Actor Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, recently shared he has no plans to return to Star Wars because Lucasfilm has not called him.
(Center): Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) with Imperial armored commandos in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Esposito did a segment for GQ where he was asked by an individual, “Do you have plans to return to Star Wars at some point? I really liked your performance.”
He responded, “Thank you. I love the Star Wars universe. I don’t have any plans because they haven’t called me.”
“Love Moff Gideon because you have something I want,” he continued.
When a producer asked him what his theory is on how he would return, Esposito responded, “Come on. I came back to the third season. I didn’t have a mustache. Then you see all these clones. Put it together.”
(Clockwise from front left): Gilad Pellaeon (Xander Berkeley), Warlord (Hemky Madera), Warlord (Marco Khan), Warlord (Ron Bottitta), Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Warlord (Jonny Coyne), Warlord (Jodi Long), Brendol Hux (Brian Gleeson) and Warlord (Imelda Corcora) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
READ: Dave Filoni Teases His Plans For Star Wars Following Disney+’s ‘Ahsoka’ Series
It’s unclear if a fourth season of The Mandalorian will happen.
The show’s creator Jon Favreau revealed back in February 2023 that he had written the fourth season saying, “Season 4, yeah, I’ve written it already. We have to know where we are going to tell a fully formed story. So, we had mapped it out, Dave and I. And then slowly you write just each episode. So I was writing it during post-production because all of it has 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
In December 2023, scooper Jeff Sneider claimed the fourth season might be turned into a feature film. He said, “A couple of months ago, I also shot this one down, there were rumors that season 4 of The Mandalorian could be turned into a movie. At the time I don’t think that was necessarily the case. However, that is what I am starting to hear. That the odds are in that project’s favor. Whatever the season 4 of The Mandalorian turns out to be, whoever is in it, whatever shape it takes, it is looking like that could be the next Star Wars movie and that may be the thing that’s announced before the end of the year.”
He continued, “I think that Star Wars is anxious to make an announcement. I don’t know that it will necessarily be before the end of the year especially because the town starts to shut down basically next week, but I think that those Mandalorian Season 4 movie rumors, I think there was something to those.”
“That’s not confirmed,” he hedged. “That is just a rumor at this point. It remains a rumor, but when I start hearing it from my person then it’s like, ‘Oh! Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’”
Scooper Jason Ward of Making Star Wars would make a similar claim in January 2024 after Lucasfilm announced their Mandalorian & Grogu film.
He said, “My source, the original source who first told me [that season four would be a movie], told me that this is going to be a trilogy.”
He continued, “And I’m going to add a caveat that’s just my additional sense on it, is that it’s a trilogy if the first one connects. If the first one is a big film, they’ll go forward and make two. If the first one is $350 million, if it’s Indiana Jones [and the Dial of Destiny] money, then they’re probably going to just do the two and then wash their hands with it.”
Ward then reiterated, “Those two films are going to happen.”
However, Ward would claim in another video that The Mandalorian Season 4 would still happen, but would be shortened with the final episodes being adapted into the film.
He explained, “I’m still not 100% convinced they are going to do a season of Mando before that film. I’m not saying they’re not doing it, I just don’t actually know 100%. There’s a lot of signs that they are though.”
He elaborated, “And one of the concepts that has come out of this. And count this as a rumor for now is that the plan was to do six episodes of Mando and then to take the finale of what would have been the big two-parter from the end of that and that’s being developed into the film.”
“So, if that plan is what they are doing, if this rumor pans, we would get Mando Season 4 as six episodes and then we would get the film that is essentially that last two-parter that is such a good idea that it warrants going on screen and being a big screen endeavor. So that’s what the organization sounds like potentially,” he concluded.
A scoop from WDW Pro also indicated that Lucasfilm would turn the final episodes of The Mandalorian Season 4 into The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Pro explained, “According to our sources, all production on The Mandalorian Season Four is being moved from Manhattan Beach to the United Kingdom. This is to create a shared cinematic appearance for episodes 1-6. Then episodes 7-8 will also look the same, but they’re going to be a movie now.”
He also shared that Dave Filoni was being brought in to “‘plus’ the ‘treatments’ so that they are no longer just a season finale, but rather they are the beginning of the great theatrical drama that is Clone Wars and Rebels characters taking on Thrawn.”
(L-R): Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
However, it’s possible Lucasfilm might have chosen a different path. A source alleging to be contracted with Lucasfilm informed That Park Place that Lucasfilm was scrapping The Mandalorian Season 4. This source also claimed that the series would no longer be moving forward on Disney+.
Furthermore, the source claimed that Dave Filoni would be doing more than just plussing the treatments of The Mandalorian & Grogu, he might even receive a co-directing credit.
(L-R): Grogu, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Paz Vizsla (Tait Fletcher) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
READ: Din Djarin Actor Brendan Wayne On Whether ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 4 Will Happen: “I Don’t Know”
Series actor Brendan Wayne, who plays Din Djarin, also shared that he has no idea if a Season 4 is happening, but indicated it would be stupid of Lucasfilm to scrap it.
He was asked by The Chatooine Show on YouTube, “Is there any paperwork being signed for a Season 4 of Mandalorian or are we just looking at going straight into the movie?”
Wayne responded, “I just don’t know. I know that we’re doing a movie for sure. That’s what I know.”
He then shared, “Unless they are going to abandon streaming, why do you throw away the foundation that you built your streaming on, which is The Mandalorian. I mean that as humbly as I can say it. There’s a reason The Mandalorian premiered when Disney+ opened up. And it wasn’t because we have this incredible library that everybody wants to subscribe to. It’s because you had a show that was going to bring a character alive that we all dreamed of since we watched Star Wars, which was a Boba Fett-like character.”
What do you make of Giancarlo Esposito revealing he has not heard from Lucasfilm about reprising his role as Moff Gideon?
