'The Mandalorian' Season 4 Is Already Written, So It's Safe To Say Lucasfilm Learned From The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Backlash
Corey Nickols. Getty Images.[Variety]
"The Mandalorian is about to launch its long-awaited third season next month, but creator Jon Favreau recently confirmed to BFM TV that scripts for Season 4 are already written and waiting to be shot. Disney and Lucasfilm have not yet officially announced a fourth season.
"'[…] Season 4, yeah I've written it already,' Favreau said. 'We have to know where we’re going to tell a fully formed story. We had mapped it out, 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.'
"[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 new, third season of Star Wars' The Mandalorian doesn't premiere on Disney+ until March 1, yet Jon Favreau has already written the entire next season. While his recent comments about it aren't necessarily a shot at how Lucasfilm managed the polarizing sequel trilogy, it does hint at the lessons learned from how the final three episodes of the Skywalker saga shook out.
What Star Wars is doing right now as a franchise isn't dissimilar to Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe (Favreau launched the MCU as director of Iron Man once upon a time). They're trying to tie together a bunch of different stories into one overarching narrative. With such a long timeline to play with of about 25 years from when The Mandalorian begins to The Force Awakens and the full rise of the First Order, these shows could go on for years. It'll be fascinating to see what the Endgame-style event is that they're building towards.
Really, the entire canon and overarching mission of the TV shows overseen by Favreau and Dave Filoni should be to make Emperor Palpatine's sudden return in The Rise of Skywalker make more sense. Papa Palps' comeback was so abrupt, mostly unexplained and not foreshadowed whatsoever in either of the prior two movies.
I trust Favreau and especially Filoni to get that shit done in satisfying fashion. Nevertheless, there's still the risk of oversaturating all of us galactic Star Wars fans with too much content. Less is sometimes more.
That hasn't stopped Disney+ from doubling down on the Mandoverse with spin-offs like Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew and the already-released The Book of Boba Fett.
Favreau obviously had Boba Fett ready to roll right on the heels of Mando Season 2. Problem is that show didn't really work. It felt a little rushed, a little underdeveloped and the best parts of it had little at all to do with the OG trilogy's beloved bounty hunter. Boba's character went through a muddled arc, punctuated by flashbacks that didn't really pay off in the story the entire season was attempting to tell.
ScreenCrush did an excellent video on the flashbacks and why they're, well, inconsistent to put it kindly.
The ruthless, badass Boba Fett who thrilled in his standalone Mandalorian episode starred in his own series, only to become a reluctant, merciful crime lord who then, at the end, decided that the whole scene on Tatooine, uh…wasn't for him…?
I agree, Temuera Morrison. It's just that…they kinda did you dirty.
And look, I'm not one to be hyperdrive critical of Star Wars. It's my favorite franchise of all-time and all the Mando-related stuff that happened in the Boba Fett show pretty much made up for its shortcomings.
However, the cliffhanger of Mando Season 2 lost a bit of its luster when Mando and Grogu reunited in The Book of Boba Fett. Favreau and the creators can rightly assume everyone watching Mando will be up to speed on what happens across the other shows a la Marvel with its TV series and movies, yet it still kind of takes the air out of what came before.
Let's just hope this whole streaming explosion and resulting Star Wars content boom isn't too hastily thrust upon the fan base. The Volume technology makes production turnaround so much faster on these Disney+ shows. That only gives the Lucasfilm Story Group more time to craft a meticulous plan and prepare as thoroughly as possible to deliver the goods during the most prolific eras of Star Wars ever. The Book of Boba Fett — and even Obi-Wan Kenobi to a lesser degree — should prove to be an important learning experience for Favreau and all involved. Overall, there's reason to think we'll be going nowhere but up from there in the Mandoverse.