After a brief detour into The Book Of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian returned properly with its third season last year.
READ MORE: ‘The Mandalorian’ season three first look review: Baby Yoda’s back
The Star Wars spin-off first aired in 2019 with a second season following in 2020. Going from strength to strength, The Mandalorian was renewed for season three the same year.
“The journeys of the Mandalorian through the Star Wars galaxy continue. Once a lone bounty hunter, Din Djarin has reunited with Grogu,” read a synopsis. “Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. The Mandalorian will cross paths with old allies and make new enemies as he and Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) continue their journey together.”
As well as teeing up a few more spin-offs, The Mandalorian season three gave the Galaxy’s shiniest bounty hunter something of a happy ending and resolved a number of sprawling plot points. Will the pair be returning for season four? Here’s what we know…
Has The Mandalorian season 4 been confirmed?
Nope, but a movie has
‘The Mandalorian’ season 3. CREDIT: Disney
Disney and Lucasfilm haven’t officially announced that The Mandalorian will be returning for a fourth season but it remains one of Disney+’s biggest shows.
What started off as a standalone tale quickly inspired a number of spin-off shows including Ashoka and Boba Fett, with Baby Yoda and Din Djarin also having ties to the mainline Star Wars movies thanks to an encounter with Luke Skywalker. Because of this, Lucasfilms has confirmed a Mandalorian film is in the works.
“Directed by Jon Favreau, and produced by Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, and Dave Filoni, The Mandalorian & Grogu will go into production in 2024,” read the announcement.
“I have loved telling stories set in the rich world that George Lucas created,” said Favreau. “The prospect of bringing the Mandalorian and his apprentice Grogu to the big screen is extremely exciting.”
It comes after Favreau confirmed work on a season four of The Mandalorian had begun while season three was in post-production. “We have to know where we’re going to tell a fully formed story,“ he explained, with the different chapters of the Mandalorian universe needing to feel like “a continuation and one full story.”
“La saison 4 est déjà écrite”
On a croisé @Jon_Favreau avec @clairefleury1.
On a parlé de la saison 3 #TheMandalorian, de la saison 4 aussi, de #Ahsoka, #SkeletonCrew #StarWars #Grogu @BFMTV_Inside pic.twitter.com/qCrkxVBHeZ
— 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐫 (@lenicolasbehar) February 20, 2023
So, no more The Mandalorian?
Don’t be so quick to draw a line under these adventures
The end of The Mandalorian season three saw Din Djarin properly adopt Grogu after he toyed with the idea of joining The Jedi, with the pair settling down in the outskirts of Nevarro and returning to their lives as bounty hunters. It sets up The Mandalorian to take over the story that was due to be told with the Rangers Of The New Republic, another spin-off that was scrapped after Disney+ cut ties with Gina Corano. Between that and the already-written season 4, there’s seemingly plenty of story left to be told.
Speaking about the possibility of a fourth season of The Mandalorian following the film, Moff Gideon actor Giancarlo Esposito recently said, “they had talked about making another season [but] they haven’t decided whether that’s going to happen or not because they’ve done so many different things with Star Wars in that universe, in that galaxy.”
(Center): Giancarlo Esposito is Moff Gideon in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & . All Rights Reserved.
Before the movie was announced, there were rumours that season four would be the end of The Mandalorian but Jon Favreau shut those down. “I think the beauty of this is that it’s a middle chapter of a much larger story,” he told Total Film. “And though we’ll have resolution over time with these characters, I think that how these characters fit into the larger scope and scale, but it’s not like there’s a finale that we’re building to that I have in mind.”
“I’d love for these stories to go on and on. And so these characters potentially could be with us for a while, and I really love telling stories in their voice, and I love the way the adventures unfold and I’m looking forward to doing much more,” he added.
So it seems that The Mandalorian’s adventures will continue in some form after the film.
Who could return in The Mandalorian & Grogu?
Baby Yoda isn’t going anywhere
‘The Mandalorian’ season 3. CREDIT: Disney
It’s impossible to imagine The Mandalorian without Grogu or Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and since the film has both characters in the title, it’s safe to assume both will be getting a lot of screetime. Executive producer Rick Famuyiwa called the pair “the heart of the show,” despite the rapidly expanding cast.
Fans can also expect to see Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Emily Swallow (The Armorer) and Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) again. There are also rumours a version of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) may have survived the events of season three, thanks to the same cloning technology that gave us the return of The Emperor in The Rise Of Skywalker.
There’s also the possibility that Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) could cross over once again, alongside Big Bad Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).
Ahsoka made her debut in season two of The Mandalorian, with her spin-off airing in 2023. A second season has already been confirmed. There’s also the Jude Law-starring Skeleton Crew which exists within the same universe and is due to air late in 2024, so there are plenty of characters for writers to pick from.
Ahsoka Tano. CREDIT: Disney+
Speaking about the potential for crossovers, Favreau said: “I think that inevitably, no matter how simple you start, the story threads start to connect and weave and overlap. And with Dave Filoni’s deep understanding of everything around the time period, opportunities will always arise when we have story meetings and conversations about, ‘Well, you know what character would be here now…’ I mean, that’s really how the Luke [Skywalker] thing happened.”
One character we probably won’t see again though is Cara Dune who was a “big part” of the first two seasons. Gina Carano was fired after making posts on social media that the company deemed “abhorrent and unacceptable”.
Speaking to Deadline about a possible return, executive producer Rick Famuyiwa said: “It’s a big galaxy and we have many characters in it. Many characters are fighting for their screen time,” which seems like a polite way to say probably not.
What could the plot involve?
More helmets, more space travel
‘The Mandalorian’ season 3. CREDIT: Disney
The Mandalorian started life as a samurai-inspired tale but quickly grew to become a vibrant, intergalactic adventure. Season three saw Din Djarin return to his spiritual homeland of Mandalore to redeem himself for removing his helmet, before getting caught up in tribal conflict and another face-off with the Empire’s biggest and baddest, Moff Gideon.
Not much has been shared in terms of plot for the upcoming movie, but the ending of season three left things very open-ended. Speaking about The Mandalorian & Grogu, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said “this new story is a perfect fit for the big screen” which is exciting, but doesn’t exactly tell fans very much.
However, it feels like Grand Admiral Thrawn will play a role. The return of the Imperial leader was first teased in season three of The Mandalorian before he finally managed to return from a different galaxy in Ashoka, ready to fill the Sith-shaped hole left by the events of Return Of The Jedi.
The Mandalorian & Grogu isn’t the only Star Wars film in the works either. It’s been confirmed Daisy Ridley is due to return as Rey in a post-Rise Of Skywalker tale that sees her looking to rebuild the Jedi order. Could former Jedi student Grogu be involved? The movie is pencilled in for a 2026 release, so we’ll have to wait and see
The Mandalorian season three is now streaming on Disney+
The post Here’s what we know about ‘The Mandalorian’ season four appeared first on NME.
