In February 2023, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau confirmed he’d already finished scripts for Season 4. Later that year, at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm confirmed this was part of an ongoing story that would culminate in a “Mandoverse” era movie by Dave Filoni, George Lucas’ protege. Then, almost a year later, plans changed; Lucasfilm announced The Mandalorian and Grogu, a new Star Wars movie featuring Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and Grogu. The general assumption was that Favreau, director of the movie, had simply adjusted the Season 4 scripts for the big screen.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Speaking to SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar), Favreau has now revealed that’s not the case. “You can’t just take those scripts and turn them into a movie,” he observed. “There were a lot of characters, it assumed you’d watched the whole show, and it was teeing up what was happening moving into [the second season of ] Ahsoka. It was about Grand Admiral Thrawn and following the larger storyline [of this era of the Star Wars timeline].”
“This is a completely different medium,” Favreau continued, “so I had to start from scratch, essentially. There were certain things I wanted to pursue, like the idea of Grogu being the Mandalorian’s apprentice. As long as you understand the archetypes of this hardened warrior with their vulnerable young apprentice, you’ll know these characters well, even if you’ve never seen the show. But there’s still a lot of Star Wars in there. You’re going to see where things are going [in the wider universe], but that doesn’t diminish from the experience of watching it as a standalone film.”
Lucasfilm Made the Right Call (But It Has Major Implications For Star Wars)
The Mandalorian and Grogu is aimed at a wider audience, just as it should be. The central pitch isn’t “You’ve watched them on Disney+, now see them on the big screen.” Rather, Star Wars’ new movie – which releases on May 22 – will hopefully bring in viewers who never subscribed to Disney+, but who bought the cute Grogu merchandise and like the idea of seeing him in theaters. There are sure to be Easter eggs galore for the hardcore fandom, but the design is different.
The whole point is to reduce the barriers to entry. It’s reasonable to assume anybody watching Season 4 of a Star Wars TV show is fairly committed, and has (at the least) watched the previous three seasons. In contrast, The Mandalorian and Grogu needs to serve as a “jumping-on point” for new viewers. That means less prior knowledge can be assumed. The Star Wars film’s final trailer struck just the right note, treating Din Djarin and Grogu as legends viewers haven’t actually met yet, and smartly establishing the character’s status quo. It carefully established the stakes as well as the core relationships.
For the fandom, though, the interesting question is whether this signifies an even more significant change in direction for Lucasfilm. The “Mandoverse” plans announced at Star Wars Celebration were bold, focused on the idea of transmedia – connectivity between multiple mediums. All the signs suggest Lucasfilm has dialed down that connectivity, even though the studio is bringing small-screen characters to the big screen. Again, this seems like a smart call; popular culture appears to be pivoting away from that approach, leading to filmmakers like Christopher Nolan speculating we’re now in a post-franchise era.
Looking forward, it’s important to note we haven’t heard anything about Dave Filoni’s Star Wars movie in quite a while. In fact, Filoni himself has moved on to a different role in Lucasfilm, taking over as co-president. It’s true that James Gunn made Superman even in a similar role, but Gunn is an experienced filmmaker and this would have been Filoni’s first feature film. It’s quite possible the ongoing Grand Admiral Thrawn plot will, in fact, be mostly reserved for TV shows like Ahsoka – with The Mandalorian and Grogu (and, hopefully, future movies) blazing a new trail.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Image courtesy of Netflix -
Cartoon Network
