Although it's largely believed that the Star Wars franchise will move on from The Mandalorian after 2026's The Mandalorian and Grogu, creator Jon Favreau has recently provided hope for fans of the show. If the upcoming movie is a success, there could be more episodic adventures from Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin and his tiny green son. At the very least, Favreau is unusually prepared for the show's future, considering its readiness to hit a perfect stopping point.
Favreau worked in close collaboration with Dave Filoni to make The Mandalorian, with both men among the key writers and directors for the show. The upcoming movie has been written by both Favreau and Filoni, but only the former will be in the director's chair. That said, Filoni is still receiving a producer's credit. Should the feature-length project perform beyond Disney's wildest dreams, then it's not unreasonable to assume that we will see its characters again.
Jon Favreau has already written The Mandalorian season 4
The 2026 movie will be set after The Mandalorian season 3 finale, but Favreau's original plan was to keep the show going with season 4 instead. It was then decided that a feature-length sequel was the better option. Speaking with Empire Magazine (via Fiction Horizon), Favreau talked about season 4 initially being on the cards: "I had actually written all that. I still have season 4 sitting on my desk here."
Despite how prepared Favreau was for another batch of episodes to get the green light, the decision was made to reverse course. Rather than taking The Mandalorian season 4 and adapting it for the big screen, Favreau and company started from scratch. The director has explained that there is a "larger throw to the whole thing" rather than a serialized storyline like the show.
Will The Mandalorian season 4 happen?
At the moment, it very much seems as though the plan to continue the Mandalorian franchise as a television series has been abandoned in favor of the movie. However, the Star Wars show has been such a hit for Disney that it's not entirely impossible that The Mandalorian season 4 will be put into production at some point down the line. If the movie is a huge success, it almost seems foolish to bring the saga to an end in 2026.
Of course, the possibility of season 4 also depends on what actually happens in The Mandalorian and Grogu. While the death of a Star Wars character is rare, and even less commonly is it permanent, if something were to happen to either of the movie's main characters, then continuing the show wouldn't be a viable option. Besides, even if season 4 does get a thumbs-up from Disney, Favreau's finished scripts would likely need rewriting. By his own admission, the movie's script was built from the ground up, and didn't take his season 4 ideas into account.
So, if The Mandalorian season 4 does end up being nothing more than a stack of discarded scripts, those proposed additions to the show's universe may never see the light of day. I'd find this incredibly frustrating, despite the fact that we're getting a movie from the same writer. With any luck, this can be avoided by the scripts perhaps being reworked for comics, novels, or other canon Star Wars media.
Star Wars' current direction suggests a move away from TV overall
What makes The Mandalorian season 4 even less likely, regardless of The Mandalorian and Grogu's level of success, is the franchise's recent focus on returning to the big screen. The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first of multiple upcoming Star Wars movies, and the first since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker — which, while profitable, was divisive at best. Since then, the saga's reputation has been slowly rebuilt via Disney+ TV shows set within the Star Wars universe.
With Star Wars being in its best shape in years, the timing seems perfect for the space opera to reclaim its rightful place in movie theaters. There was a time when Star Wars movies were landmark occasions, and upcoming projects like The Mandalorian and Grogu, Starfighter, and New Jedi Order all give the franchise a great chance of a return to form in this respect.
On the other hand, there's now a generation of Star Wars fans who associate the franchise far more with its small-screen presence than anything else. Leaving this era behind would arguably be a misguided move, as weekly Star Wars content has become one of the highlights of being a Disney+ subscriber. While this doesn't guarantee that The Mandalorian season 4 will be put into production, it would make sense if Star Wars' most successful show were permitted to continue being made after Din Djarin's big-screen debut.
The Mandalorian and Grogu premieres in cinemas on May 22, 2026.