'The Mandalorian & Grogu' movie launches a wave of 'Star Wars' news
The 'Mandalorian' pair heads to theaters while the 'Game of Thrones' dudes discuss their abandoned project. PLUS: Cruise and WB team up, 'The Last of Us' casting news, and Seth Meyers gets a tattoo.
Happy Friday and welcome to a new edition of Popculturology. There’s a ton to get to this week, with a bunch of Star Wars news ready to lead us off.
“What’s the point of being a billionaire if you can’t have somebody killed?” We watched the latest episode of Fargo on Thursday night. What a fantastic season. Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dave Foley, Joe Keery, Sam Spruell. (Hey, this is a great moment for Hamm to host SNL.)
We’re still playing catchup when it comes to our TV watching after traveling for the holidays. I’ve fallen behind on both Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (a must-watch) and For All Mankind (has it gotten good again?)
Once again, we’re still watching a lot of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood in our household. I come to you this week with new questions: What are the child labor laws in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe that allow Prince Tuesday to put Daniel to work stocking grocery shelves? Does Prince Tuesday looking both ways as a crossing guard imply that there’s a second Trolley out there?
I’m sorry to bring this up. It’s now my burden.
While Substack backtracked a bit when it comes to their Nazi issue, I’m still researching new homes for the newsletter.
And finally: Go Bills.
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TALKING STAR WARS
The Mandalorian & Grogu head to theaters
The Mandalorian and Grogu are making the jump to the big screen.
Lucasfilm announced on Tuesday that The Mandalorian & Grogu will now lead the slate of Star Wars movies set to bring the franchise back to theaters. Jon Favreau will direct the film, producing it alongside Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni.
“I have loved telling stories set in the rich world that George Lucas created,” Favreau said in a statement. “The prospect of bringing the Mandalorian and his apprentice Grogu to the big screen is extremely exciting.”
Lucasfilm’s announcement confirmed that the three previously announced Star Wars films (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order film with Daisy Ridley, James Mangold’s dawn of the Jedi film and Filoni’s Heir to the Empire film) are still in the works. Read the announcement.
Where does this fit in? Before the announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu, we appeared to have a pretty good idea of how things were being set up for that era of Star Wars storytelling. The Mandalorian Season 3 had more or less completed the story of Din Djarin and Grogu while Ahsoka brought Thrawn back into the picture. The expectation was that Filoni’s Heir to the Empire project would bring all of these storylines together, giving us the clash between the fledgling New Republic and Thrawn’s Imperial remnant. (There was also a lot of speculation that we’d see Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Han Solo play a role in this project, with — shudder — the characters likely being brought to life the same way The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett gave us deepfake Luke.) Is there a specific story that The Mandalorian & Grogu needs to tell before we get to Heir of the Empire? Or is this just a repurposing of a fourth season?
How about some release dates? While Lucasfilm didn’t announce a release date for The Mandalorian & Grogu (or the other three films), Cinelinx’s Jordan Maison took a stab at guessing when these movies will hit theaters. His prediction: The Mandalorian & Grogu and Obaid-Chinoy’s film will premiere in 2026 with Filoni’s film opening the following year. Read Maison’s post.
About that title … Honestly, The Mandalorian & Grogu is an awful title. It’s not even Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu. We’re a long way from Lucas giving us entertaining titles like The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. I really hope Lucasfilm sticks with the Heir to the Empire title for Filoni’s film.
“The Mandalorian & Grogu is a fucking dogshit name, this trend of ‘The Thing Is Called The Characters’ needs to end,” io9’s James Whitbrook commented on Bluesky.
•••
Yes, a second season of Ahsoka is happening
Buried in the announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu was the reveal that Dave Filoni is working on a second season of Ahsoka.
While this isn’t a surprise based on how the first season ended, Lucasfilm had been relatively quiet on the future of Ahsoka. Would they leave Ahsoka and Sabine in the other galaxy during Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie? How would they tackle the death of Ray Stevenson, the actor who brought Baylan Skoll to life?
The announcement of Ahsoka Season 2 doesn’t answer those questions, but the first bit of concept art from Filoni does hint that we’ll continue to explore whatever it was Baylan was searching for (and how those crumbling statues of the Mortis gods come into play).
