First appearing in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Movie, cementing herself as a main character in Star Wars: the Clone Wars, appearing in various episodes of Star Wars: Rebels, and making her first live-action appearance in The Mandalorian, the new series is set to take place around the same time as aforementioned show. Once again Rosario Dawson will reprise her role as ‘Ahsoka Tano’ and will go on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger.

Little is known of The Rangers of the New Republic other than it being taking place at the same time as both Ahsoka and The Mandalorian. A possible crossover event has been hinted between the three series in the future. Originally appearing in Season 7 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the “Bad Batch” returns in their own original series by the same name. It starts off after the events of Season 7 of The Clone Wars and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. You see the elite and experimental clones go through the aftermath of the “Clone Wars” and find themselves at the dawn of the “First Galactic Empire.”

Other shows and movies all set to release on Disney+ include: Andor, – a prequel to Rogue One in which you watch Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, find his place in the Rebel Alliance – Star Wars: Visions, – a collection of animated shorts by multiple Japanese animators depicting various elements of the Star Wars Universe – Lando, – with little known about this show other then it’s following the smooth talking smuggler Lando Calrissian sometime after Solo – The Acolyte, – a show taking place during the days of the High Republic before Episode l: The Phantom Menace – A Droid Story, – an animated series following C-3PO and R2-D2 helping a new, unknown hero – Rogue Squadron, – a new movie with little information about it, which is set to release in 2023 with possible connections to the old dog fighting video game of the same title – and a currently unnamed ‘Star Wars’ feature length film directed by Taika Waititi with a “fresh, unexpected and unique” – but currently undisclosed – approach to the galaxy far, far away.

Stepping outside the many worlds of Star Wars, a few other projects were announced to be in the works at Lucasfilm, including Indiana Jones, Willow, and Children of Blood and Bone. Indiana Jones is set to be the fifth and final installment in the archaeologist/adventurer’s journey, with Harrison Ford returning to play the title character. Willow will be a series based on the novel of the same name, following a farmer, played by Warwick Davis, on a journey to protect a helpless, orphaned baby from an evil queen. And Children of Blood and Bone – the only title here not of Lucasfilm’s IP – will be a film based off Tomi Adeyemi’s award winning book of the same name. The film will follow a young African girl named Zélie Adebola on a coming-of-age quest to restore magic to her forsaken people, ‘the Maji’.

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Kicking off the new era for the MCU: Wandavision. Coming out back in January, the show follows the titular characters, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany respectively, trying to live a perfect life in a small town. However, not all is as it seems, with a dark truth lying just outside the town. With a current episode count of 5, many have already fallen in love with the sitcom-hoping chaos of the show.

Along with it will be The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, and Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston, both hitting Disney+ back to back early 2021. The former will follow the head-butting duo attempting to car- ry Captain America’s mantle while dealing with former villain Helmut Zemo, and the latter will see our alternate 2012 God of Mischief get caught up with the Time Variance Authority in a plot scattered across time and space.

But those are just the beginning. Tying them together will be Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness set to premier in 2022, bringing in Wanda Maximoff to the cast alongside Benedict Cumberbatch as ‘Doctor Strange’. The sequel will see direct connections back to Wandavision along with setting the stage for the upcoming, yet to be named “Spider-Man 3.” Not much is known about the third installment to the webslinger’s story, but many rumors claim we’ll see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield return as alternate universe versions of their Spider-Men.

Unfortunately pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson, and The Eternals, starring Kit Harrington, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, and many more, are set to be released in May and November respectively this year. Black Widow is set to take place between Civil War and Infinity War and will give us a slice of Natasha Romanoff’s dark life as an ex-KGB agent. The Eternals will see a diverse cast of 10+ stars as a race of immortal beings uniting after the events of Avengers: Endgame to clash with
their evil counterparts, ‘the Deviants.’

Many more films and shows are set to hit the theatres in 2022 and beyond. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings which will be Marvel’s first heavily Asian-based film with ‘The (true) Mandarin’ as the antagonist. Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth film – and second under Taika Waititi’s direction – in the God of Thunder’s run, where we’ll see him tagged along by The Guardians, Natalie Portman returning as ‘Jane Foster’ – now as the ‘Goddess of Thunder’ – and Christian Bale as ‘Gorr the God Butcher.’ Captain Marvel 2 will see Brie Larson as ‘Carol Danvers’ again along with Iman Vellani as ‘Ms. Marvel’, who will be receiving a show of her own in late 2021. Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is underway and Black Panther 2 is currently being re-worked following the passing of lead actor Chadwick Boseman. It has been announced that ‘King T’Challa’ will not be recast and instead the movie will act as a legacy film for the late actor. And to top it off, two new films – Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Fantastic Four – were announced to be in production.

