Three new movies, final ‘Andor’ season

The “Wars” aren’t over yet. 

At the Star Wars Celebration event Friday in London, Disney and Lucasfilm announced a Death Star-sized slate of upcoming films and TV shows to be set in a galaxy far, far away. 

The biggest news of the day was that Daisy Ridley will return to play Rey in a new, untitled movie. 

Although the flick will be about Rey, the badass orphan heroine of Episodes VII through IX, it likely won’t be a continuation of the studio’s tentpole Luke Skywalker-Darth Vader series.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told Vanity Fair in 2022, “We are moving on from the Skywalker saga. That’s what’s taking a lot of time, discussion, and thought right now.”

Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy says the movie, set 15 years after 2019’s “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker,” will “tell the story of the rebuilding of a new Jedi order.”

“My heart is pounding,” Ridley said on stage in London. “I’m very thrilled to be continuing this journey.”

The film’s original screenwriters, Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen”) and Justin Britt-Gibson, left the project in March. Steven Knight of “Peaky Blinders” takes on writing duties.

Our reunion with Rey was one of three new movies in development that Kennedy announced Friday. 

Another will be directed by James Mangold, who also helmed this summer’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and will concern the earliest origins of the Force and the Jedi.

A third film, directed by Dave Filoni (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars”), revolves around the New Republic.

Release dates were not announced for the three movies.

On the TV front, it was revealed that Season 2 of “Andor,” starring Diego Luna, will be the acclaimed series’ last.

Creator Tony Gilroy said of the Disney+ show, which aims to begin airing its final season in August 2024, “It was a decision born of survival, but it’s been creatively potent. We’re very pleased. It’s good to know there’s an ending coming.” 

Three other forthcoming “Star Wars” TV series revealed never-before-seen footage: “The Acolyte,” created by Leslye Headland of Netflix’s “Russian Doll”; “Skeleton Crew,” starring Jude Law; and “Ahsoka,” with Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, that’s coming to Disney+ this August.

Since the final episode of the Skywalker saga, “Star Wars” has been getting its bearings.

Expected films from Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Patti Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) were scrapped. And there was not a single mention at this year’s Star Wars Celebration of Taika Waititi’s (“Thor: Love and Thunder”) movie that’s still said to be in development.

Outside of “Star Wars,” Lucasfilm also dropped a new trailer for the upcoming fifth “Indiana Jones” movie starring an 80-year-old Harrison Ford alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”).

It’s the first Indy movie since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” co-starring Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett, was released 15 years ago. 

“Dial of Destiny” will premiere, like “Crystal Skull” did, at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18 before hitting US cinemas on June 30.