“Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland is reportedly working on a new “Star Wars” series for Disney+.
Variety reported that Headland’s upcoming series will be female-centric and take place in a different part of the “Star Wars” timeline than the franchise’s nine films and recent television series. Plot details, attached talent, and a potential release date are undetermined, though the publication reported that Headland will write and serve as showrunner on the series. The project is still staffing, meaning that other significant information will likely be unavailable for quite some time.
A Disney spokesperson declined to comment on Variety’s report and a Lucasfilm spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
However long it takes for Headland’s project to release, there’s ample reason for “Star Wars” fans to be enthusiastic about the upcoming series. The darkly comedic “Russian Doll,” which won three Emmys last year, is widely considered to be one of the best television shows in recent memory and the news that Headland’s “Star Wars” series will take place outside the well-worn Clone Wars/Galactic Empire era means that there’s a galaxy-worth of new settings and ideas the series could explore.
All recent “Star Wars” projects have centered around the timeline and events of the franchise’s mainline films but prior to Disney’s acquisition of the franchise, “Star Wars” novels, comics, video games, and other releases explored a vast array of other eras and settings, including long-running storylines that were set thousands of years before the adventures of Luke Skywalker. Variety reported on Headland’s series two months after Lucasfilm announced that it would be launching “Star Wars: The High Republic,” a novel and comic book initiative that would produce new stories set around 200 years before the events of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.”
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Headland’s upcoming series reaffirms Disney chairman Bob Iger’s previous comments that the “Star Wars” franchise would be pivoting to television for the foreseeable future. An Ewan McGregor-led Obi-Wan Kenobi series is also in the works at Disney+, as is a “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” spinoff series.
Reports of Headland’s “Star Wars” series came a day after news broke that work on “The Mandalorian” Season 3 began several weeks ago. “The Mandalorian” was Disney+’s tentpole launch title and was a hit among critics. Though Disney does not release viewership data for its streaming service, there is little doubt that “The Mandalorian,” which will release its sophomore season in October, was an integral part in Disney+’s massively successful launch. The House of Mouse said that Disney+ had over 28 million subscribers in February.
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