This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ and ‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Are Coming, But When Exactly?
Welcome back to “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” What a week! Hollywood’s first full week back to work after the holidays, and the first real one since the strikes, featured an avalanche of news, including for Star Wars. We have a packed edition ahead, so let’s not waste any more time. Read on for a detailed discussion on The Mandalorian & Grogu, Ahsoka season 2, Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars statement, and more!
Three Things That May Have Flown Casual
- Animation news: Per the latest rumor, Tales of the Jedi could be looking at Sith and Bounty Hunters spin-offs. Also, the 51st Annie Awards included six nominations for Star Wars: Visions and one for Ahsoka. Last but not least, season 1 of Young Jedi Adventures is airing the last six episodes on February 14.
- A New Direction: Daisy Ridley comments on her upcoming Star Wars film for the second time, saying “It’s a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction.”
- Kaiju News: Dave Filoni apparently set up a screening and Q&A of Godzilla Minus One with director Takashi Yamazaki at Lucasfilm. Yamazaki previously expressed interest in directing a Star Wars film.
Quote of the Week
“We wanted to do The First Jedi. Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber…
[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that. And we totally get it. It’s their company and their IP, but we weren’t the droids they were looking for.”
David Benioff and DB Weiss’ first words in years on their scrapped Star Wars project were buried under bigger announcements this week, but they’re pretty significant. The duo, who will be out promoting their Netflix series 3 Body Problem over the next few months, confirmed rumors from back in 2019 that they wanted to focus on the origins of the Jedi. Lucasfilm, they said, eventually decided they weren’t interested in that story. What happened, exactly?
Reports from the time said that Lucasfilm hadn’t fired them, and it was an amicable split. Kathleen Kennedy even said that she hoped to work with them once again in the future. But the main reason behind the parting of ways was the divisiveness of the last season of Game of Thrones, and in context, it kind of makes sense. They were two highly controversial figures about to tackle a bit of a risky subject, especially in light of the backlash to The Last Jedi. Of course, I wish they’d had the guts to move on with it, but we also have to understand it came during a time when Star Wars was making a lot of safe choices, starting a new phase with The Mandalorian and developing ideas like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But there is one more thing to consider here: David S. Goyer’s recent comments in which he revealed he wrote at one point a scriptment for a Dawn of the Jedi-era movie. Could that maybe have been related to Benioff & Weiss’ ideas? It seems unlikely that it was commissioned after they parted ways with Benioff & Weiss. The Game of Thrones creators were also supposed to write at least one film of the trilogy. I’m very curious about the timing of this one. Of course, now a similar idea is being developed by James Mangold, as announced last April.
Runner-up
“This is cool, I’m gonna fix Star Wars!”
That was Zack Snyder recalling the time when he pitched the story of Rebel Moon to Kathleen Kennedy. Oh, well.
Mando and Grogu’s Big Adventure
Lucasfilm is starting the year strong, as this week they announced The Mandalorian & Grogu, a new children’s book… Sorry, I read that wrong: The Mandalorian & Grogu, a new feature film from director Jon Favreau that will start production this year. The Hollywood Reporter later said that Favreau will be co-writing it with Dave Filoni.
Of course, a lot of questions remain unanswered. It looks like we’ll be seeing Mando next on the big screen, but what happens with the Disney Plus series from there on? According to THR, a fourth season could depend on how successful the film is, meaning that if the box office results are good enough they could pursue sequels instead of new seasons of TV. Meanwhile, Deadline said that a fourth season is still in development, though it’s unknown if this is based on recent information or the fact that it was in development last year. Following the ending of season 3, the argument was made that perhaps this was the best place to leave the series and that there was no need for a fourth season.
That argument, of course, gets invalidated if the planned story for season 4 is needed for the future of these stories. Is that, perhaps, why they are doing a two-hour movie instead of a new season? To condense the important storyline into one single script that can be put in theaters, and remove all of the unnecessary fluff that season 3 was highly criticized for?
That’s certainly one way to look at it. I am still convinced that this has something to do with Dave Filoni’s promotion as Chief Creative Officer, and that they want him and Carrie Beck to have a crash course on making a feature. The Mandalorian & Grogu has been confirmed as the next Star Wars movie in theaters, but it feels more like a soft launch of a new wave of films — and that might very well be intended.
Then there’s the issue of the release date. As of now, the next Star Wars movie on the Disney calendar is set for May 22, 2026, with another one in December 2026. Depending on when they start production in 2024, a two-year gap seems a bit much between filming and the release date, especially when the same team has been able to produce an eight-episode season of TV in around 12 months on average.
