All this Star Wars TV work is leading somewhere, but fans just do not know where yet. The intergalactic franchise is just coming down from another successful Star Wars Celebration weekend, with announcement upon announcement dropping as part of the festivities. Some of the biggest news came from the Mandoverse on Disney+ with Season 3 of The Mandalorian being teased, along with a whole lot more.
If it was not evident at Celebration, Star Wars is quickly becoming one of the biggest names in streaming series after more than 30 years of being known as a primarily movie-based IP. The Mandalorian changed all that, as the streaming series (which just had a fourth season confirmed) set off a new age for the franchise.
And with Mando being the Goliath it is, Lucasfilm has put some stock into the series, building a universe surrounding Din Djarin with series like Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett. These new Disney+-based efforts are all part of the plan for what Disney is calling a massive culmination event for the MandoVerse, spearheaded by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. The exact details of this crossover are scarce, but one of the minds behind the project has finally spoken about this Avengers-like undertaking.
Jon Favreau on the MandoVerse Crossover
Speaking with Steele Wars at Star Wars Celebration, The Mandalorian writer/director Jon Favreau offered fans their first glimpse behind the curtain at the eventual MandoVerse crossover event, which was announced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in December 2020 to be a "climactic story event" that will "culminate" The Mandalorian as well as its spin-off shows.
Favreau said that projects like Ahsoka and The Mandalorian will really start to "get deeper into characters that have connections with other characters of importance," meaning that the stories are going to start to "become more political and more significant:"
“There’s alot going on now now that Dave [Filoni’s] really drilling down on Ahsoka. And you know as much as it’s exciting to explore that character as we get deeper into characters that have connections with other characters of importance, the storylines inevitably become more political and more significant alongside of pre-existing Star Wars, especially the stuff that Dave’s worked on in animation.
The Iron Man director followed this up by making mention that communication is key at this stage in the process. As "other filmmakers and producers" are writing and creating projects alongside Filoni and Favreau, "communicating about how all of this begins to affect one another" becomes essential:
"So little by little I think more will emerge. And as I’m writing and other filmmakers and producers are writing we really have to start communicating about how all of this begins to affect one another. Because you don’t want movies that are existing within the same time frames to ignore one another."
He did clarify though, saying that because he and Filoni have been "involved with all the show within this timeframe" they can start to plant "connection points that [will] inevitably lead to conflicts and resolution:”
"And by Dave and I being involved with all the show within this timeframe we could start to make everything have connection points that inevitably lead to conflicts and resolution.”
When asked when fans can expect to see this massive crossover event, Favreau simply answered “I think that’s all to be discovered.”
Building Upon The Mandalorian
The foundation of the MandoVerse is built. Now comes the hard part for Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and their team. Surely, when this so-called culmination event takes place, there will be tie-ins with some of the early days of the MandoVerse, but it is from here on out that seeds of this connective storytelling really have to start being planted. And it seems Favreau knows that.
The Mandalorian director seems to really acknowledge the weight that comes to building up to an event such as this. It is going to take time, and it is going to take a whole lot of work. So he and the Lucasfilm team seem to be carefully crafting the best possible stories with this connective tissue that will pull the whole thing together when it needs to.
While the Hollywood vet doesn't do much to hint at release timing or exact plot specifics, this set of quotes does offer up some pretty great speculation material.
One tidbit some will latch on to is his mention of the Ahsoka series as well as these stories getting more and more political and interwoven as they go on. A name that this will make some think of is Grand Admiral Thrawn from the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. Favreau even mentions legacy characters coming in from the animated side of things, and if there was someone that would make one of these stories a whole lot more political, it would be Thrawn.
Could this mean Favreau and Filoni are setting up the Chiss admiral to be this crossover event's big bad? It very well could.
For now, though, nothing regarding this MandoVerse mega-event can be for certain. All fans can do is wait and rewatch The Mandalorian which is streaming now on Disney+.
