Break out the Stormtrooper helmet bongo drums, tune your valachord and polish your jizz-box, because Star Wars Day is here! May 4 has become an unofficial Star Wars holiday for many reasons, with the fandom gathering to celebrate the beloved franchise in all manner of ways. The party has already kicked off on Fortnite with a prequels-themed week of content, with a lot of deep discounts on various merch online, and some fun arts and crafts.
The centerpiece today is the release of the hotly anticipated Star Wars Visions series two, which brings together amazing animation studios from around the world to tell imaginative and non-canon stories. We’re particularly hyped to see Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run‘s Aardman Animation’s episode, though all look interesting in their own right.
But, as it turns out, Visions isn’t the only animated Star Wars adventure premiering today.
‘The Simpsons’ unveils ‘Maggie Simpson in Rogue Not Quite One’
Disney’s Fox purchase has seen America’s most famous animated family cross over with various other properties in a series of shorts. In 2021 they celebrated Star Wars Day with “The Force Awakens from its Nap, showing Maggie attending the “Jabba’s Hut Jedi Preschool”. Now they’re following that up with “Maggie Simpson in Rogue Not Quite One“, which sounds as if it’ll be a fun parody of Rogue One.
Check out the poster:
Little else is known about the short right now, though we should expect something similar in length to the last three-minute short, which squeezed a dizzying amount of references into that run-time. The last Simpsons x Star Wars short notably avoided depicting Grogu, who seems like a natural buddy for Maggie, so we hope this rectifies that glaring omission.
This is now live on Disney Plus and will make a nice bookend to the animation extravaganza of Visions.
‘Andor’ may be severely hit by the Writers’ Strike
The Writers Guild of America strike is now on. It’s too early to say exactly how this will impact upon Star Wars as a whole, but with multiple projects in development, there will be consequences somewhere down the line. But problems may be arriving sooner rather than later for Andor.
The show is currently filming in the United Kingdom, with WGA member showrunner Tony Gilroy having written and directed multiple episodes. We’ve gone into the specifics in our extensive article on how Gilroy’s status will impact on the shoot, but the short version is that as a “hyphenate” writer/director, he’s now working with one hand tied behind his back.
Gilroy can now only direct what he’s previously committed to his screenplays and cannot alter, improvise, or rework scenes on the fly. The silver lining is that he completed work on the final episode just before the strike began, so at least Andor will be able to wrap on time. Even so, we suspect the show will return for reshoots once the strike is over. Fingers crossed it doesn’t slip from its August 2024 release date.
The Russo Brothers talk about the ‘Star Wars’ movie Kathleen Kennedy claimed never existed
Heads were scratched and eyebrows were raised a month ago when Kathleen Kennedy claimed that Kevin Feige’s Star Wars movie was never a serious project. That came after the movie had been confirmed on the official Star Wars YouTube channel, Loki writer Michael Waldron had signed on to pen a script, and The Hollywood Reporter said Feige had discussed his plans with Horn and Kathleen Kennedy. But, as per Kennedy:
“Kevin Feige’s project was something announced in the press, or I suppose, fandom. But, there was nothing… Nothing ever got developed. We never discussed an idea. As everybody knows Kevin, is a huge Star Wars fan. If he did come up with something, I would be all ears. But, that’s never really happened. So, it’s not an abandoned project. It just never really happened.”
Now, in an appearance on the Smartless podcast, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have confirmed that at one point they were considering directing it:
“We love Star Wars. There were early conversations, there were some early conversations with us. Kevin Feige is a huge Star Wars fan, and there were some early conversations about maybe teaming up with Kevin to do Star Wars.”
So we don’t know what’s really going on here. Feige is way too experienced a producer to begin planning and discussing his Star Wars movie without ever actually getting a green light to do so. Maybe some wires got crossed somewhere and Kennedy was left off the memo? Either way, this movie isn’t going to happen, but we hope one day we find out what actually went on behind the scenes of this unlikely Marvel Studios x Lucasfilm crossover.