•••
“We weren’t the droids they were looking for”
If you’ve been following Star Wars news the past few years, you’ll remember multiple movies that were announced only to be abandoned by Lucasfilm. (I’m still waiting for Rian Johnson to return to make his new trilogy.) One of the biggest announcements that Lucasfilm made was that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would be tackling a new series of Star Wars movies, with rumors circulating that they would reveal the origins of the Force and the Jedi Order.
Those movies obviously didn’t happen, and Benioff and Weiss have moved on to other projects.
The duo did address their abandoned Star Wars project in a new piece for The Hollywood Reporter.
“We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff says. “Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber …”
“And we were annoyed as hell when [Johnson] called his movie The Last Jedi,” Weiss says dryly. “He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.”
Asked what went wrong, Benioff says, “[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that. And we totally get it. It’s their company and their IP, but we weren’t the droids they were looking for.”
While Lucasfilm scuttled their attempt to do a “first Jedi” story, Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold has been announced for a dawn of the Jedi film.
Read the article at The Hollywood Reporter.
•••
Adam Driver “not doing any more” Star Wars
Don’t get your hopes up for a future Star Wars project continuing Ben Solo’s story. Adam Driver, speaking to the Smartless podcast (via Variety), shot down the chance that he’d return to the franchise.
“They’re doing stuff, but not with me,” Driver said. “I’m not doing any more.”
There had been some hope that Driver would return for a some kind of story set after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that could explore Ben Solo’s journey through the Force or World Between Worlds after he shed his evil Kylo Ren persona and sacrificed himself for Rey.
•••
“I have finally met my ‘mother’”
Believe it or not, Mark Hamill and Natalie Portman had never met before this weekend’s Golden Globes. This is despite Hamill playing Luke Skywalker and Portman playing Luke’s mother, Padme Amidala. While Hamill has stayed active in Star Wars, Portman has yet to be invited back in any way after the prequels.
(And, yes, Hamill and Hayden Christensen have met.)
NEWS, NOTES AND TRAILERS
Warner Bros. acquires Tom Cruise
OK, so Warner Bros. didn’t exactly acquire Tom Cruise. But the pair did announce a “new strategic partnership” on Tuesday.
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Co-Chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca & Pam Abdy and Tom Cruise today announced they will jointly develop and produce original and franchise theatrical films starring Cruise in 2024 under a new strategic partnership between Cruise and Warner Bros. Discovery. Cruise and his production company will have offices on the Warner Bros. Discovery lot in Burbank.
The partnership marks a return to Warner Bros. for Cruise, whose storied filmography with the studio includes Edge of Tomorrow, Rock of Ages, The Last Samurai, Eyes Wide Shut, Interview with the Vampire, Risky Business, The Outsiders, and New Line’s Magnolia.
While Cruise hasn’t had an exclusive deal with a studio these past few years, he has worked extensively with Paramount Pictures on both the Mission: Impossible franchise and Top Gun: Maverick. The actor’s new deal with Warner Bros. isn’t an exclusive deal itself, allowing Cruise to keep working on new Mission: Impossible movies.
““I have great respect and admiration for [David Zaslav], Pam, Mike and the entire team at Warner Bros. Discovery and their commitment to movies, movie fans, and the theatrical experience,” Cruise said in a statement. “I look forward to making great movies together!”
This is a pretty big get for Warner Bros. and David Zaslav. The controversial Warner Bros. Discover CEO appears to have been courting Cruise for a while now. He even sent Cruise a copy of The Flash before it hit theaters. (Cruise reportedly said that The Flash was “everything you want in a movie” and “this is the kind of movie we need now” …)
Hopefully the partnership between Cruise and Warner Bros. means we get that long-awaited Edge of Tomorrow sequel.
•••
Milly Alcock, Emilia Jones and Meg Donnelly in the running for Supergirl
We know that David Corenswet will play Superman in James Gunn’s rebooted DC universe. But who will play his cousin, Supergirl?
Deadline reported on Wednesday that three actresses are currently up for the role: House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock, CODA’s Emilia Jones and Zombies’ Meg Donnelly. (Interestingly, Donnelly voiced Supergirl in the animated Legion of Super-Heroes.)
Sasha Calle played Supergirl in The Flash, but with the DCEU reboot, the role will be recast. Gunn has cited Tom King, Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes’ Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow as the inspiration for DC Studios’ upcoming Supergirl movie. (It’s a fantastic graphic novel.)
