Disney is holding its annual D23 Expo this weekend, and that means lots of teasers, trailers, casting news, and fun cameo appearances. The streaming platform’s Star Wars offerings this year included our first look at the third season of The Mandalorian, as well as a final trailer for the limited series, Andor,  and a trailer for a new animated anthology series, Tales of the Jedi.

(Spoilers below.)

We’ve been pining for the new adventures of Grogu and his Mandalorian space daddy (Pedro Pascal) since their heartfelt reunion in the finale of The Book of Boba Fett—aka The Mandalorian season 2.5. (Din Djarin had sent Grogu off for Jedi training with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), but the bond between the two proved far more powerful. Sniff.) The teaser revisits some of the highlights of the S1 and S2 adventures of this “clan of two,” before giving us a glimpse of what’s to come.

Recall that Din broke Mandalorian protocol by taking off his helmet twice: once to save Grogu, and once to bid the adorable green baby Jedi farewell. That did not go down well with his people, particularly Katie Sackhoff’s Bo Katan and the Armourer (Emily Swallow), who insists, “You are a Mandalorian no more.” Bo Katan covets the Darksaber that Din won by defeating Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) in battle, which technically makes him the ruler of Mandalore.

Din seems far more interested in bopping around the galaxy with Grogu than sitting on a throne, although he’s keen to get back into Mandalorian good graces. But I doubt he’s as keen to give up the Darksaber. The political intrigue and simmering tension suggested here should keep things interesting. We also get a glimpse of a thriving Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) and Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), who provides Mando with a new R2 unit for his Naboo starfighter. And of course, there are lots of battles and fancy spacecraft maneuvers.

The third season of The Mandalorian will debut on Disney+ in February 2023.

Andor

Meanwhile, the premiere of Andor is just two weeks away. As we’ve reported previously, the story begins with the Empire’s destruction of Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) homeworld and will depict his transformation from a “revolution-averse” cynic to a major player in the nascent rebellion who is willing to sacrifice himself to save the galaxy.

The ensemble cast also includes Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, a senator of the Republic who helped found the Rebel Alliance, as well as Forest Whitaker reprising his Rogue One role as Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera. Stellan Skarsgård (as Luthen) and Adria Arjona co-star as the resistance fighters who recruit Andor to the cause. Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Fiona Shaw, Robert Emms, and David Hayman have all been cast in undisclosed roles.

We got our first look at the series with a behind-the-scenes teaser in December 2020 during Disney’s Investors Day. We got a short teaser earlier this year at Star Wars Celebration, and a full trailer just last month. Luna was on hand to introduce the final trailer, which features some cool new footage. We also learned the series will have a “spy thriller” vibe, filled with “danger, deception, and intrigue”; those elements do seem to dominate this final trailer. And apparently every three episodes, the timeline will jump forward.

The first three episodes of Andor premiere on Disney+ on September 21, 2022. The remaining nine episodes will air weekly, concluding on November 23, 2022. A second 12-episode season will purportedly lead directly into the events of Rogue One.

The Last Jedi

First the bad news: if you’re a fan of the Star Wars animated series The Bad Batch, the second season’s release has been delayed from September 28, 2022, to January 4, 2023. But there’s also good news: Disney+ will debut a new animated anthology series, The Last Jedi, in its entirely on October 26, 2022. The streaming platform dropped the official trailer during the D23 Expo.

The Last Jedi is in the same vein as 2021’s Star Wars Visions, another anthology series comprised of seven animated shorts, each created by a different Japanese anime studio. Created by Dave Filoni and Charles Murray, each of the six 15-minute episodes will feature a fan-favorite Jedi. Some take place before the Clone Wars, while others are set decades before.  For instance, it looks like we’ll be getting Ahsoka Tano’s origin story in one episode, while another will focus on Count Dooku, both part of the master line connected to Qui-on Jinn. And yes, Liam Lesson will be voicing the latter.

Listing image by Disney+

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1880214