LucasfilmThere’s a lot of anticipation surrounding The Mandalorian and Grogu, however tentative, because of what the film represents to the Star Wars saga. It’s the first big-screen adventure the franchise has offered fans in seven years; if all goes to plan, it’ll keep the door open for the other films coming down the pipeline. But Din Djarin and Grogu’s lightspeed jump into theaters might also represent the closing of a door.
These characters did, after all, get their start on Disney+. The Mandalorian delivered three well-received seasons, and almost got a fourth — one that, according to director Jon Favreau, would have set up the ongoing conflict in another Star Wars series, Ahsoka. But somewhere between Mando’s Season 4 renewal, the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the WGA strikes, Lucasfilm opted to retool the show into a more standalone story.Per Favreau, that retool took a lot of work.
The scripts for the entire fourth season of Mando were already written, and, as he explained in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, “You can’t just take those scripts and turn them into a movie.” Naturally, it picked up like the fourth season of any TV show would: “it assumed you’d watched the whole show, and it was teeing up what was happening moving into [the second season of] Ahsoka.” More importantly, it would have featured Ahsoka’s Big Bad, Grand Admiral Thrawn, as a growing threat to this corner of the galaxy.Din and Grogu’s adventures could officially be coming to an end. | LucasfilmBack then, Lucasfilm was working towards an Avengers-inspired team-up film that would have integrated the events of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and maybe even The Book of Boba Fett. There’s still a chance that team-up might happen, but changing the scope of Din and Grogu’s story might also have changed their future.
In short, this could be the end of The Mandalorian as we knew it.Favreau has continuously stressed that The Mandalorian and Grogu is meant to be a standalone adventure. The director claimed that it’s more like the first season of a new show than a spinoff of a long-running one — and that might not just be lip service. Favreau is adamant about bringing new fans into this world, even those who’ve never seen The Mandalorian.
“There’s still a lot of Star Wars in there,” he told SFX, “but that doesn’t diminish from the experience of watching it as a standalone film.”The Mandalorian and Grogu’s importance to the larger galaxy, however, might be diminishing instead. Compared to Ahsoka Season 2 — which Favreau says is dealing with the Imperial Remnant on “a higher level” — the stakes in The Mandalorian and Grogu are much lower. “This is more of a ground-level experience of what’s going on,” he says of the film.
“You’re seeing the backdrop.” Ahsoka has “grabbed the baton” from The Mandalorian, for better or worse. | LucasfilmWhere The Mandalorian once had a major responsibility to push this new Star Wars era forward, Favreau claims that Ahsoka has since “grabbed the baton” and will be “taking the next step” towards the major conflict with Thrawn. Din and Grogu are now free to continue on their one-off adventures, more or less, with minor obligations to the larger galaxy. Still, we shouldn’t expect another season of The Mandalorian after this.
With the dynamic duo leaping onto the big screen, the genie is effectively out of the bottle. Retooling Season 4 into a feature film created a kind of branched reality, and it’s hard to say how much of a future Din and Grogu have in it. As Ahsoka takes the reins to further set up a Thrawn-centric adventure, The Mandalorian and Grogu is starting to feel more like the end of the road for its titular heroes.
There’s every chance that they’ll continue to pop up as the fight against the Imperial Remnant heats up. As for their solo adventure, however, it sounds like Lucasfilm is quietly pruning the timeline to make room for Ahsoka and Thrawn.The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on May 22.