The birth of The Mandalorian series put Disney+ on the map. But the era of believing they can catch Netflix is long gone, as are the days of Star Wars fan excitement surrounding potential stories ahead in a galaxy far, far away. For Jon Favreau, directing The Mandalorian & Grogu movie could be the end.
THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU – Concept Art courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Note: This article is based on statements from sources whose identities we are protecting and for whom we cannot corroborate their accuracy. These sources have a solid track record of early leaks, but please read the following with appropriate skepticism.
Before Lucasfilm fired Gina Carano, before The Book of Boba Fett landed with a thud, and before the thrill of seeing Luke Skywalker potentially train baby Yoda was all washed away, there was a kindling of hope for Star Wars. Despite the rapidly decreasing profits made for each of Disney’s Star Wars movies chronologically, ultimately leading to losses, Disney+ offered Jon Favreau a more pristine sandbox to play in. Significant options existed to resolve or “smooth out” problematic storytelling from a sequel trilogy that was muddled with a variety of competing visions that never came together cohesively. And even for those who continued to support Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, they did not yet have the data that Star Wars was failing to live up to its expected return on investment.
But in the last couple of years, any hopes that Star Wars might find a way to redeem itself have been ultimately squashed. Any thought that the franchise could somehow bring together fans of different aspirations has been squandered. The quickly lowering quality of Star Wars show after Star Wars show, the inability to bring a movie back to theaters, as well as franchise destructions of other Lucasfilm properties have all led to a wide-spread conclusion that Star Wars’ potential just doesn’t have the same cache it once did. If you doubt that statement, just check in with Star Wars’ merchandising partner, Hasbro, which has had to eliminate 20% of its total workforce as its toy lines struggle to find wanting consumers.
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Huyang (David Tennant) and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
Yes, there are those who look forward to a second season of Andor, and I’m sure there are some fans an upcoming Acolyte television show made by former personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein, Leslye Headland. But their numbers are few. After all, we can demonstrably look at waning ratings for shows like Ahsoka or box office disasters like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And that’s not even to mention other parts of Lucasfilm beyond movie and television production — do we really need to revisit the just-closed hotel experience at Walt Disney World that couldn’t even fill one-hundred rooms consistently?
So it is that the sun may be setting for Jon Favreau’s participation in Star Wars. For the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, he gave us some inspiring Star Wars to work with. Since then, Star Wars has been adrift in not just mediocrity, but downright dumpster-level bad writing and execution.
(L-R): Paz Vizsla and the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Lucasfilm’s THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Now, according to our sources, we strongly believe that The Mandalorian Season Four has been cancelled — itself a victim of timing and Bob Iger’s demand to reduce Disney+ spending at every possible corner. And, also according to our sources (as well as steadfast research of our own), we can say that there are currently no plans for Jon Favreau to participate in Star Wars beyond The Mandalorian & Grogu movie in 2026. And trust us, we’ve looked. Yes, there’s one quote from Favreau in 2023, but our sources tell us this was his commentary on Lucasfilm looking to do the Rey movie before it was announced; it isn’t likely to be related to him continuing in any way.
“There’s definitely a conversation that’s going on. And then, also what happens after the sequel trilogy. Because the sequel trilogy only takes place over the course of a few years. And it’s a big thing on the screen, and it’s very eventful. But it is a relatively brief moment in history over the course of the thousands of years that Star Wars takes place. And so what happens after it is interesting too, and I know that there’s some discussion, exploration going on about what happens after it. So I think that there are certain markers that we have – it’s almost like studying ancient history, where you kind of know a few things that happen, but there’s a lot of murkiness in between, and we just don’t have archaeological evidence in the real world to know exactly what happened, so we kind of connect the dots.” — Jon Favreau via StarWarsNews.Net
A source for That Park Place put it this way:
“Favreau has had his fourth season of The Mandalorian, painstakingly mapped out, ripped from him. Now he’s making a movie out of the last two episodes he had planned. But they’re not even his. Dave Filoni has been brought in to “plus” those two episodes into something theatrical that can be tied into his Thrawn/Ahsoka story. Imagine being Favreau and you’re finishing out your contract with a movie and the guy in the cowboy hat with no theatrical experience is now co-writer and co-director. They might not call him a co-director yet, but I wouldn’t count him out given his position at Lucasfilm and his desire to build a resume in film.”
(L-R): Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham), Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) with Night Troopers in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
As of now there is no public statement on a season four for The Mandalorian. But there are also no production plans to which we’re aware — and we’ve been searching. Likewise, there are no public commitments to a fifth season or beyond. There are no known projects for Jon Favreau beyond the movie and there are no statements nor commitments from Favreau’s production company, Golem Creations Ltd. LLC, so far as we can tell.
How clean is the slate for Jon Favreau and his company? Well, the website doesn’t even go beyond a splash page.
And so, from the three sources we’ve spoken with, we’re inclined to believe that Jon Favreau and Disney don’t have much on the horizon for Star Wars beyond The Mandalorian & Grogu movie. Perhaps this truly is the beginning of the Filoni era… even in spite of how lackluster Ahsoka turned out to be for a man who was much stronger when writing for animation.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below!
Favreau can’t save Star Wars. We all had high hopes for Boba Fett, but that show was ruined. Completely unwatchable. I barely got through half the series. My sense is you wait for real reviews after the show debut. If it’s bad, avoid. Don’t give them your time and money.
I hardly believe he held the reins for the Mandelorian after season 1. After its success, 2 and 3 have kk’s scrotum-prints all over them. Unwatchable.