The Mandalorian Director Says Season 3 Is a "Culmination" of Star Wars Plans

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are chapters of a Star Wars story that began with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) meeting The Child: Grogu. And in season 3 — about the unmasked and disavowed Din's pilgrimage to Mandalore with the Force-strong foundling in tow — that journey is coming to a head, according to directing-producer Rick Famuyiwa. In an interview with Deadline at Tuesday's premiere of The Mandalorian season 3 (streaming March 1st on Disney+), Famuyiwa teased a pay-off to "seeds" planted back in Mando's first season in 2019. 

"The storytelling that Jon [Favreau] has been spearheading from the very beginning has been slowly, each season, each project, leading us to this. Leading us to the third season," Famuyiwa said. "And so I think there are a lot of seeds that are planted that are growing and culminating in this season, so I feel that's partly the feeling — the sense of things culminating. This really feels like a third act in some ways, even though there's lots of stories to tell."

Famuyiwa added, "But that's the feeling that I have: you feel like you've been on a journey with these characters, and that journey is certainly coming to a head this season."

The Dope and The Chi filmmaker has served as a director on the series since the season 1 episode "Chapter 2: The Child," and joins Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson as an executive producer on season 3. Favreau has already written season 4 to fit with other Star Wars shows set within the timeline of The Mandalorian: the upcoming Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. 

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"We have to know where we're going to tell a fully-formed story. We had mapped it out, Dave [Filoni] and I, and then slowly, you just write each episode. Because all of it has to feel like a continuation and one full story," Favreau recently told BFM TV. "Then he's doing Ahsoka, which I'm producing with him, but he's the writer-showrunner on that. And so to understand what's happening on other shows, or even Skeleton Crew, all take place in the same Star Wars time period."

In plotting out this post-Return of the Jedi era of The New Republic, Favreau said, "There's a lot more things that we have to keep in mind and stuff that we've built up to in previous seasons of The Mandalorian, as well." That includes key plot points that took place during the Boba Fett spinoff, including Din and Grogu's reunion after the child's short-lived Jedi training under master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

Starring Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Carl Weathers, Amy Sedaris, Emily Swallow and Giancarlo Esposito, new episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian season 3 are streaming Wednesdays on Disney+.

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