After taking a two-year hiatus, The Mandalorian made its long-awaited return in March 2023. The show’s third season received a mixed response from both Star Wars fans and casual viewers alike, but it turned out to be a fairly effective prologue to the events of Ahsoka. The season’s finale also pressed a bit of a reset button by ending with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu setting up a new life together on Nevarro at the same time that Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and her fellow Mandalorians finally start rebuilding their long-abandoned home planet.
The season’s conclusion, in other words, opens the door for The Mandalorian to go in several different directions when it returns for Season 4. It could continue to follow both Bo-Katan and Din — or just occasionally check in on the former’s reconstruction of Mandalore. Either way, fans remain incredibly curious to see what The Mandalorian will do when it inevitably returns for its fourth season.
Unfortunately, very little has been revealed about The Mandalorian Season 4.
Prior to the conclusion of The Mandalorian Season 3, one of the series’ executive producers and recurring directors, Rick Famuyiwa, revealed in an interview with Collider that the show’s fourth season had already been written. Dave Filoni, meanwhile, suggested that the season would likely begin filming before the end of 2023. Over eight months later, it’s unclear what Lucasfilm’s plans are for The Mandalorian Season 4 and when it might officially go into production.
Work on the season was likely delayed several months by this past summer and fall’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. However, the strikes were resolved in September and November, respectively, which means that Lucasfilm, Jon Favreau, Famuyiwa, and Filoni have all had time to start putting together a production schedule for The Mandalorian Season 4. That’s especially true if Favreau and Filoni really had already finished writing the season months before the WGA strike began in May.
The only live-action Star Wars shows currently expected to premiere on Disney+ in 2024 are Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte. Filming had already begun on the second season of Andor before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes kicked off, but the season itself isn’t slated to premiere in 2024. Taking that into account, it seems highly unlikely that The Mandalorian Season 4 will premiere anytime earlier than the spring of 2025. If fans continue to go without updates, the season’s potential release window will only continue to get pushed back, too.
Right now, it seems almost like a certainty that The Mandalorian will end up taking yet another two-year break between its seasons. That’s undoubtedly a surprising development given The Mandalorian’s place as the crown jewel of Lucasfilm’s Disney+ programming — and a disappointing one, too. Considering how rapidly the TV side of the Star Wars universe continues to expand, though, fans may just have to get used to waiting multiple years for new seasons of their favorite shows.
That said, there’s no harm in hoping that viewers find out something new about The Mandalorian Season 4 sooner rather than later.
Seasons 1-3 of The Mandalorian are streaming now on Disney+.
