Star Wars Celebration has always been a bit of a gambler’s convention. You show up, they show you logos, maybe some concept art, maybe a director or two if they’re not off the project by lunch. It’s a hype machine with a notoriously bad track record of actually delivering. Remember Rian Johnson’s trilogy? Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron? Kevin Feige’s movie? The list of announced-but-never-made projects is longer than a Coruscant airspeed traffic report.
But this year? Celebration 2025 actually felt… grounded. For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t about selling us dreams. It was about showing us what’s real. Tangible things. Projects that are actually happening. Dates on calendars. Footage from finished films. And more importantly—no 20-minute presentations for stuff that won’t be real until your kid’s out of middle school.
The big one was The Mandalorian & Grogu. It’s not in development. It’s done. Filmed. Cut. Scheduled for release May 22, 2026. The sizzle reel they showed wasn’t a vibe reel—it was real footage. Din Djarin is back, Grogu’s flipping around, BD-1 shows up (yes, really), and Sigourney Weaver is apparently playing some enigmatic figure who “needs” Grogu. Which is terrifying and fascinating in equal measure.
But let’s talk about that BD-1 cameo. You don’t show that little droid unless you’re planting a flag. This is Star Wars waving the Cal Kestis flag without officially raising it. It’s what fans have been clamoring for. Cameron Monaghan has been doing the work—voice, mo-cap, press—and fans already love him. The guy is Cal. If he doesn’t appear in this movie, that’ll be the biggest tease since Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones. I’d be shocked if it’s not already shot.
Then there’s Star Wars: Starfighter. Shawn Levy directing, Ryan Gosling starring, set five years after The Rise of Skywalker. On paper, that timeline placement raises eyebrows. The sequel trilogy didn’t exactly leave audiences begging for more, and in the years since TROS, Lucasfilm has wisely kept that era mostly in the rearview. But now they’re diving back in—and it’s hard not to notice that Starfighter feels like a reworked version of Patty Jenkins’ dead Rogue Squadron film.
And maybe that’s okay. You’ve got Gosling, who’s one of the few actors with legitimate heat right now. You’ve got Levy, who isn’t “up next”—he’s already delivered (Free Guy, Stranger Things, and yes, Deadpool & Wolverine, which dropped last summer and made Disney a ton of money). And you’ve got a setup that practically begs for a certain charming Resistance pilot to make a comeback.
Let’s be real here: if anyone from the sequel trilogy shows up, it’s gonna be Oscar Isaac. Daisy Ridley might be busy waiting on a stable script for her standalone movie (good luck), and John Boyega’s relationship with the franchise has been complicated. But Oscar? The dude already returned for Star Wars Resistance—an underrated animated show with decent writing and very little fanfare. He seems like the kind of guy who would show up, drop some charisma, and make the whole thing sing. Poe Dameron is the best pilot in the Resistance. You’re doing a movie called Starfighter. It writes itself.
Now, Celebration wasn’t just about the movies. On the Disney+ front, Andor Season 2 finally got a release date—April 22—and the full premiere screened for the audience. Tony Gilroy confirmed the plan: a four-year sprint to Rogue One, with time jumps every three episodes. In a sea of bombast, Andor stands out for its quiet, grounded, brutal honesty. It’s political Star Wars. Revolutionary Star Wars. It’s what happens when you take the “wars” in Star Wars seriously.
Then there’s Star Wars: Visions—and I’ll admit, I’ve got complicated feelings here. On one hand, I love it. It’s bold, it’s weird, it lets creators cut loose in a galaxy that usually plays by a very rigid rulebook. The fact that we’re getting sequels to The Duel and The Ninth Jedi in Volume 3 this fall is awesome. And the fact that The Ninth Jedi is getting a full-length special in 2026? That’s even better.
But here’s where I get cranky: I’m one of those people who actually likes canon. I think lore matters. Continuity builds stakes. So while I appreciate Visions doing its own thing, I can’t help but feel like there’s a middle ground. We’ve seen it before. The Animatrix did it in 2003—multiple anime styles, different stories, and all of it canon. You can let people play in the sandbox without tossing out the whole rulebook.
Still, I get it. Visions is meant to be a side project. An experimental corner of the galaxy that doesn’t need to sync up with every lightsaber crystal color in the lore guide. And the stories are good—sometimes great. So maybe I’m just a cantankerous old bastard when it comes to Star Wars canon. I’ll own that. But I also think there’s a real opportunity here. If Visions can keep its experimental spirit while giving us connective tissue to the galaxy we know, it could become more than a curiosity. It could become essential.
What matters is that this Celebration felt like a course correction. No one tried to oversell the future. They didn’t roll out a dozen projects that’ll never happen. Instead, they stuck to the facts. What’s real. What’s finished. What’s filming. What has a release date. And they didn’t try to distract us with updates on things that clearly aren’t moving (Rey, Mangold, Taika, though yes, the Poor Things screenwriter is now apparently trying to crack that last one—good luck).
And maybe that’s the biggest win of all. For once, it feels like Lucasfilm isn’t just throwing darts in the dark. They’re building something again. One movie. One show. One special at a time. And this time, they actually seem like they might stick to the plan.
Hollywood After Dark 