The Covid-19 pandemic may have royally disrupted the film industry, but Disney’s Lucasfilm is one of the few companies who’ve avoided delays thanks to fortuitous timing and an innovative, easy-to-work-in system (ILM’s the Volume, see below). “The Mandalorian” season two finished production before the pandemic started and was able to finish post-production remotely and then finished in time for the first episode to air at the end of this past October. Now, season three—which has already been teased as written—is apparently ready to go and may shoot as early as late this year or early 2021. To that end, a new actor is joining the “Star Wars” galaxy, 20-year-old American actor Sophie Thatcher.
READ MORE: ‘The Mandalorian’ Launches Second Season With Confident, Action-Packed Episode [Review]
Deadline reveals the actor has joined Lucasfilm in some capacity, but the rub is, it’s unclear for what. Relatively unknown to the general public, Thatcher has credits like a quick stint on “The Exorcist” TV series, “Chicago Med” and Quibi‘s “When The Streetlights Go On.” She could be appearing in “The Mandalorian” season three, or she might be appearing in a new, unknown, spin-off “Star Wars” series. But that’s all that’s really known at the moment.
Production Weekly recently listed “The Mandalorian” season three under the title or codename, The Buccaneer, which has put fans into a speculation tizzy as this may be a reference to Hondo Ohnaka, a fan-favorite character and space pirate from the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” series.
Hondo’s inclusion in season three would be a perfectly reasonable guess. All signs point to the inclusion of many ‘Clone Wars’ and ‘Rebels’ characters in future episodes of “The Mandalorian,” and the hit show was co-created by Dave Filoni, who is essentially Lucasfilm’s animation authority and leader (he worked alongside George Lucas on ‘Clone Wars,’ took over after he retired and co-created Rebels). The even deeper full-circle connection to it all: ‘Mandalorian’ co-creator, writer/director John Favreau first met Filoni way back on the day when he voiced a Mandalorian character on the ‘Clone Wars’ series.
Animated characters Ahsoka Tano (as played by Rosario Dawson) and Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) are both expected to appear in upcoming episodes of “The Mandalorian” season two. Still, details beyond that have been held under wraps. Speculation has suggested either of these two characters could be part of a spin-off show, and that’s perhaps one that the aforementioned Thatcher could be part of who knows (frankly Tano is the biggest character of them all in the world of “Star Wars,” so if anyone merits a spin-off series, it’s something revolving around her. Dawson is also the biggest name of the bunch).
Confusing matters slightly, “Russian Doll” creator and filmmaker Leslye Headland is also developing her own female-led “Star Wars” spin-off series. However, it’s apparently not one connected to show Thatcher might be part of (got that?). Some more process of elimination: there was an online rumor that said a spin-off series centered around ‘Mandalorian’ character Cara Dune (played by Gina Carano), and Bo-Katan Kryze (Sackhoff) was in the works, but Deadline says that news is false.
So, despite Disney’s Bob Iger’s comments a few years back about not wanting to oversaturate the market with “Star Wars” (albeit, he meant films), Lucasfilm could potentially be doing that very thing. Upcoming and on track: ‘Mandalorian’ season 3, following that, the Cassian Andor series centered around Diego Luna, an Obi-Wan limited series with Ewan McGregor returning, the animated “Bad Batch” ‘Clone Wars’ spin-off, whatever the female-led Headland series becomes and this mystery “Star Wars” offshoot that may or may not feature Thatcher in it (got that?). Personally, my money’s on an Ahsoka Tano-led series which again, could easily include more fan-favorite ‘Rebels’ and ‘Clone Wars’ characters. And, my guess, it would all eventually lead to the “Search For Ezra” teased in the season finale of “Star Wars Rebels,” an unresolved storyline that fans are dying to see one day and Filoni has teased as an inevitable storyline to be told.