Snuggle up your Baby Yodas and fire up those lightsabers because that
Star Wars galaxy far, far, away is expanding yet again, this time to bring fans a unique and potentially ground-breaking female-centric point of view. Rey would be proud.
Variety broke the news on April 22 that Disney Plus is developing a third live-action
Star Wars series for its streaming service, adding to the previously announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor, and the
Rogue One prequel series starring Diego Luna. These are in addition to the now-famous, Baby Yoda-starring
The Mandalorian of course, which launches its second season in October. That’s a whole lot of
Star Wars to keep fans satiated for quite some time. It’s a good thing too, considering
Star Wars: The Clone Wars wraps its seven-season run on May 7.What makes this as-yet-unnamed series so special isn’t just that it will be told from a female point-of-view or that it takes place in a different part of the
Star Wars timeline from other projects. Nope, the really big draw, at least behind the scenes, is who is writing this thing: Leslye Headland. The writer and director might not be a household name just yet, but her track record on TV series is pretty darned great.Headland was the co-creator of Netflix’s
Russian Doll, the time-bending series starring Natasha Lyonne as a coder who keeps reliving her 36
th birthday in the darkest ways possible. In its first season the show snagged a whopping 13 award nominations and took home three trophies, which isn’t too shabby for a new comedy these days. It’s also worth mentioning that Headland co-created the series with Lyonne and Amy Poehler. Yup, that Amy Poehler, who is a big fan of
Smart Girls everywhere.
According to THR, the deal has actually been in place for months, and Headland even attended the Los Angeles premiere of
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last December.So how does Headland feel about heading up a
Star Wars series? Has she had a conversation with Daisy Ridley about all of the
potential backlash that comes with such an undertaking? That remains to be seen since she and Disney have yet to comment on the new show. For now it seems like the writer is just happy to have a place to write female-centric stories that go deeper than your usual moms, girlfriends and wives. And the result may be the show that women—and men—everywhere deserve.“It came at just the right time,”
Headland told Variety last fall of
Russian Doll’s success and how she hopes it leads to more ambitious projects in the future. Projects like
Star Wars, perhaps? “I love that they’re recognizing this stuff like this weird little show about female trauma and overcoming it. [The industry] saying, ‘We are interested in this,’ helps it get into the water supply. And now other artists, whether marginalized or not, can come out and say, ‘We want to get a little weirder.’”Well it’s probably safe to say there’s no better place to get your weird on than in a galaxy far, far away.[video_embed id='1864300']Before you go: The internet can't get enough of this cat that looks like Baby Yoda[/video_embed]
