The Mandalorian returns to Disney+ next Wednesday, but that won't be where Din Djarin and Grogu's stories end. During a recent interview to promote season 3 (via SFFGazette.com), showrunner Jon Favreau confirmed that a fourth season is already written!
This echoes past comments from the Iron Man director, though we have to assume this means production will begin later this year to avoid the same sort of big gap between seasons 2 and 3.
The Book of Boba Fett went some way in filling that, but that show appears to have been sidelined for the time being.
"Season 4, yeah, I've written it already. We have to know where we're going to tell a fully formed story," Favreau explains. "We had mapped it out, Dave and I, so slowly, you write each episode. I was writing it during post-production because all of it has to feel like a continuation and one full story."
"[Dave is] doing Ahsoka, which I'm producing with him, but's the writer/showrunner on that. To understand what's happening on other shows, or even Skeleton Crew, all take place in the same Star Wars time period. There's a lot more things that we have to keep in mind and stuff we've built up from previous seasons of The Mandalorian as well."
All of these shows are set after the events of Return of the Jedi, and there have been a few hints throughout the show that we'll explore the cloning program that ultimately led to Supreme Leader Snoke's creation. The true story behind that villain's existence has never fully been revealed, and as divisive as the sequels were, many fans would be interested to learn more.
It definitely sounds like Ahsoka will inform what we see in The Mandalorian, and with Grand Admiral Thrawn no doubt up to something nefarious, all these different plot threads could start coming together to tie up some loose ends.
Needless to say, we're guessing The Mandalorian will continue to be Lucasfilm's most important Star Wars project moving forward, and seeing how all of these shows start to connect to each other is definitely part of the fun for fans.
The Mandalorian season 3 premieres on Disney+ on March 1.