Yesterday it was revealed by a prominent star of The Mandalorian that production on the eagerly anticipated fourth season of the hit Disney plus series was “ramping up” now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has come to an end.
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Brendan Wayne, who along with Lateef Crowder, dons Din Djarin’s armour most of the time during filming of The Mandalorian, has taken to Instagram to share an update on the fourth season of The Mandalorian. Wayne, who was posting about a football team (soccer team for you Americans) he coaches, revealed that production, or more likely pre-production, on the fourth season of The Mandalorian was, “ramping up.” This update follows the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike which concluded last week after one hundred and eighteen days, and is the first update we’ve had on a The Mandalorian from anybody involved in the series.
“Only one thing is more exciting to me than the strike being over or season 4 of Mando getting ramped up and that is Season 2 of Coach Mando and the Lady Lancers.” – Brendan Wayne via Instagram
Ahead of the release of The Mandalorian season three in March, the series creator, Jon Favreau, shared that he had completed work on the scripts for season four. It was believed that Favreau had completed work ahead of an impending Writers Guild of America strike at the time, which began in May and ended towards the tail end of September. The same day in which Jon Favreau confirmed he’d already written the fourth season of The Mandalorian, MakingStarWars reported that the season was already in pre-production and was gearing up for an October shoot at Manhattan Beach Studios. Filming on the fourth season was delayed due to the WGA strike, with Deadline confirming the MSW report, revealing that filming was set to begin at the very end of September 2023, but has been indefinitely delayed.
There’s been no updates on The Mandalorian season four since the reveal of its production delay, though it’s believed that the season won’t start filming until the new year. I previously reported that even before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that the fourth season was being planned for release in 2025, as I understand it, this is still the case – just a little later than initially planned.
There’s been little in the way of plot details in regards to The Mandalorian season four, but it was revealed by MakingStarWars in June that Boba Fett would be making a triumphant return to the series and to the ‘MandoVerse’ after last being seen in his spin-off series, The Book of Boba Fett, that released in December 2021. MSW added that during The Mandalorian season four pre-production phase, which was later paused, a cockpit for Slave 1 was under construction.
Before I sign off, I’d just like to address the frankly ludicrous events that followed an article in published last week. The article itself detailed what fans can expect in terms of production now that SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have reached an agreement which ended the SAG-AFTRA strike. One of the productions mentioned was the fourth season of The Mandalorian, which I believe will be one of the first productions to get rolling following the strikes end. However there was one line that people on social media and various outlets decided to misquote and misrepresent what I had written. Within the Mando segment I mentioned that I found it unlikely that Pedro Pascal, the voice of the Din Djarin, and star of The Mandalorian, would likely (key word being likely), not be present for the filming of season four due to his other commitments, namely Gladiator 2, which begins filming again in less than two weeks, and the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us, which is due to begin production in January.
Given Pascal’s commitment to both Gladiator and The Last of Us, and the amount of time it would take to shoot those projects, especially the latter which will take up most 2024, I simply said I find it unlikely that Pascal would be present on set. Various X users/news aggregators decided to misreport what I had said, with most claiming that I had reported that Pascal won’t be part of the fourth season or that he definitely would not take part in season four filming, completely misquoting me.
Looking at Pascal’s next twelve months, I personally just find it unlikely that he will have much time, if any, due to his hectic and packed schedule, to be present on The Mandalorian set for filming with himself in the suit. There might be gaps in which he can, he will certainly continue to do the voice over work. Pascal had a similar work load for Mando season three due to The Last of Us filming for eleven months, from July 2021 to June 2022, with season three of The Mandalorian filming from late September 2021 to March 2022. If The Mandalorian season four begins filming early next year, filming typically lasts around six months, Pascal will likely be busy with The Last of Us season two filming, with production beginning in January 2024, and would run for the rest of the year.
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