Changes are afoot at Lucasfilm following the appointment of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan as co-presidents of the Star Wars studio.
On Jan. 15, Filoni and Brennan were announced to be succeeding Kathleen Kennedy as president of Lucasfilm. At this time, it was reported that development on Filoni’s Star Wars movie — believed to be an adaptation of the classic Thrawn trilogy, Heir to the Empire — had been paused. However, new details have since come to light, revealing that there is still a bit of life left in the Star Wars project.
Lucasfilm is reworking Dave Filoni’s Star Wars movie into a Disney+ show
According to noted scooper Daniel Richtman, via his Patreon, Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie is being redeveloped into a limited series for Disney+. If true, it would mean that the project would no longer serve as Filoni’s live-action feature directorial debut. The decision is said to depend on how The Mandalorian and Grogu movie performs.
First teased in 2020, the untitled Heir to the Empire project will serve as a culmination of the storylines introduced in Disney+’s Star Wars shows — The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew — with characters from each set to appear. The project was officially announced by Lucasfilm as a theatrical feature during Star Wars Celebration in 2023.
While plot details remain under wraps, the project has long been rumored to be based on Heir to the Empire, a trilogy of Star Wars Legends novels written by Timothy Zahn. Set roughly five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Heir to the Empire finds the New Republic waging war against Grand Admiral Thrawn to stop him from reviving the Empire.
Ahsoka Season 1 already laid some of the groundwork for the forthcoming crossover, bringing Thrawn into live-action, with Lars Mikkelsen reprising the role from the animated Star Wars Rebels.
Ahsoka Season 2 will further set up the crossover event, with Filoni sharing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2024, “Because I’ve been writing [Ahsoka season 2], things have clicked, and I have a much better idea about where things are going to go. I will say, I have an opening I really like quite a bit, I’m very excited about it for that picture.”
Ahsoka Season 2 does not yet have a release window, but is expected to stream on Disney+ in 2026, meaning that the Heir to the Empire project is still, at minimum, a few years out.
