With the critical success of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett it should come as no surprise that the Star Wars galaxy is continuing to expand on Disney+. Earlier this month, Production Weekly revealed an untitled Star Wars series heading into production under the working title "Grammar Rodeo" and new reports by DiscussingFilm suggest that the series is working to secure Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts for at least one episode.
Trusted sources had previously informed me that Star Wars was looking to create a live-action series geared towards a younger audience and that it could potentially be tied into the recent multimedia rollout of Star Wars: The High Republic. The High Republic is a primarily publishing-based initiative, though it did make the jump into the video game realm with Star Wars: Tales From Galaxy's Edge and the previously announced Star Wars: Eclipse game. While it is possible that "Grammar Rodeo" is an unknown Mandoverse project, considering Jon Favreau is reportedly attached to executive produce it, Cinelinx broke the story about a kid-focused High Republic-era story going into production this month.
Before The Illuminerdi reported on casting breakdown for the untitled series, two trusted sources had shared the casting calls for "Kylie" and "Faye" with me, signaling that casting would likely be completed by early May and that an official announcement would likely arrive at Star Wars Celebration, barring production delays. New reports include two additional characters named "Wyatt" and "Ned," with casting looking for actors to play between the ages of 11 and 12 for these four series regulars. It is likely that these four characters will be padawans, though it is unclear if they are new characters or live-action versions of the characters in the book series. Production is also looking to cast a 30 to 40 year old actor in a series regular role, with sources indicating that they're looking for a recognizable name with this character.
The series, which Cinelinx has called "Stranger Things in space," is set to begin filming as early as June, with production slated to wrap in December. If they ink a deal with Jon Watts, it is possible that he will be tasked with shooting the pilot, as the timing of his involvement lines up. His involvement makes sense, considering his success with directing the Spider-Man trilogy, which is focused on a cast of young characters going through extraordinary situations. While it is currently unknown who is involved with writing the project if it is The High Republic series, reports and sources have suggested that at least one of the authors behind the series will be working on the series. It would appear that The Mandalorian isn't the only Star Wars story that Disney is keen to expand upon across small and large screens.
More as we hear it.
