The fourth season of The Mandalorian was due to begin filming in late September of this year at Manhattan Beach Studios, California. However, filming was delayed indefinitely due to both the Writers Guild of America strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike. Now that both strikes have been resolved, Lucasfilm are busy with pre-production on the series once again, as hinted at by one of Din Djarin actors, Brendan Wayne, a couple of weeks ago when he said that season four was gearing up for filming. I’ve said in articles and on podcasts recently that filming would begin in the early part of next year, and now I’ve had multiple sources tell when.
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According to at least two sources, The Mandalorian season four is gearing up to start filming sometime in February. It could be very late January, but February seems more realistic from what I’ve been hearing for a number of weeks. I don’t know how long filming is set to last on the fourth season, but if it follows the production of The Mandalorian season three, it’ll likely film for six months, meaning it would wrap by August. I’ve been hearing the February start for a number of weeks and though things could well easily change, as of the time of writing, I’m hearing a February start.
As to when The Mandalorian season four will debut on Disney+, I’ve always heard 2025 and have written about that several times in the past. Even before production was halted due to the strikes, I was told The Mandalorian season four was looking to release in the earlier part of 2025 and now, it’ll likely be a little later than first planned. The Mandalorian season three debuted on Disney+ an entire year after the series wrapped in March 2022, hitting our screens in March of this year. Obviously at this time we don’t know how long the season will spend in post production, but if it follows the season before, it could be that we don’t see it on the streaming service until the summer, but this is merely my own speculation.
There’ll be no shortage of Star Wars content in 2024 with the release of two live-action series, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew, the latter of which is set during the same time as The Mandalorian, and two animated series, The Bad Batch season three and Tales of the Jedi season two. In terms of live-action series, I believe The Acolyte will release first and I suspect it’ll be sometime in the Summer of 2024, probably August given Lucasfilm’s affinity to release series that month, as I’ve said in the past, with Skeleton Crew arriving later in November and Andor season two unfortunately slipping into the early part of 2025 as I shared exclusively in September. Meaning we’ll get at least two live-action Star Wars series in both 2024 and 2025.
Last week it was reported by Jeff Sneider of The Hot Mic that the fourth season of The Mandalorian was to be turned into a film instead of remaining as a Disney+ series. This report from Sneider follows a report from MakingStarWars that was released in July. MSW shared in July that he’d heard Disney and Lucasfilm executives were considering various options for the fourth season of The Mandalorian and that turning the season into a film was simply an option being considered, though it was an option Disney executives liked. The July report mentioned that the option was being considered due to the strikes that were going on at the time and that the idea could be taken more seriously depending on how badly the production of The Mandalorian season four would be impacted by the strikes.
Following the Sneider report on Friday, I had two sources reach out to me over the weekend and tell me that The Mandalorian season four is still a Disney+ series and not a movie and reaffirmed the plan to start filming the new season was still February. One source remained confident in the next Star Wars movie being that led by Daisy Ridley which will see Ridley return as Rey Skywalker in a film being written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) and to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel). The Rey Skywalker film is set fifteen years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and will follow Rey as she attempts to construct a new Jedi Order. From what I’ve heard, the Rey Skywalker flick is still looking to film sometime in 2024 at Pinewood Studios, London.
Earlier this week MakingStarWars also shared that he had heard from sources that The Mandalorian season four is still being planned as a series and not a movie as it was reported by Jeff Sneider. MSW added that he believes that Sneider’s information was likely correct in the past, that Disney were considering the option of turning season four into a film, but believes the information might just be outdated. I spoke with MakingStarWars over the weekend in regards to the topic and we both had separately heard from individual sources that season four is currently still be prepared as season of TV and not a theatrical film.
If there’s any update on The Mandalorian season four, I’ll be sure to update readers. Obviously things are subject to change, but as of right now, it appears as if February is when the fourth season is looking to start filming.
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