Fans waiting for The Mandalorian Season 4 may be disappointed following a recent release update.
Season 3 of the hit Star Wars Disney+ series was released on the service back in March 2023 to middling results, with the season finale in particular disappointing many viewers.
The Pedro Pascal-led show had already been greenlit for a Season 4 before Season 3 premiered, with co-creator Jon Favreau having "written the scripts" during production on the third season.
The Mandalorian Season 4 Put On the Back-Burner
According to a new report, The Mandalorian Season 4 may have been put on ice amid the announcement of a new Star Wars movie.
In The Hollywood Reporter's (THR) Heat Vision newsletter, the outlet addressed the next season of the Disney+ series as Lucasfilm pulled the curtain back on the Mando-centric The Mandalorian and Grogu movie.
Disney is reportedly now looking to release The Mandalorian Season 4 after Jon Favreau's newly revealed Mando movie if it happens at all.
Despite scripts having been written, 2023's pair of strikes in Hollywood (which shut down the industry for several months) forced Disney to reevaluate its Star Wars plans, moving their efforts from a fourth season of The Mandalorian to this new movie.
The future of Mando Season 4 remains unclear, with THR noting that if The Mandalorian and Grogu proves to be successful, it could lead to sequels to the forthcoming movie instead of more seasons of the Disney+ TV show.
Also as a part of THR's reporting, it was revealed that - according to sources - Jon Favreau will not only be directing the upcoming Mandalorian movie but is writing it alongside The Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni.
Will The Mandalorian Season 4 Ever Happen?
A year ago, it would have sounded like an absurdity asking if The Mandalorian Season 4 will ever see the light of day.
Scripts were done, and the show was seemingly headed toward a production start date of late 2023.
However, things have changed. Because Hollywood had to hit the pause button thanks to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA 2023 strikes, Disney took a step back and looked at what it wanted to do with the galaxy far, far away.
Some speculation originally put The Mandalorian Season 4 as coming sometime in late 2025. That no longer looks like it will be the case, with The Mandalorian and Grogu taking precedence.
There were some whispers about Season 4 becoming a film, but this looks as though it is going to be an original story outside of that.
That newly-announced armor-clad movie is expected to go into production by the end of the year, it could ultimately hit theaters by late 2025 at the absolute earliest.
That would then clear the runway for Season 4 of Mando.
But one cannot forget the changing tides at Disney. The House of Mouse has not seen the return it had hoped for in the world of Disney+ and has suffered a few recent misses in the theatrical realm as well.
This resulted in CEO Bob Iger and the studio having to reassess how they put their next step forward.
That means anything is on the table. If The Mandalorian and Grogu is the massive financial success it could be, then Disney would be smart to capitalize on that, canceling The Mandalorian as a TV show and making it exclusively a theatrical product.
Could that mean Season 4 is left as a casualty of this strategy? Sadly, it does.
The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 are streaming now on Disney+.
