Disney has dropped the first trailer for the second season of The Mandalorian , the Emmy-nominated first live-action Star Wars TV series created by Jon Favreau. Starring Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, the titular Mandalorian, the series takes place a few years after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order.

(Spoilers for S1 below.)

The basic premise is that, after the defeat of the Empire in Return of the Jedi , there was a period of chaos and lawlessness as a new government struggled to emerge from the wreckage. Pascal's bounty hunter is "a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic."

Enlarge (credit: Kristina Alexanderson )

Do you have celebration plans for Wookie Life Day? According to Disney, it's the galaxy's "most cheerful and magical holiday," so on November 17, the company will celebrate the event on Disney+ with a Lego Star Wars Holiday Special . Set immediately after Rise of the Skywalker , Rey and BB-8 go on a journey through the nine-film timeline that promises to give screen time to goodies and baddies current and past. Except it's all done in Lego, so painted tongues will be firmly in plastic cheeks.

I've been a huge fan of the more irreverent take that Lego brings to the Star Wars universe since the cut scenes in Lego Star Wars II —whose heart wouldn't melt when Darth Vader whips out a Polaroid to prove to Luke that he's really his dad? And the more recent Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures stands head and shoulders above Star Wars Resistance , at least to this middle-aged nerd.

All of this gives me faith that this new special won't suck. The original Star Wars Holiday Special is widely reviled by fans as the single worst thing to have come from that far, far away galaxy. It was a TV special aired in 1978, long before George Lucas' swashbuckling in space had become the cultural behemoth we know today. The plot involves Han and Chewie visiting Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day, where apparently they meet his dad (called Itchy) and his son (called Lumpy). I say "apparently" because it never aired in the UK where I grew up, so I was mercifully spared as a child and I've never quite had a big enough masochistic streak to track down a copy in the decades that have followed.

Enlarge / A young contestant swings across a padded foam chasm in an attempt to be the first team to obtain and assemble four lightsaber pieces. (credit: StarWars.com (Disney) )

This week a new kid-friendly game show, Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge , made its debut on YouTube. The premise is simple: what if we make something like all those Nickelodeon game shows '80s and '90s kids grew up on but high-budget and Star Wars themed? To which I thought: yes, please!

Decades ago, Nickelodeon owned the kids' game show space. The popularity of Double Dare (1986-1993) begat Guts (1992-1995) and, one year later, my personal favorite, Legends of the Hidden Temple , which has more than a little bit in common with the Jedi Temple Challenge .

The similarities are not accidental. The official Star Wars website itself describes Jedi Temple Challenge as "an homage to the kids' cable game shows that dominated the air waves in the 1990s."

Enlarge / Could we squeeze a few more lightsabers into this Clone Wars poster image, Lucasfilm? (credit: Lucasfilm)

After a long road to The Clone Wars ’ final season , the animated series returns to wrap up a story over a decade in the making. The opening episodes of the new season—which debuts on Friday, February 21, exclusively on Disney+ —are by turns thrilling, funny, and as good as anything the series’ live-action side has ever turned out.

But appreciating how far The Clone Wars has traveled to get to this point is impossible without tracing the series' previous steps.

After cancellation, a return of familiar story arcs

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  The Bad Batch, left to right: Tech, Crosshair, Wrecker. [credit: Lucasfilm ]

Minor plot spoilers for the entire series, and a preview of the new episodes' plot, follow below .