The Mandalorian and Grogu is Next Star Wars Movie, Alien Sequel Gets a Title

Movies

Disney announced a bunch of new movies (and some video game plans) at its quarter 1 earnings call today, including some information about the next films in two of its acquired sci-fi franchises (via JoBlo). First is the reveal – such as it is – that Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu will be the next Star Wars film, preceding the Rey movie that may be called New Jedi Order, and will likely be released in 2026. The call also confirmed the name of the new Alien movie being directed by Fede Álvarez, which is Alien: Romulus. The latter film is said to be about a group of kids who encounter an Alien or Aliens on a colony somewhere in outer space. Alien: Romulus will arrive in theaters on August 16, 2024.

These two films epitomize part of what’s wrong with Hollywood today. Alien is a franchise that needs to go away forever, along with Predator, The Terminator, Indiana Jones, and, frankly, Star Wars. These series all had some great movies made decades ago, but they’ve been beaten to death by studios desperate to milk them for whatever they can. Their stories have been bastardized to the point where the lore doesn’t hold up, previously intimidating monsters have been neutered or demystified with origins nobody needed, and the events of the good movies have been erased or nullified. It’s exhausting, and every new story that comes out diminishes what they once were even more. Does anyone want to see a bunch of kids fight the Alien? I imagine the idea is a back-to-basics horror story akin to Alien, but after decades of lousy sequels, it elicits nothing but an eye-roll now. And now that their story was fast-forwarded so Disney could keep making toys and ensure a woman was wielding the Dark Saber and leading the Mandalorians, it’s hard to muster up much interest in The Mandalorian and Grogu. What can they do with a movie about those two other than make a two-hour episode where they’re hunting a bounty? It has to be relatively stand-alone so it doesn’t interfere with Dave Filoni’s Ahsoka and Pals film that will wrap up the Thrawn storyline. But these are what Disney’s got for live-action entertainment: a movie most people forget is happening till they read a news piece and an act of desperation from a floundering studio that took a massively popular IP and turned it into a joke. But that Baby Yoda sure is cute.