•••
🎞️ Netflix reveals first trailer for 3 Body Problem
Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem is on my bookshelf, just waiting for me to read. (Addressing my backlog of books to read is one of my goals for 2024.) I’ve read enough about the series, though, to know that the first trailer for 3 Body Problem, Netflix’s adaptation of the books, doesn’t quite match the source material. (More on that in a second.)
The Netflix adaptation comes from Game of Thrones executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who have teamed up with Alexander Woo. According to Netflix, here’s what to expect from 3 Body Problem:
A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.
“What fans of the books have both long expected and long feared”: Netflix’s adaptation of The Three-Body Problem makes some drastic changes from the source material. Decider’s Meghan O’Keefe broke down some of the apparent changes, including “the focus of the series [being] on totally new characters never mentioned in the books.” Read the article at Decider.
•••
The Last of Us adds Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
Gonna warn you all on this one: If you go looking for any information beyond Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever joining The Last of Us to play a character named Abby in the show’s second season, you risk some major spoilers.
That said, Dever has signed on for a pretty big role in the HBO show’s upcoming season. According to Variety, Abby is “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved.” Read the announcement.
The Last of Us has Beef: Dever isn’t the only new cast addition. Beef star Young Mazino has also signed on for Season 2. From Variety, Mazino will play Jesse, “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.” Read the announcement.
And one more … Isabela Merced will play Dina in The Last of Us’ second season. According to TheWrap, Dina is “a free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.” Read the announcement.
•••
From 28 Days Later to 28 Years Later
The Last of Us’ clickers aren’t the only zombies working on a return. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on Wednesday that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are working on 28 Years Later, a new installment in the 28 Days Later franchise that they launched in 2002.
The duo is pitching a new trilogy, with Boyle committed to direct the first movie and Garland writing all three installments.
Read the article on The Hollywood Reporter.
•••
White Lotus Season 3 cast announced
White Lotus will head to Thailand for its third season, bringing a new group of actors along for the trip. HBO announced six new castmembers earlier this week: Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey and Tayme Thapthimthong. Natasha Rothwell, who played Belinda in Season 1, will also return. Read the press release.
Carrie Coon too: News that The Leftovers star Carrie Coon would also join White Lotus’ Season 3 cast followed the original announcement. Read the article on Variety.
•••
“The idea that his brain is just average is unfathomable to him”
Jimmy Kimmel lit into Aaron Rodgers during his Monday night episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in response to the New York Jets quarterback’s insinuation that Kimmel would appear in recently released documents regarding Jeffrey Epstein.
“We learned during Covid somehow he knows more about science than scientists,” Kimmel said during his monologue. “A guy who went to community college then got into Cal on a football scholarship and didn’t graduate; someone who never spent a minute studying the human body is an expert in the field of immunology.”
“They try and cancel”: Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee show on Tuesday afternoon and responded to Kimmel’s comments. No apology but he did try to blame the media? (And, for god’s sake, it’s “try to” not “try and,” people.) Read the article on CNN.
(Briefly) benched: McAfee announced on Wednesday that Rodgers would no longer appear on his show. According to CNN, “the decision to end Rodgers’ regular Tuesday appearances was due to his recent behavior, not the conclusion of the regular NFL season.” Rodgers’ absence lasted a single day. McAfee brought him back for Thursday’s show.
“Astonishing”: CNN’s Oliver Darcy asked why executives at Disney and ESPN allowed Rodgers to use ESPN “to spread vaccine misinformation and smear widely respected public health authorities like Fauci” and attack Kimmel, a beloved and valuable talent over at corporate sibling ABC. (He’s hosting the Oscars in a few months!) Read Darcy’s piece at Reliable Sources.
•••
🎞️ Curb’s final act
Curb Your Enthusiasm will return to HBO (I refuse to insult Curb Your Enthusiasm by saying it’s on Max) for its final season in February. The first trailer for the show’s last run debuted on Thursday.
“Another really, really funny episode of Curb”: “All you can do is make a show that you think is really funny. It doesn’t have to be different than the show that people liked,” showrunner Jeff Schaffer told Vanity Fair, reflecting on Larry David’s previous challenge of ending Seinfeld. Read the article at Vanity Fair.
Rounding out the cast: David will be joined in Curb’s final season by series regulars JB Smoove, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, Ted Danson, Vince Vaughn and Tracey Ullman. Jeff Garlin, who was written off The Goldbergs, will return too.
Guest list: Conan O’Brien, Sienna Miller, Troy Kotsur and Steve Buscemi will have guest appearances.
