According to Deadline The Mandalorian Season 4 is still in development, or so they understand; however, I can’t see it. So let’s take a look at how we got to this point shall we? As you all know yesterday it was announced that The Mandalorian and Grogu, a movie directed by Jon Favreau was coming to theatres. The movie will film this year, though no release date is yet set. How did we get from a popular TV series, to a jump to movies for Mando?

Here’s what we know, plus a little rumor. At the close of Mando Season 3, Jon Favreau told the world that the script for Season 4 of the show was already written. However, then a series of unprecedented strikes happened to cause delays to the entire industry. In the background of all this we have to remember that Disney has had a very bad year at the box office. 2023 was the first year in some time that Disney were not the most profitable studio in box office terms. There are several factors why that was the case and we cannot just use the strikes as an excuse. After all, it’s not like there were no movies, however those that did release didn’t do that well.

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Then add the small fact that one of Disney’s biggest IP’s has been absent from theatres since 2019. The Rise of Skywalker manages to implode the already unstable sequel trilogy into an unmitigated disaster. By that, I mean long term rather than short term. All three Star Wars sequels made a profit. However, we saw a huge drop off for the concluding part when compared to any other trilogy going. And since, well the reputation of that film, is that no one likes it. TLJ may have split the fanbase in two, but trying to cater to both destroyed TROS.

Many movies have been announced since 2019, but not a single one has made it to production as yet. I imagine the Disney top brass thinks that’s not a good thing.

Mando Saves The Day

Going forward it was clear that the next film supposed to film is the sequel to TROS from director Sharmeen Obiad-Chinoy. However, there’s two issues, one, the script needed a sizeable rewrite to focus more on Rey. The second is that as far as excitement goes, there just isn’t much for this Rey sequel. That’s because the sequels just didn’t engage many hardcore fans. After TFA, most people were interested in Rey’s story. Then after TLJ around 50% of the fans disliked it for a variety of reasons. As said above, this caused a panic in Lucasfilm and what they did was essentially undermine everything that happened in the previous movie. Which, pleased no one.

Now we get into rumor territory folks. According to both MSW and Bespin Bulletin, Lucasfilm had a conversation about the possibility of turning Mandalorian Season 4 into a movie instead. However, both had the feeling this would not actually happen. One of our own at LRM Shockey heard from someone he knows that this was discussed. However, Shockey was told this was the nuclear option, i.e. not the way that was necessarily planned for. For anyone who regularly watches our The Cantina show, you’ll know Shockey occasionally says what he’s heard. However, we are not a leaks site.

The next event that happened was a third (or fourth if you count us) source saying the same thing, However, this time Jeff Sneider said the movie option was going ahead. When this happened, we didn’t hear anything had changed at our end. Neither did BB who posted an article saying Season 4 was still the preferred option. Then boom, yesterday we get the announcement about The Mandalorian and Grogu. Ergo, Sneider was right, something had changed. The decision had been made to make a Mando movie.

Why Mando?

Disney needs a movie to hit that doesn’t cost the Earth to make and can guarantee them a profit. For Star Wars, they want something that they can guarantee will be a hit. It therefore makes sense (from an executive pov) to transition Season 4 into a movie. Script is already written, Jon Favreau directing is a safe pick and the cast is already in place. Mando and Grogu are also Star Wars most popular characters introduced during the Disney era. Both are far more popular than Rey or Finn for example.

However, this also means the finished script for Season 4 being retooled into a movie. Or. at east that was everyone’s assumption. Some fans pointed out the timing of a full Season isn’t far in excess of a movie. However the flow of an episode or a season compared to a movie is very different. Yet, again, they have an experienced director and writer in Favreau. It might actually work?

The point is that Disney believe they can get this movie out by early 2025 or maybe even late 2024 and make some box office bucks on popular characters. That’s my take on this news rather than some insider information.

Season 4?

Here is the direct quote from Deadline that has everyone saying the movie is it’s own thing and Season 4 is still happening.

‘It’s not yet been confirmed whether Pascal will reprise his role as the Mandalorian for the new film. At present, a fourth season of his hit series is also in development.’

The question is this. Is the movie the same story as Season 4, and would a Season 4 now be a new story that takes place after the events of the movie? Or, is Mando Season 4 kinda as is but delayed whilst Favreau makes a Mando movie he was writing/developing in secret?

At this time you could argue either option is viable without more information. However when you look at the leaks, and the story of how we got to this point, my money is on the former option. I’m not saying this goes against Deadline, because all it takes is for a Season 4 of Mando to come out someday and they were right. But my opinion, based on the evidence we have so far, is that Season 4’s story is what this movie will use, albeit redesigned.

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Is The Mandalorian Season 4 still happening? In the form it was some months ago, for me, no. I truly believe the Disney execs have done the opposite of actions they took at the launch of Disney+. Suddenly films meant for theatres were being retooled into TV series. Now Disney is taking its biggest show on Disney+ and turning it into a movie. Whether the story of Season 4 works better as a series I’ll guess is irrelevant. I’ll also guess Favreau wasn’t asked which he preferred but if he could pull off the movie option. We may never find out for sure. This does smell like an executive move for me though and not a creative choice.

What do you think, is The Mandalorian Season 4 still in development? Or is this The Mandalorian and Grogu movie the retooled story of Season 4 like we all assumed? Thoughts below as always.

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