(Image credit: Luscasfilm / Disney)
In December 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney live-streamed a much-talked-about "Investor Day" presentation. Along with her Marvel Studios counterpart Kevin Feige, then-Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced a slew of new projects to join Disney+ hit "The Mandalorian" (then nearing the end of its second season) in an impressive slate of "Star Wars" projects."Obi-Wan Kenobi", "Andor", "The Acolyte", "Ahsoka", "The Bad Batch" and "Star Wars: Visions" have all since made it to the screen (to varying degrees of success), while "Rangers of the New Republic", "Lando" and "Rogue Squadron" were either abandoned completely or cast into the Sarlacc pit better known as development hell.But arguably the most intriguing project remained nameless and was little more than an aside. This "climactic story event" would be a theatrical release directed by Dave Filoni (who's since become president of Lucasfilm), and would wrap up storylines established in "The Mandalorian", " The Book of Boba Fett" and "Ahsoka".This "Avengers"-style team-up, we believed, would be where the Imperial Remnant would get its backside kicked, before running off to hide in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. Yes, we also knew they'd eventually go on to form the dastardly First Order, but that was a problem for another day.THE PATH AHEAD CONTAINS "THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU" SPOILERS. CHOOSE WISELY IF YOU'RE YET TO SEE THE FILM.Five-and-a-half years have now passed since Kennedy teased "Star Wars: The Climactic Event", and it's not even a dot on the horizon. "The Mandalorian and Grogu", now in theaters, was ideally placed to progress the story, but — despite a few Imperial entanglements early on — it's definitively not that movie. And in such an intriguing era of "Star Wars"' in-universe history, that feels like a hell of a waste.
