In a surprise to be sure, but…wait, no. It’s most definitely not a surprise.
Earlier this year Lucasfilm announced that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were developing a Star Wars movie that would follow their hit Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. Favreau and Filoni would both serve as writers and executive producers, but Favreau would be handled directing duties on the film titled, The Mandalorian and Grogu. At the time Lucasfilm and Disney had they untitled Star Wars movies dated, with the first one being for May 22nd 2026.
The initial announcement touted that The Mandalorian and Grogu would lead their film slate, which also included a New Jedi Order movie featuring Rey Skywalker, a MandoVerse crossover event film from Dave Filoni, and a Dawn of the Jedi movie from James Mangold. None of the movies listed had release dates. However, given Lucasfilm stated that The Mandalorian and Grogu would lead their film slate, they still did not commit to the already announced May 22nd, 2026 date.
Just a few weeks later, Bob Iger shared on an earnings call that The Mandalorian and Grogu would release in 2026, but did not set a date for the film and remained noncommittal despite Lucasfilm and Disney already having an untitled Star Wars movie dated for May 2026 and Lucasfilm sharing that The Mandalorian and Grogu would lead their slate.
So, two months after the announcement of The Mandalorian and Grogu, Disney have finally confirmed, in a surprise to absolutely nobody that’s been keeping up to date with the latest Star Wars news, that The Mandalorian and Grogu will release on May 22nd, 2026 and is leading Lucasfilm’s Star Wars theatrical slate, just as we’ve know for two months.
I know this article has a lot of sarcasm baked in, but the news isn’t very exciting when you’ve been keeping up with the situation over the past couple of months. I’m excited to see the movie and to finally have Star Wars back on the big screen with a new entry into the franchise, it’s just this saga of formally announcing the release date after playing coy about it for around two months took a lot of lustre out of the announcement.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to begin filming in June and is due to wrap sometime in October as I’ve exclusively reported in the past. Lucasfilm or Disney did not confirm what movies would the release dates of December 2026 and December 2027, two dates that are housing two untitled Star Wars movies, but it’s believed to be the Rey Skywalker film in December of 2026 and James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi flick in December of 2027. The follow-up movie to The Mandalorian and Grogu, a MandoVerse crossover event movie from Dave Filoni, is rumoured to be looking to release sometime in 2028.
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