Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 4 Production Pushed Back Amid Writers' Strike

The Hollywood writers' strike has hit the galaxy far, far away. Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu returned in the third season of The Mandalorian earlier this year on Disney+, and season 4 of the live-action Star Wars series was scheduled to start filming in September. But Disney and Lucasfilm have pushed production until at least November, according to the June 1st listing of Production Weekly. The postponement comes amid the work stoppage impacting shows and films across the industry as the Writers' Guild of America strike enters its second month after failing to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers. 

Series creator and showrunner Jon Favreau confirmed in February that he's already written The Mandalorian season 4. However, television and film productions have been halting work for the duration of the strike. (The 2007-2008 WGA strike lasted 100 days.) 

"A lot of this stuff has to be thought through, built, conceived, and prepped ... That work takes time. That work has to get done ... Jon has written the scripts," series director and executive producer Rick Famuyiwa told Deadline in the latest update on season 4. "He's excited about continuing to tell stories in the world. When and how that happens, considering everything, we'll see."

Season 3, which saw Din and Bo-Katan Kryze's united Mandalorian factions reclaim Mandalore from the Imperial Moff Gideon, "was a nice culmination," Famuyiwa added. "But I'm excited about season 4. It's certainly coming, I just don't know exactly when."

In May, Lucasfilm's Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy announced he ceased "all non-writing producing functions" on the upcoming second season of the Rogue One prequel series. Two new live-action Star Wars series set within the timeline of The Mandalorian — Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew — are slated to premiere on Disney+ later this year.

Favreau previously told French outlet BFM TV that he wrote season 4 of The Mandalorian during post-production on season 3, which concluded its eight-episode season in April.

"We have to know where we're going to tell a fully formed story. We had mapped it out, [producer] Dave [Filoni] and I, and slowly you start to write each episode. I was writing it during post-production. All of it has to feel like a continuation and one full story," Favreau said. "[Dave's] doing Ahsoka, which I'm producing with him. He's the writer and showrunner on that. To understand what's happening on other shows.... Skeleton Crew all take place within the same Star Wars time period. There's a lot more things that we've got to keep in mind and also stuff that we've built up to from previous seasons of The Mandalorian as well."

The first three seasons of The Mandalorian are now streaming on Disney+. Sign up for Disney+ here.