Along with these films will be various shows such as What If…, an animated look into the multiverse of the MCU. Other shows include Hawkeye, – seeing Jeremy Renner return as the OG Avenger with Hailee Steinfeld as his daughter ‘Kate Bishop’ – She-Hulk, – about the lawyer turn beast set to played by Tatiana Maslany – Moon Knight, – about a vigilante with Dissociative Identity Disorder – Secret Invasion, seeing Samuel L. Jackson return as ‘Nick Fury’ in a plot of rogue Skrulls invading Earth – Armor Wars, starring Don Cheadle as ‘War Machine’ dealing with Stark’s tech getting in the wrong hands – and Ironheart – which will see Dominique Thorne play Riri Williams, a young African inventor who builds the most complex suit of armor since the days of Iron-Man.

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And from Walt Disney, a multitude of films and shows, both animated and live action. Starting us off from Pixar Studios, Soul, which came out back on Christmas Day 2020, following the journey of middle school band teacher Joe Gardner, voiced by Jamie Foxx, as he is thrust into the worlds before and after life, teaming up with the stubborn and quick-witted soul, 22, voiced by Tina Fey. The film was both revered and criticized for it’s veering away from the typical Pixar formula, discussing the concepts of life and what a person’s purpose is.

Pixar also announced two more films: Turning Red – which will follow main character Mei Lee as she battles the chaos of adolescent while dealing with her strange ability to transform into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited – and Lightyear – an in-universe look into the origins of Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans. And beyond Pixar’s film-based content will come their first step in animated shows, where we’ll see a Cars sequel series following McQueen and Mater going on a road trip, Dug Days – another sequel series showing the life of Carl Fredricksen and Dug the talking dog after their adventure to Paradise Falls in Up – an original show Win Or Lose, and a series of shorts titled Pixar Popcorn which will follow various fan favorite characters from Pixar’s pantheon of beloved films from 1995’s Toy Story to 2020’s Soul.

From Disney Animated Studios: Raya and The Last Dragon, coming out March 5, 2021. The film will follow main character Raya, voiced by Kelly Marie Tran, on an adventure to find ‘the last dragon’ in the wake of a dark force returning to wreak havoc on humanity. The film was originally set to come out back in 2020, but was pushed back following the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Walt Disney’s 60th
animated film, Encanto, will tell the tale of a magical family in an equally magical world, and Iwájú – based on the comic of the same name, will be a 2022 show set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria where we’ll see the exploration of social classes, child innocence and the challenging of the status quo. The show will premiere on Disney+ with Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pan-African entertainment company, Kugali, helming the project.

Other 2022-2023 animated series will include: Baymax!, – which will explore more of the city of San Fransokyo with medical droid Baymax on his mission to help all who are injured – Zootopia+, – a look into the many animals, predator and prey, of Zootopia – Moana, – a musical-comedy seeing the titular character go even further beyond the islands of Polynesia – and Tiana – another musical-comedy centered around the title character after her amphibian journey in 2009’s Princess and The Frog.

On the live action side of things, a re-re-remake of Swiss Family Robinson is set to be released on Disney+, a Beauty and The Beast ‘Prequel Series’ following Luke Evans’ ‘Gaston’ and Josh Gad’s ‘Le Fou’ following the storyline of 2017’s live action movie, a reimagining of the Disney Afternoon series Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers starring Andy Samberg and John Mulaney as the title characters, and a sequel to the beloved yet underrated 2007 film Enchanted, Disenchanted, which will see Amy Adams return as ‘Giselle’, questioning her happiness 10 years after her happily ever after, a question which will turn both the real world and the realm of Andalasia upside down.

Other live action films include Pinochio, Peter Pan & Wendy, The Little Mermaid, – with Halle Bailey as the lead roll and with new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda – a prequel to The Lion King, Cruella, – a film from the view of 101 Dalmatians’ villain – a sequel to Halloween clas- sic Hocus Pocus, and Percy Jackson and The Olympians – a series based off the middle-grade book series, helmed by author Rick Riordan.

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