Star Wars: New Reports Emerge About ‘The Mandalorian’ Episode Runtimes

The first live-action series in the Star Wars saga will debut later this year with Star Wars: The Mandalorian, a series which is still mostly shrouded in mystery. A new report from Making Star Wars claims that each of the first season’s episodes will clock in at around 45 minutes in length.

The site reads, “I have been hearing for some time there will be eight episodes in the vicinity of 40-45 minutes each.”

This rumored length would put the series in line with many network series’ episode lengths, so it comes as a surprise that the rumored runtimes wouldn’t be closer to 60 minutes, which falls more in line with premium format series. Whether it be any of Netflix’s Marvel series or HBO’s Game of Thrones, not having to cater to commercial breaks have allowed these larger productions to deliver audiences more bang for their buck with episodes lasting closer to 60 minutes each. Additionally, some of the more eventful episodes of such series have run closer to 75 minutes to accommodate the action.

After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

The series will star Pedro Pascal (Narcos), Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), and Nick Nolte (Warrior).

While the runtime of each episode might come as a disappointment to some, co-director of Avengers: Infinity War previously teased that the spectacle of the series will deliver fans unexpected surprises.

“It’s amazing. We went down there to say hi to [producer] Jon [Favreau]. Taika [Waititi] was directing an episode, so we went to hang out with them,” Russo shared with an audience at a Collider fan screening of Infinity War. “Jon is always at the forefront of cutting edge tech, and he is shooting this in a way that no one has ever shot anything ever before. It’s pretty astounding.”

The series is coming to Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, which will launch later this year. It is unclear if the series will debut similarly to a Netflix model, with all episodes of a season debuting at once, or if episodes will debut on the service on a weekly basis.

Stay tuned for details about Star Wars: The Mandalorian.

Are these episode lengths shorter than you anticipated? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!