The budget will be higher this time, but I don’t expect this to go upwards of $150M, or even $125M. Contracts will probably need to be renegotiated, and I’m guessing that alone will represent the biggest bump from the average episode’s budget (wild guess, but I’m guessing they already had some directors and perhaps even actors signed up to work on season 4, and terminating those contracts will also factor into the budget). In terms of approach, though, I don’t think it will be a lot different from the standard season of TV.
Some recent reporting suggests that Disney could be updating their release calendar soon. We’ll get into it in just a moment, but TheInSneider.com reported this week that Pedro Pascal’s schedule has changed in recent months, in part because Marvel’s Fantastic Four, which he was reportedly in negotiations for a couple of months ago, is now set to begin shooting in the second half of this year. That will make it really hard for Matt Shakman to deliver the film by May 2025. You also have to remember that Disney likes to drop these updated schedules combining so many different changes. So, if The Mandalorian & Grogu is targeting a late 2025 release date, or perhaps is aiming for May 2026, we could find out sooner rather than later.
Then there’s Pedro. The highly-coveted actor is set to start filming the second season of The Last of Us in February. Given the extent of his role in the game, that will probably not go on for more than 4-6 weeks, meaning by the end of March he could have wrapped. It is important to understand this, because that was the same window in which he was supposed to shoot Zach Cregger’s Weapons. Well, it seems like HBO intervened and probably removed Pascal from that film, as TheInSneider.com reported that he’s since exited the project.
Therefore, he has an opening in his schedule roughly between the end of March and July/August. Sneider believes he will use that time to shoot Ari Aster’s Eddington, but he’d be the third lead in that, at best (Emma Stone and Christopher Abbott are apparently headlining it), so it seems hard to believe he’d be on the set of that movie for that many months. That leaves him a few weeks to pop by the soundstages of Manhattan Beach if required. Of course, the movie doesn’t really need him if the script doesn’t have Din Djarin removing his helmet, but would he be more interested in making time to return for it because it’s a movie?
Pascal will certainly be a big part of the promotional campaign either way, but Lucasfilm could probably use the boost of the “Pedro actually showed up for this one” message. The issue of the Fantastic Four delay is interesting. Is that because Shakman & Marvel needed more time to prep, or because Lucasfilm reached an agreement with Marvel so that Pascal could be on set for The Mandalorian & Grogu for a few weeks? If so, that would give us a hint of when to expect the film to shoot.
Then, There Is Ahsoka Season 2
Buried in the announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu was also confirmation that Ahsoka season 2 is happening. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as just a few days earlier an interview with Rosario Dawson was released (likely recorded before the holidays) in which the actress said she believed a decision on Ahsoka season 2 would be made in the New Year.
To make sure it didn’t go unnoticed with the whole Mando film news, Lucasfilm reiterated the next day that it was happening by sharing a Dave Filoni sketch (sidenote here: I love these drawings every single time, please keep ’em coming) teasing the return of Ahsoka, Sabine, and the Mortis Gods’ statues. What about Baylan? That’s the big question right now, which Lucasfilm will have to answer over the next few months. (Sidenote #2: please learn a thing or two from The Last of Us and HBO, which confirmed this week the main cast of season 2 without necessarily spoiling anything; casting news does not ruin our enjoyment. Although to be fair, they did announce the cast of The Acolyte when it started filming.)
Filoni probably has an outline of the second season but hasn’t written the scripts yet. That should start over the next few weeks/months, and the new season could begin filming as soon as after The Mandalorian & Grogu wraps (although that’s a bit optimistic; in my mind, they might wrap before Labor Day weekend, though that’s a wild guess). Be it a late 2024 production start, or early 2025, the new season of Ahsoka won’t come out until 2026 — I’m guessing after The Mandalorian & Grogu.
But that leaves a huge open question: What is coming to Star Wars in 2025? A week ago it was supposed to be Andor season 2 and The Mandalorian season 4? But what now? The Acolyte season 2 seems too premature, and unless they have another ace up their sleeve à la Skeleton Crew, it seems hard to believe they will have anything else. Could that imply The Mandalorian & Grogu is targeting a 2025 date?
So many questions, and so few answers. But Lucasfilm is starting the year strong, and I expect we’ll be having a great time covering a lot more news from a galaxy far, far away over the next few months. Do you have any predictions for that? Stay tuned as we’ll be discussing all of them here!
Jocasta Nu’s Reading List
- Star Wars News Net: Jay Goodearl explains a few reasons why we shouldn’t overlook the upcoming Skeleton Crew.
- Gizmodo: Have you noticed most of Star Wars‘ recent series are titled after character names? So has James Whitbrook, check out his plea here to stop that trend.
- Collider: Evan Molinari defends the silliest characters of the Star Wars franchise, and explains why they are essential to the story.
What did you think of the latest edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions down below in the comment section. You can also send them, or reach out with any information tips, directly via our Contact page.
Have a great week!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
