The story of The Mandalorian and Grogu is an interesting one. The series that introduced us to both characters launched Disney Plus on an incredibly successful note and started an exciting new chapter for the Star Wars lore. The Mandalorian also skyrocketed Pedro Pascal's career to new heights while making Disney a lot of money off Grogu merchandise. And those success stories resulted in more seasons from that galaxy so far, far away.
The third season had a rougher experience, with the two-year wait, controversial celebrity cameos, and overall pacing issues resulting in a mixed response. Nevertheless, a fourth season was coming... until it wasn't. Season 4 was scrapped as Lucasfilm, Dave Filioni and Jon Favreau pivoted towards a feature film instead.
The Mandalorian and Grogu replaced plans for season 4
Although the series finale of The Mandalorian works surprisingly well as a final episode, the third season wasn't intended to be the last season of the show. The show had been renewed for a fourth season and was expected to return to Disney Plus for another run but somewhere along the lines Filoni and Favreau changed their plans. This created a bit of an interesting time for Star Wars as The Mandalorian and Grogu was announced before reports of the scrapped fourth season surfaced, so everybody was left asking where the movie fitted in.
It turns out, of course, that the film was season 4; at least in a spiritual way. Former Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy revealed to Deadline at the time that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in Hollywood led to Disney taking a new look at its plans for Star Wars, ultimately deciding that a movie was a more efficient way to tell the next chapter in the Mandalorian than another season of the TV show. Kennedy praised the show's success as an example of how the Disney Plus experiment worked, allowing Star Wars to craft new characters that resonated with fans - and that presented them with an opportunity to bring back Star Wars on the silver screen:
"We’ve actually built an audience for that, and we gave the young audience an opportunity to enter Star Wars at a different place and not feel like you have to have seen everything. It can become their Star Wars. And that, I think, is the fun storytelling challenge.”
It's true that the movie provides an entry point into the Mandalorian saga without needing to see the original series. It's structured in a way that feels entirely like a standalone, without much reference to the continuity of what came before. The Mandalorian lore is barely mentioned and none of his fellow Mandalorians - not even The Armorer - appear. While Mando is still in contact with his allies and friends from the show, he relies on the movie's New Republic allies instead - like Sigourney Weaver's character, who is exclusive to this movie and didn't appear in the original show. And this makes it easier for new fans to watch - younger fans, perhaps - who aren't familiar with the Disney Plus series.
But now that The Mandalorian and Grogu has arrived in theaters and it looks set to turn a profit for Disney, the question that comes to mind is: What's next for The Mandalorian franchise? Will Din Djarin and Grogu return to screens in the near-future? And if so, which one?
The Mando-Verse will continue (for now)
Once upon a time, the Mando-Verse was considered the future of the Star Wars franchise. The Mandalorian was insanely success for Disney Plus and actually launched a new chapter for the franchise in a way that its standalone movie spinoffs could not. This led to a second and third season, as well as more Star Wars shows on the streamer. The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew, in particular, are spinoffs of the Mando-Verse, adding new chapters to the ongoing story. The first two feature characters who directly interact with The Mandalorian and Grogu themselves.
The Book of Boba Fett was seen as something of a misstep due to its second half essentually becoming another season of The Mandalorian while the third season of that parent series received mixed reviews. Ahsoka was generally well-received but there were concerns that it was venturing into too niche of a territory for the franchise while Skeleton Crew was critically-acclaimed but also the least-watched Star Wars series on the streamer. Those mixed feelings, along with the movie treatment for The Mandalorian have made the future of the Mando-Verse storyline seem a little more uncertain than ever before.
The good news is that there is hope. The Mando-Verse continues in 2027 with Ahsoka season 2. Although the spinoff was initially hoped to return this year, Lucasfilm has decided to hold it until next year, and hopes are high that it will succeed. Rosario Dawson's Jedi Knight is a fan-favorite character and it will undoubtedly be great to see another chapter in this corner of the franchise stream back on its Disney Plus home. The question is: What happens after that?
There have been long-standing plans to wrap up this entire ongoing storyline in a Mando-Verse movie from Dave Filoni, but it's unclear as to whether that is actually still happening. The Hollywood Reporter revealed a number of months ago that it has been "put on the backburner" for the moment, with its immediate future unclear. There has been speculation that it has been quietly cancelled, but with Filoni taking over from Kathleen Kennedy as Lucasfilm president it could just be that he now has a lot to juggle.
Right now, The Mandalorian and Grogu is performing well at the box office, coming in above projections. It's not enough to guarantee the immediate direction of the Star Wars franchise (which has been somewhat unclear due to the overexposure via all the Disney Plus shows) but it probably has guaranteed the future of Pedro Pascal's Mandalorian and the child known as "Baby Yoda". Whether that's in a direct sequel, crossover movie, or even a revived fourth season, we don't know. But, for the time being, we have at least one more Mando-Verse story on the horizon in Ahsoka season 2.
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