•••
🎞️🧟♂️ Rick and Michonne return in The Ones Who Live trailer
Real question: How are there this many walkers left by the time The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live takes place? Like, mathematically, it doesn’t make sense, right?
•••
Monster mashes
Ozark star Julia Garner has signed on to Universal Pictures’ Wolf Man remake. (Not to be confused with 2010’s The Wolfman, which starred Benicio del Toro.) According to The Hollywood Reporter, Garner will play “a mother whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.”
Wolf Man will be directed by Leigh Whannell. Previously helming The Invisible Man for Universal, Whannell is no stranger to horror after co-creating the Saw franchise. This reboot was originally going to star Ryan Gosling as the title character, but Gosling has been replaced by Christopher Abbott. Read the article at The Hollywood Reporter.
Yes, we know the monster’s name wasn’t Frankenstein: Speaking of monster movies, director Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein movie has a new actor to play the title creature. According to a new report, Jacob Elordi has joined the project, replacing Andrew Garfield. Read the article at Showbiz411.
•••
🚫🏴☠️ Max sinks Our Flag Means Death
Our Flag Means Death will sail no longer. Series creator David Jenkins broke the news on Tuesday.
“Our Flag won’t be returning for a third season,” Jenkins wrote on social media. “We’ve sailed at the pleasure of the fine people at Max, and it brought them no joy to see this journey come to a premature end. Casey Bloys, Sarah Aubrey, Suzanna Makkos, Billy Wee, and David Ruby have been incredible champions of this show. They allowed us to make something authentically weird and heartfelt, cheering us on the entire way.”
Our Flag Means Death ran for two seasons on Max with Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby in starring roles, and received praise for how it treated queer storylines.
Read Jenkins’ post on Instagram.
•••
Will we see Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn again?
With Lady Gaga playing Harley Quinn in the upcoming Joker sequel, a few fans began asking DC Studios co-chief James Gunn if this meant that Margot Robbie was done playing the character.
“I haven’t talked to Margot about Harley for a long time,” Gunn replied on social media. “But I’d love to work with her again as Harley or as someone else. There are no plans at this time for anyone else to play Harley (I mean, other than in [Todd Phillips’] movie or the animated show/s.)”
Robbie as Harley falls into a tricky zone when it comes to Gunn and Peter Safran rebooting the DC superhero films. While Robbie played the character in Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and The Suicide Squad, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad led to the Peacemaker series, which is continuing in the rebooted cinematic universe.
•••
💿 The Marvels sets home release dates
If you missed The Marvels in theaters (and based on its box office performance, you probably did), your next chance to see that latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is coming up. Marvel announced this week that The Marvels is coming to digital platforms on Jan. 16 with a physical media release on Feb. 13. Read the announcement.
But what about a steelbook? With Best Buy now out of the physical media game, those of us who still buy Blu-rays were wondering if anyone would replace the retailer when it came to offering steelbook versions of films. For The Marvels, at least, that answer is Walmart.
BLU-RAY HAUL
Looper
I already owned Looper (obviously), but I saw it on Amazon and realized I didn’t have a 4K copy of this one. It’s unfortunately just your basic case. Mondo did a steelbook release a few years back, and I’m kicking myself for not snagging that one before it turned into a $100+ offering on eBay.
THE LINKS
11 Signs You’re Watching an Edgy Comedy Special (Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture)
Dave Chappelle Is Better Than His Shameful Transphobic Jokes (Nico Lang, The Daily Beast)
What We Lost When Twitter Became X (Sheon Han, The New Yorker)
Elon Musk May Be the Loneliest Person in the World (Zoë Schiffer and Ariella Steinhorn, Newsweek)
A Second Life for My Beloved Dog (Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic)
The Poignant Physicality of Zac Efron (Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker)
OpenAI Pleads That It Can’t Make Money Without Using Copyrighted Materials for Free (Noor Al-Sibai, Futurism)
Why True Watch Heads Never Set the Time on Their Watches (Cam Wolf, GQ)
AND FINALLY …
“I’m not going to feel a thing”
After having to cut their “Day Drinking” segment short, Seth Meyers and Dua Lipa reunited on Tuesday’s episode of Late Night. In addition to finally getting to test out the Barbie Dreamhouse shot luge, Meyers and Lipa got matching tattoos.
Yes, Seth Meyers got his first tattoo during a Late Night segment.