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The force has definitely been strong this summer for Star Wars fans as the highly-anticipated live-action series Star Wars: Ahsoka finally arrived on Tuesday (Aug. 22). We weren’t just treated with one episode either as Disney+ treated fans with a two-episode premiere.

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Anakin Skywalker before he became the Sith lord Darth Vader trained a Padawan of his own: Ahsoka Tano (played by Rosario Dawson). Her history has remained a mystery for those who don’t know the deep lore of Star Wars, but now fans new and old can watch it unfold on the screen. The series follows the former Jedi after the fall of the who begins to investigate a new force threatening to takeover an already fragile galaxy. Super fans can also expect a visit from Hayden Christensen who will reprise his role as Skywalker — though you’ll have to tune in to see if it’s as Darth Vader or not.

The show is executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau who have worked on previous Star Wars series including The Mandalorian. Other cast members include Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Diana Lee Inosanto, Ivanna Sakhno, Ray Stevenson, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen and Eman Esfandi.

Keep reading to learn the streaming options to watch Star Wars: Ahsoka online for free.

When & How to Watch Star Wars: Ahsoka

Star Wars: Ahsoka premieres on Tuesday (Aug. 22) and will have a total of eight episodes that will air every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. The series is a Disney+ Original, which means that it’s exclusive to the streaming platform. If you’re already subscribed, then you can watch the series for free for no additional cost — just sign into your Disney+ account and find it under the Star Wars collection or “recently added” sections.

Not subscribed? Disney+ doesn’t typically offer free trials but there are a few budget-friendly ways to save and at least one promo that will get you a free subscription for up to six months. Disney+ provides various plan options depending on your budget and needs with the basic plan being $7.99/month (or $79.99/year) with ads.

Disney+ $Starting at $7.99/month

Love a good bundle? You can combine Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+, which will expand your library of offerings and is only $12.99/month with ads and $19.99/month with no ads.

Along with Star Wars: Ahsoka, you’ll find thousands of hours worth of movies and TV series including Peter Pan & Wendy, Muppets Mayhem, Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All, J-Hope in the Box, SUGA Road to D-Day, The Prouder Family: Louder & Prouder, WandaVision, Andor, Loki, The Book of Boba Fett, The Beatles Get Back, The Simpsons, Welcome to Earth and Called to the Wild are included in the massive Disney+ streaming library.

Looking for more money saving options? Right now, Verizon customers can get the Disney+ Bundle for $10/month with Verizon’s MyPlan, which can help save up to $4.99/month. The best part? You can toggle off perks each month and only pay for what you use.

Disney+ is considered the dedicated streaming destination for must-watch, commercial free content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. You can also enjoy the ever-expanding streaming library in stunning 4K and download titles to watch on the go. Stream on up to four different devices simultaneously on your TV, laptop, smartphone, notebook or tablet device — or host a virtual movie night with up to six friends via GroupWatch.

Check below to watch the trailer for Star Wars: Ahsoka.

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Source: Variety / Getty
Controversial sportscaster, Sage Steele, is officially a free agent after settling her lawsuit with ESPN after being suspended by the network for her public comments previously made on an outside podcast about getting vaccinated, how women dress, and former President Barack Obama’s lineage.

Taking to social media, Steele, who joined ESPN in 2007, announced that she recently settled a lawsuit with her employer after she was suspended in 2021 for the problematic comments.

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“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” Steele said. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”
As noted previously reported, in a 2022 lawsuit, Steele charged the companies had breached her contract and violated her free-speech rights; alleging that Disney and ESPN retaliated against her for the comments she made during the podcast, hosted by Jay Cutler, taking away high-profile assignments.
An ESPN spokesperson confirmed her departure in a statement to CNN, noting that the decision to depart was mutual.
“ESPN and Sage Steele have mutually agreed to part ways. We thank her for her many contributions over the years,” the network said.
As previously reported, in 2021, Steele made a number of controversial comments on a podcast. While talking about ESPN’s company vaccine mandate, Steele said she respects an individual’s decision to get the Covid-19 vaccine “but to mandate it is sick, and it’s scary to me.”
In addition to questioning mandates, she also questioned former President, Barack Obama’s, decision to identify as Black on the national census, saying:
“I’m like, ‘Well, congratulations to the president.’ That’s his thing. I think that’s fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found, but his White mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I’m going to do me.”
Steele also trended heavily that year, for the comments she made regarding female sports reporters and sexual harassment, saying that women need to “be responsible” and it “isn’t just on players and athletes and coaches to act a certain way, saying:

“I’ve had talks with young women … they’re like, ‘Oh, would you look at my tape?’ and I’ve said listen, I would love to. But the way you present yourself is not something I want to be associated with. So when you dress like that, I’m not saying you deserve the gross comments, but you know what you’re doing when you’re putting that outfit on, too.”
As noted by CNN, in response, Steele apologized saying her comments “created controversy” and that “we are in the midst of an extremely challenging time that impacts all of us, and it’s more critical than ever that we communicate constructively and thoughtfully.”

