Upcoming Star Wars film The Mandalorian & Grogu seems to have a surprisingly small production budget, and that might confirm the fears some fans have about the project. The California Film Commission recently published a chart of movie and TV projects that are eligible for tax breaks in the state. The Mandalorian & Grogu is one of the titles featured, with roughly $166.4 million in “qualified expenditures” listed. Lucasfilm received a credit of around $21.7 million for shooting in California. Other interesting tidbits mentioned include The Mandalorian & Grogu filming for 92 days in the state, with 54 cast members and 500 crew members hired.
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This means The Mandalorian & Grogu is the least-expensive Star Wars film produced in the franchise’s Disney era by far. The three installments in the sequel trilogy had gargantuan budgets; The Force Awakens cost $245 million, The Last Jedi cost $317 million, and The Rise of Skywalker cost $275 million. Both anthology films, which encountered their fair share of behind the scenes issues during production weren’t cheap either. Rogue One had a price tag of $200 million, while Solo cost $275 million.
Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian & Grogu is the cinematic continuation of the hit Disney+ TV series The Mandalorian. It is set to hit theaters in May 2026 and will be the first new Star Wars movie since 2019. Though the release date is still over a year away as of this writing, production reportedly wrapped in October 2024.
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The Mandalorian & Grogu is set to be the subject of one of the premier panels during Star Wars Celebration Japan in April, where Favreau and Dave Filoni will offer teases of what’s in store. Plot details for the film are being kept under wraps, though it’s known Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White are part of the cast. Recently, Bo-Katan actress Katee Sackhoff played coy about her possible role in the movie.
On one hand, a $166.4 million budget for The Mandalorian & Grogu is refreshing. A strong case can be made that production costs for studio tentpoles are unnecessarily bloated, which puts extra pressure on films to perform at the box office. If The Mandalorian & Grogu‘s price tag really is this low, Lucasfilm should have no trouble recouping its investment and turning a healthy profit. That said, this could be an indication that production primarily took place on The Volume soundstage pioneered for Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian. While The Volume is a highly impressive piece of technology that can be a very useful tool for filmmakers, it does have its limitations. Notably, actors are stuck to a confined space, which can put restrictions on camera movement. There’s a noticeable difference between something that was shot on location (like Andor) and made heavy use of The Volume.
It would be a shame if The Mandalorian & Grogu, positioned as Star Wars’ big return to theaters, didn’t have the scale and scope fans have come to expect from the franchise’s big-screen adventures. Though The Mandalorian features some standout action sequences, The Volume is arguably better suited for the TV medium as opposed to the larger canvas of a theater screen. Relying too heavily on the technology could affect the film’s overall impact. It’s to be expected that Favreau and Co. made use of The Volume on The Mandalorian & Grogu, but hopefully the final product feels like a full-blown Star Wars film instead of an extended episode of television.
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