If you aren’t already booming from the news of Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor getting his own Rogue One prequel series on Disney’s new streaming service, the following news is an absolute lock to have it high up on your 2019 watchlist. While the series is in very early development, Lucasfilm and Disney seem to be moving quickly, possibly getting the series ready for a 2020 release on Disney+

Image via Entertainment Weekly

after The Mandalorian debuts next Fall. No other casting announcements have been revealed as of yet, but a critical piece of the series has been filled in the best way possible.

Stephen Schiff has been tapped as showrunner and executive producer for the upcoming series, which means he’ll be in charge of guiding the series to where it’s going. Schiff’s most recent accomplishment was showrunning the critically acclaimed FX show The Americans. He joined the series for Season 2, where he then continued that role all the way through to its series finale. The series was constantly considered one of the best-running shows on TV, even being mentioned in the same sentence as Game of Thrones a time or two. Now do you see why I’m so excited?

When Lucasfilm announced the series last month, they made sure to let everyone know that the series is being developed as a spy thriller. If you’ve watched The Americans or at least heard of it, you know that that’s exactly what that show is, as it tackles the era of the Cold War and planted Russian agents around the United States. t’s hard to disagree with any statement claiming that Schiff is perfect for the job. Another element of this hire is the tone of The Americans. For a cable show, it was frequently dark and violent, something you don’t typically see with the average cable show. It’s not a guarantee that that will carry over into this series, but with how Cassian Andor was portrayed in Rogue One (his debut scene in particular), I would not be surprised if Lucasfilm brought him on board because he’s able to capture that aspect of television brilliantly.

Now that a star and showrunner are in place, plus with it beginning production some time next year, hopefully that means more casting and story details soon. For now, what do you think of this news? Have you seen The Americans? Is Schiff a great choice to map out this series? Are you more excited for The Mandalorian this Cassian Andor’s series more? Sound off in the comments below!