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Three months after the release of the live-action Little Mermaid movie starring Halle Bailey, we now know who will bring the famous mermaid and her underwater pals to life once more in the upcoming animated series based on the film, Disney Junior’s Ariel. Disney Junior announced Friday (Aug. 18) that 11-year-old actress Mykal-Michelle Harris (Raven’s […]

On the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Aug. 5), Ryan Gosling scored his first appearance, as “I’m Just Ken,” from the new Barbie movie, in which he stars with Margot Robbie, debuted at No. 87.

Notably, the song isn’t Gosling’s first foray into music. He charted once before, with “City of Stars,” from his 2016 film La La Land. His solo version spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Jazz Digital Song Sales chart, while a mix with co-star Emma Stone reached No. 8 on the Hot 100’s Bubbling Under ranking.

But before that, Gosling broke through at age 13 as a member of The Disney Channel’s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club revival, which ran for seven seasons (1989-94). He starred in the show’s final two seasons, performing song and dance numbers alongside several future Billboard hitmakers.

In total, four separate iterations of the Mickey Mouse show franchise have aired. The original series, The Mickey Mouse Club, aired on ABC in 1955-59, followed by The New Mickey Mouse Club (syndicated; 1977-79), The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (The Disney Channel; 1989-94) and Club Mickey Mouse (Facebook, Instagram; 2017-18).

Of every Mouseketeer over the show’s four iterations, spanning over 60 years, 15 of have charted songs on the Hot 100. Gosling now becomes the 15th.

Here’s a look at every cast member from every edition of the series to chart a song on the Hot 100, listed chronologically from when they first reached the ranking.

(Honorable mention to Rhona Bennett, who appeared on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1991-94 and is currently a member of En Vogue. She joined the R&B group in 2003, after it charted all 14 songs of its Hot 100 hits.)

Annette Funicello

If you ever wanted to see the Avengers’ Captain America and Nick Fury sing and dance their way through a mini-musical about Cap’s life, well, it’s time to head to Disneyland.
Disney and Marvel have teamed up for Rogers: The Musical, a half-hour stage show at Disney California Adventure’s Hyperion Theater in Anaheim, Calif., that premiered on Friday (June 30).

The new one-act show – which is full of goofy humor and a range of musical styles – grew out of a brief sequence in an episode of the Disney+ series Hawkeye in 2021. In the show, the title character (an Avenger himself, played by Jeremy Renner) attends a showing of Rogers: The Musical, and the song “Save the City” is performed by characters playing Avengers. Both the musical and “Save the City” became fan favorites, with the latter generating just over 1 million on-demand official streams in the U.S., according to Luminate.

Billboard got a sneak peek at the new production the day before its premiere, which was followed by a panel discussion with the show’s creative team.

“We were like every fan,” said Dan Fields, executive creative director, Disney Live Entertainment during the panel. “We saw [‘Save the City’] and said, ‘I want to see the rest of it! I want to see all of Rogers: The Musical!’ But then we realized, ‘Hey, we’re Disney Live Entertainment, we can do that!’ So that’s what we set out to do.”

Fans will be happy to know: “Save the City” appears in full in the real-world Rogers: The Musical production, along with seven other musical numbers.

Rogers: The Musical is scheduled to run through Aug. 31 at Disney California Adventure. It’s the first show at the nearly 2,000-seat Hyperion in more than three years, since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down its previous production, Frozen – Live at the Hyperion, on March 14, 2020. Nothing has been announced by Disney if Rogers: The Musical will be staged in other Disney Parks or properties (such as Disney Cruise Line).

In Rogers: The Musical, we follow Steve “Captain America” Rogers over 70-plus years – from his origin as a scrawny soldier-turned-beefy superhero in the 1940s through his teaming with the rest of the Avengers and his long-simmering love story with Peggy Carter. The show’s book was written by Hunter Bell, while Christopher Lennertz is the musical’s composer, conductor and arranger.

“[It] was really important to all of us, [show creator and director] Jordan [Peterson] and Hunter and I … to give everyone — both musical theater fans and superhero fans — something they would love about the music,” Lennertz said. “And the fact that we get to span 70 years and do everything from ‘40s-style big band jazz to a singer/songwriter style pop tune and obviously the Nick Fury patter song meets ‘Uptown Funk’ — it’s the idea of giving everyone something that they can grab onto and really feel like it’s part of their story too.”

The Nick Fury patter song Lennertz calls out is the tune “What You Missed,” in which Fury explains – through song and dance – to a just-awakened Rogers (who has been asleep for 70 years but hasn’t aged) what’s happened over the last seven decades.

