It’s been more than three years since the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian, which means it’s been three years since we’ve gotten the weekly adventures of Din Djarin and Baby Yoda. Luckily, we don’t have to wait much longer to catch up with the beloved duo, as The Mandalorian and Grogu will take the adventures of these characters to the big screen, marking the first Star Wars movie since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Since the end of Season 3 and in the lead up to The Mandalorian and Grogu, we’ve wondered what this meant for Season 4 of the series, and now we have an answer.
The big question about the new movie was whether or not it was merely an adaptation of whatever was originally planned for a Season 4. Jon Favreau, who created The Mandalorian and directed The Mandalorian and Grogu, recently clarified the development of the franchise, explaining that Season 4 nearly brought Grand Admiral Thrawn into the picture. Season 2 of The Mandalorian saw the live-action debut of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, who was on a quest to find Thrawn, which then set up the events of Star Wars: Ahsoka.
Speaking with SFX Magazine, per GamesRadar, Favreau explained:
“You can’t just take those scripts and turn them into a movie … There were a lot of characters, it assumed you’d watched the whole show, and it was teeing up what was happening moving into [the second season of ] Ahsoka. It was about Grand Admiral Thrawn and following the larger storyline [of this era of the Star Wars timeline].”
Thrawn originally debuted in a series of Timothy Zahn novels that have now been relegated to the Legends realm of the franchise, though he was then revived for the animated series Star Wars Rebels. After various teases across a number of stories in the galaxy far, far away, he officially appeared in live-action in Ahsoka.
Rather than incorporating Thrawn into the big-screen narrative, Favreau didn’t want to overwhelm audiences who might not have seen Ahsoka and instead wanted to focus on the relationship between the titular heroes:
“This is a completely different medium … so I had to start from scratch, essentially. There were certain things I wanted to pursue, like the idea of Grogu being the Mandalorian’s apprentice. As long as you understand the archetypes of this hardened warrior with their vulnerable young apprentice, you’ll know these characters well, even if you’ve never seen the show. But there’s still a lot of Star Wars in there. You’re going to see where things are going [in the wider universe], but that doesn’t diminish from the experience of watching it as a standalone film.”
As far as a Season 4 still happening, it will likely depend on the performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu, as it has not outright been officially canceled though also not renewed.
The Mandalorian
- Release Date
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2019 – 2023-00-00
- Network
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Disney+
- Directors
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Rick Famuyiwa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dave Filoni, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed, Deborah Chow, Jon Favreau, Peter Ramsey, Robert Rodriguez, Taika Waititi, Lee Isaac Chung
