Showbiz news was flowing this week, and we round it up here.
Disney announced a raft of movie dates this week, according to Variety. The big one was The Mandalorian & Grogu, the first Star Wars film since 2019, which has been given a July 2026 date (see “Geek Movie Calendar – 2026“). Toy Story 5 and the live action Moana were also given 2026 dates. Tron: Ares (see “’Tron 3’ Returns to the Grid“) was given a date in October of 2025, up against Avatar: The Last Airbender (see “Geek Movie Calendar – 2025”).
In other Star Wars movie news, Beau Willimon, who worked on the first season of Andor and wrote for HBO hit House of Cards, has been signed to write the script for the James Mangold Star Wars film, according to Hollywood Reporter. Announced at Star Wars Celebration (see “Three ‘Star Wars’ Movies“), the feature, now titled Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, will be set 25,000 years prior to any of the Star Wars timelines and stories, which puts it earlier than even Dark Horse Comics’ Tales of Jedi series, which told the tale of the Great Sith War (which happened prior to 3,996 BBY).
Disney+ has released a trailer (below) for Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, a six-part animated anthology in the same vein as 2022 anthology series Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (see “’Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi’“). The series focuses on previously untold events in the lives of Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth and former Jedi Barriss Offee.
Julia Garner (Ozark) has been cast as the Shalla-Bal version of Silver Surfer in the Fantastic Four feature, according to Variety. Pedro Pascal was recently cast as Reed Richards (see “Pedro Pascal Circles “Fantastic Four’“). The film is scheduled for February 14, 2025.
The Disney board and management defeated Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, backed by former Marvel owner and CEO Ike Perlmutter, in the boardroom battle decided last week at the shareholders meeting (see “Disney Proxy Fight Kicks Off“). All the directors nominated by Trian lost, and the board members supported by the company and CEO Bob Iger won, according to Wall Street Journal. The fight was likely to be the most expensive proxy fight ever, largely due to the large percentage of Disney shares held by retail investors, requiring major outreach to lobby their votes. Around 75% of retail investors voted against Trian’s slate.
A new film adaptation of Rob Liefeld’s Avengylene will be produced by LuckyChap, the Margot Robbie production company that produced Barbie, and geek movie veteran Simon Kinberg, according to Deadline. Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling) is attached to direct. An adaptation by Paramount with Akiva Goldsman, announced in 2016 (see “Paramount Options ‘Avengelyne’“), did not come to fruition.Source: ICv2