Dave Bushore, vice president of franchise creative and marketing, Marvel Studios, recalled during the panel a memorable moment when he and Fields presented a preliminary version of Rogers: The Musical to Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios.

Bushore said, “We’re sitting in Kevin’s office, me and Dan…” Fields: “And Kevin says, ‘Nick Fury sings? That should be on the billboard!’ He said, ‘Embrace that, lean into that!’”

Rogers: The Musical

Sean Teegarden/Disneyland Resort

In addition to the show’s songs, theatergoers will be treated to pre-show music piped in from an onstage radio. It plays period-appropriate jazzy tunes, including a song that references “Elias & Co.,” a store inside Disney California Adventure, named after Walt Disney’s middle name, Elias. There’s no word on if any of the music from the show (including the pre-show selections) will be released commercially or through streaming services.

With Rogers: The Musical bringing a stage show back to the Hyperion after more than three years, it’s another way visitors to the park – often young fans – will get to experience live musical theater, perhaps for the first time.

“For a lot of people who come to our parks, they may not have had a lot of experience coming to theater — to traditional theater,” said Fields. “But here’s an opportunity to combine a love of theater with a love of superheroes right here in a theme park. This is a real show for families, whether you already knew the story of Steve Rogers or not. So hopefully everyone’s found something to enjoy in the show.”

TikTok COO V. Pappas is stepping down to “move on and refocus on my entrepreneurial passions,” they announced on Thursday (June 22nd) in an email to the company they subsequently shared on Twitter.

“To our amazing community of creators, employees, and people who have made TikTok ‘the last sunny spot on the internet,’ it has been an absolute privilege to serve you all and to be a part of this once in a lifetime journey,” they tweeted.

TikTok’s chief of staff, Adam Presser, will take over operations, according to a staff email from CEO Shou Chew. “He will seek to further develop the voices of TikTok’s vibrant and diverse ecosystem and drive closer cross-divisional strategic planning and collaboration, in an effort to bring to life our mission of inspiring creativity and bringing joy to people by nurturing and supporting creators, users, and partners worldwide,” Chew wrote. 

In addition, Zenia Mucha will join the company as chief brand and communications officer. Mucha previously served for two decades at Disney before departing the company in 2021. She “will focus on advancing the strategic vision of our brand and advising key businesses,” Chew explained. “It is essential that we widen the aperture of our marketing and communications functions to further fortify TikTok as a beloved brand and one of the most trusted entertainment platforms in the world,” he added. “With Zenia’s vast expertise and deep experience, we are well positioned to do so effectively.”

Pappas, a former YouTube executive — the company’s first audience development lead, the author of The YouTube Creator Playbook, and the developer of YouTube’s Creator Academy and channel certification program — initially joined TikTok in 2018. 

“Five years ago when I was first approached by TikTok, I was incredibly inspired by the product vision to be a new mobile-first video experience that serves as a canvas, bridge and window for everyone,” they wrote in their goodbye letter. “The pitch was to take on a role to transform and grow the product and broaden its appeal through developing diverse communities and content… I took a gamble on what was then a completely unknown company and product.”

Pappas then stepped into the interim global CEO role after Kevin Mayer departed suddenly in 2020. 

The days of TikTok being “unknown” are of course long gone; much of the music industry now focuses on the platform to market artists and find new ones to sign.

“Five years later, we have grown to a global team of thousands of people and I believe we have achieved our goal to innovate and define an entirely new experience for people to share, create, and be entertained,” Pappas noted. “Today I stand proud that we deliver a product that resonates with over 1 billion people around the world. TikTok is now a household name.”

According to Pappas’ letter, they will be “taking on an advisory role” during the transition period.

Time to say goodbye to East High. Disney Branded Television and Disney+ revealed the teaser trailer on Wednesday (June 21) for the fourth and final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The fourth season will see a bunch […]

Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid has been garnering box-office success and strong soundtrack streaming tallies alike, and the new version of the 1989 classic can now add another accolade. On Tuesday (June 13), Disney Branded Television announced that it greenlit a new animated series titled Disney Junior’s Ariel inspired by Halle Bailey‘s Ariel. […]

The soundtrack to the new live action The Little Mermaid film jumps 4-1 on Billboard’s Soundtracks chart (dated June 10), while also surging 103-21 on the overall Billboard 200 chart. On the latter tally, the new set swims past the peak of the original soundtrack to the 1989 animated The Little Mermaid, which topped out […]

To celebrate the release of Disney’s live-action film The Little Mermaid, the Billboard staff put together a list of the top 100 Disney songs. Here are the top five! TETRIS  It’s safe to say that pretty much everyone has heard a Disney song in their lifetime … there are hundreds of them. To celebrate the release of Disneys’ […]