The Mandalorian was the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV show. The third and most recent season ended in 2023. Next up is a movie called The Mandalorian & Grogu, due out on May 22 of next year.
Does this mean that the main show is over? We don't have official word from Disney, but it's feeling that way. Writing on his Patreon, Hollywood scoop hound Daniel Richtman shared the show will not continue beyond the fourth season.
Mind you, this is just a rumor, but it does match the general vibe. When talking about why his show Star Wars: Andor ended after just two seasons, showrunner Tony Gilroy remembers that Disney told him, essentially, "Streaming is dead, we don’t have the money we had before." Once upon a time, streaming services like Disney+ couldn't throw enough money at shows like The Mandalorian as it tried to build up its subscriber base. Then came the pandemic and then the Hollywood strikes of 2023, and the streamers started to rethink things. Budgets are shrinking and studios want to see returns on their investments, rather than pouring money into long-term projects that might not bear fruit for years into the future.
Considering all this, it's easy to imagine The Mandalorian no longer fitting into Disney's plan. But Star Wars movies do. “If [The Mandalorian & Grogu] movie succeeds, a sequel will be made," Richtman writes. "However, if it flops, it will serve as the final chapter for Mando and could also put [Dave] Filoni’s movie at risk.”
Dave Filoni is the current creative steward of the Star Wars universe. In the past he worked a lot on animated shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels; characters from those shows eventually made their way into The Mandalorian. One of those characters, Ahsoka Tano, now has her own series.
And sometime down the line, Filoni hopes to make a movie where these characters all cross over with other...if the upcoming second season of Ahsoka and The Mandalorian & Grogu are big enough hits to warrant continuing down this particular road.
Things are changing. Personally, I wish The Mandalorian had continued telling largely standalone adventures without any of the characters from Filoni's animated series coming in, but that ship has sailed. We'll keep a watch and see how things go in the galaxy far, far away.
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h/t Tom's Guide