Happy Monday, and welcome to a new edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away“, coming to you a day later than usual to celebrate the exact halfway point of the year. Lots of Star Wars, past and future, to discuss below.

We have a new Character Spotlight piece from Josh, this week focused on the Ninth Sister. Since Tyler was out sick this past week, we don’t have new YouTube content, but stay tuned this Thursday for a new episode of SWNN Live!

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Andor Season 2 has become the first Star Wars show to stay on the Nielsen Top 10 after the show’s on-air window, at least as far as I’ve been keeping track of it. (I don’t think this was the case after the Mandalorian Season 2 finale, but feel free to correct me if I’m misremembering.) Not only that, it did it for two weeks in a row. The Nielsen report of the week May 19-25 had it at #4 in the Originals chart, with 527M minutes viewed. In the week of May 26-June 1, it ranked #10 on the same chart, with 310M minutes watched.

There are two ways of interpreting this, not exclusive of each other. On the one hand, Andor had some solid streaming legs and was able to tune people in late thanks to great word of mouth. On the other hand, the release strategy worked in its favor here, since many people couldn’t keep up with its three-episodes-a-week rollout, and had to watch the finale one or two weeks after it aired. Contrary to what I was expecting, Rogue One didn’t make the Movies chart.

The show is currently in the middle of an Emmy campaign. Voting ended a week ago, but expect a second round of frenetic media coverage of the many tricks that Beau Willimon and the other writers pulled off to create these amazing speeches, or the many trivia nuggets they are still holding up their sleeves. Nominations are announced on July 15.

The first half of the year is gone, and though we’re in the midst of a Star Wars news void, we’ve actually had some pretty significant developments over the past six months that have shaped our view of the future of the franchise. It was only in January that we learned about Ryan Gosling circling Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie, and now we have a release date (May 28, 2027), a production start date (September), a title (Starfighter), and a villain (played by Mia Goth). And perhaps more importantly, his out-of-placeness at the Celebration Stage is a new standard for public displays of awkwardness in my life.

Though we don’t know all the details, it sure sounds like it was Ryan Gosling’s signing that fast-tracked this movie into pre-production. Yes, the script had been in the works for some time, but that was also the case for James Mangold-Beau Willimon’s Dawn of the Jedi project, which must have submitted more than one draft to Kathleen Kennedy’s desk by now. And though Lucasfilm, because of the size of the IP it manages, is under a lot more scrutiny than other studios, this is typical Hollywood behavior. For now, management gets a point for a job well done so far — but of course, if Solo taught us something, it’s that we are not safe until the movie is released.

On the movie side, the other project to keep an eye on is actually Simon Kinberg’s trilogy. Kathleen Kennedy had said a few months ago that she expected to see “something” from it around June, a deadline that has now expired. Has Kinberg delivered something yet? If so, what is that? Lucasfilm did not respond to my queries about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was pushed until Labor Day weekend or so, but in any case I’m just surprised by the turnaround time. George Nolfi was hired around the same time, after all, to rewrite the New Jedi Order movie — when is his draft due?

On the TV side, it’s also been a pretty good year for Star Wars, one could say. After all, there’s no getting around this: Andor worked. The critics loved it, the audience did as well, and as reported a few lines above, they kept tuning in even after it was off the air. I expect it to get a lot of nominations, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it won in one of the major categories in September. This is by far the biggest success story of the year, even if I could argue that the ratings should have been even higher for the number of episodes a week they were releasing. As I’ve argued before, though, the numbers are good enough to be complemented with the prestige value that the show will bring to Disney Plus.

But that wasn’t all, either. Production is currently underway on the next live-action season of TV, the new installment of Ahsoka, which is shooting in the UK. The cast is back, and, as confirmed at Star Wars Celebration, Rory McCann is stepping in for the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, something I consider a massive win for the franchise, as it ensures continuation for one of the most interesting characters it’s created in years. (Also, if you can believe it, Skeleton Crew was still on the air this year — it felt to me like ages ago, quite honestly.)

Two years ago, we were still riding high after a pretty successful Star Wars Celebration in London, at least in terms of announcements. None of the three feature films they announced back then is less than a year away from happening. And other than Andor, the other TV series they showed off at the convention tanked in terms of ratings. So time will be the ultimate judge here. But the fundamental lesson to take away from the past six months is this — their successes are now materialized. Two of the last times they said they were making a movie (aside from the Kinberg trilogy), they actually put a start date on the calendar for us. After all of these years, we would rather have one or two things definitive than a whole lot of maybes.

Over the next six months, we expect new Starfighter casting announcements and maybe even a logline once cameras start rolling. We will see a new season of Star Wars Visions, and perhaps most important of all, we will see the first public trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, likely tied to Avatar: Fire and Ash. Also, the big question — will Kathleen Kennedy’s successor(s) finally be announced?

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Have a great week!