‘The Mandalorian’ Visual Guide And Original Novel Both Canceled
In a surprising development, both the planned The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide and an upcoming original novel have been canceled by their respective publishers.
The news comes directly from the source. DK Books, which planned to publish the visual guide, announced today on Twitter that it was not going forward. As stated in their tweet this morning, ‘the story of The Mandalorian will continue to unfold on screen.’
Due to the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian, we will no longer be publishing The Mandalorian Ultimate Visual Guide at this time, as the story continues to unfold on screen.
— DK Books US (@dkpublishing) March 9, 2021
This comes after some confusion about the status of The Ultimate Visual Guide. As we reported a few weeks ago, The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide was set for a July 1, 2021 release date in the UK and July 6 in the US. The Hungarian website Ziro.hu claimed to have a source saying that both DK Publishing and Lucasfilm didn’t want to go forward, but no official response was given at the time. It appears the report by Ziro was correct.
The guide is written by Pablo Hidalgo and follows the tradition of other visual guides associated with the Star Wars movies which has become a bit of a supplemental tradition. As there is no storytelling per se in the guides (there are often background details) the emphasis on story being a factor in the cancellation is unusual.
Another casualty today is the untitled The Mandalorian original novel which was being written by Adam Christopher. Del Rey Books gave virtually the same reasoning for their cancellation today.
Due to the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian, we will no longer be publishing THE MANDALORIAN ORIGINAL NOVEL at this time, as the story continues to unfold on screen.
— Star Wars Books (@DelReyStarWars) March 9, 2021
The novel was originally set to be released in December 2020, alongside season two of the series, and would have been an original story and not a novelization of any kind. A focus on telling The Mandalorian story on screen makes more sense in this case, but it’s still a disappointment for fans of the novels and certainly for Christopher. However, Del Rey was quick to note that they are working with him on another future, as yet unannounced book. Details will be shared in the future.
It is interesting that the language of both posts from two different outlets is the same, meaning this is likely specific language that came down from Disney/Lucasfilm as to how to present the cancellation. We will update you if any more details about these cancellations surface.
DARBY HARN is a novelist, freelance writer and podcaster. His novels include Ever The Hero, The Judgement of Valene, Nothing Ever Ends and A Country Of Eternal Light. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer and other venues.
