New Star Wars TV show on Disney Plus sounds very different to The Mandalorian

Star Wars
(Image credit: Disney)

We're learning more about one of the four confirmed Star Wars live-action shows we know are in the works at Disney Plus. No, not The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan or the Cassian Andor-focused spin-off – we mean the untitled show coming from the co-creator of Russian Doll, Leslye Headland, which has mostly been kept a mystery since we learned about it earlier this year.

Last week, a report from Deadline tentatively referred to it as a 'female-driven action thriller' that features martial arts and is set in an 'alternate' timeline from Star Wars as we know it. 

Now, Headland herself has weighed in on the show in a new interview. It sounds less like her series is set in an alternate timeline, and more like it's set in a hitherto unexplored part of the Star Wars universe.

"I would say it's in a pocket of the universe, and a pocket of the timeline, that we don't know much about," says Headland, who confirmed it's a female-led show while speaking to Fantastic Frankey on YouTube. The writer also talked more generally about her experience with Star Wars, including reading Timothy Zahn's popular Thrawn novels, and reconnecting with Star Wars in her adult life. "You can't enter this world without a) having a strong point of view and b) having an enormous amount of reverence, as if you were stepping into a cathedral."

"Working for Lucasfilm, working on Star Wars IP, this is my dream project," Headland also points out. "This is all I want to do."

"I see this as a massive challenge to take on, and a very serious one. I have an immense appreciation for the world that George built...but also canon. Everything in Legends and canon, all of that stuff, there's a lot of stuff there."

What else do we know?

Headland won't be drawn into specifics about the show, but does suggest she's been thinking a lot about locations in the series, brandishing her copy of the Star Wars atlas during the interview. 

She also explains that when pitching the show, Headland had her designer create an Indiana Jones-style map, explaining where the story goes around the Star Wars universe.

Lucasfilm confirmed the series was in development earlier this year, on Star Wars Day. We would be surprised to see it before the other shows we know are in the works from Disney Plus.

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.