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Back in March, MakingStarWars.net reported that Lucasfilm were planning to begin filming the fourth season of The Mandalorian in October of this year. The report came shortly before the creator and executive producer of the series, Jon Favreau, began a promotional run of Mando’s third season, where he confirmed several times that the scripts for season four had been completed and that early pre-production had begun. In the initial MSW report it was mentioned that the scheduling of filming to begin in October despite scripts being complete was due to a pending Writers Guild of America strike, which has now come to fruition. At the time I conversed with and corroborated MSW’s report through my own independent sources that production on Mando was being planned for later in the year due to the WGA strike. However, Deadline are now reporting that production on The Mandalorian season four will likely be delayed.
According to the trades sources, Disney and Lucasfilm are looking at delaying the start of production on The Mandalorian season four from September to an unknown later date. My sources indicated that filming wasn’t slated until very late into September, but does not know when filming is currently slated to begin. Despite Jon Favreau having completed the scripts for The Mandalorian this Spring, it seems the impact of the WGA strike will have on Mando is due to not being able to have writers on set and the fear of picketing at the sets possibly interrupting production as crew members could refuse to cross the picket line, something Deadline notes recently happened with another Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again.
If filming were to start on The Mandalorian season four, Favreau, who is the showrunner of the series in addition to being a writer, would find himself in murky waters. Despite the scripts being complete, Favreau would not be allowed to cut for time, complete minor dialogue or narration changes, and would not be allowed to make technical or stage direction changes in his role as producer and showrunner of the series as he’s part of the Writers Guild of America, as is his producing and writing partner, Dave Filoni. Last week Andor season two writer and showrunner, Tony Gilroy, ceased his showrunner duties on the critically acclaimed series after coming under fire from fellow Writers Guild of America members who accused the writer-producer of scabbing after it was reported that Gilroy would continue to his production duties on the series following the completion of the season two scripts.
The delay in production for The Mandalorian season four could also impact the production and release windows for future Star Wars projects including Dave Filoni’s MandoVerse crossover movie. The flick was announced at Star Wars Celebration last month and would see various series produced by Filoni and Favreau such as The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and more coming together for an epic event film which will showcase the war between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant led by Grand Admiral Thrawn. In a report from The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that Lucasfilm and Disney were aiming to release the MandoVerse film in December 2026, but that it was dependent on the release of both a fourth season of The Mandalorian and a possible second season of Ahsoka. If production on The Mandalorian is delayed it’ll likely have a knock on effect for the possible second season of Ahsoka and subsequently, the MandoVerse flick due to changing production schedules and release windows.
Lucasfilm currently have two series in production, The Acolyte which is scheduled to wrap sometime this month and Andor season two, which is set to wrap in August, with both series set to release next year.
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