Here’s Why Turning The Mandalorian Season 4 Into A Movie Would Be A Big Mistake For Lucasfilm

With several new Star Wars movie projects soon to come, the idea of The Mandalorian season 4 becoming a movie has started to circulate. The first live-action Star Wars TV show and flagship show of Disney+ has continued to find massive success, despite the mixed reviews its latest installment faced from viewers and critics alike. This year, The Mandalorian season 3 premiere drew in more viewers than any other 2023 TV show premiere on Disney+, and even IMDb’s top 10 TV shows list set The Mandalorian in its fifth place spot.

Despite this, the idea of The Mandalorian season 4 becoming a movie has started making the rounds for the second time this year. With Lucasfilm seeking to return to the movie theater for the first time since 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker and Disney no doubt adding pressure following its recent box office letdowns, this idea – as random as it sounds – may be plausible. This decision, however, would be a major mistake for Star Wars, especially for one of its most successful sub-franchises in history.

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Star Wars Is Reportedly Considering A Mandalorian Season 4 Movie

With an initial report from MakingStarWars in July 2023 and a recent resurface of a similar report by Jeff Sneider, Lucasfilm is reportedly considering making The Mandalorian season 4 into a movie. The reports credit this to the Hollywood strikes that took place earlier in 2023, which saw the production of many movies and TV shows experience significant delays. The movie would act as a precursor, or first act, to Dave Filoni’s upcoming culmination movie of the same era, and it would release before Daisy Ridley’s Star Wars return in the New Jedi Order movie.

It would also allow Filoni the chance to practice and trial movie-making before taking the leap into creating the high-stakes culmination event, according to Star Wars News Net. While this would certainly be quite a large-scale way to test Filoni’s movie-making skills, it could also be a larger part of testing the waters for how Star Wars and characters from The Mandalorian would perform at the box office. It’s also made quite possible by The Mandalorian season 3 itself, as it’s given the series a chance to pivot.

The Mandalorian’s Story Could Easily Change Format After Season 3

The ending of The Mandalorian season 3 sees the story of Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and Grogu come to somewhat of a finality, with their long-running arch nemesis and foe Moff Gideon at last defeated, Mandalore reclaimed, and a new quest set upon their shoulders as they rest at their home on Nevarro. Many viewers thought this ending would last for Din and Grogu, despite creator and executive producer Jon Favreau’s words about The Mandalorian season 4 being written already. Should Lucasfilm choose to pivot and transform season 4 from a TV show installment into a movie, then, they have the perfect opportunity to do so – but it would still be a dramatic choice, and it could very badly hurt The Mandalorian and Star Wars as a whole.

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The Mandalorian Works Best In TV Format

The Mandalorian is the Star Wars TV show that trailblazed and revolutionized the genre, leading the way for all other Star Wars TV shows that have since followed – from its own spin-offs to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor. The world held its breath as they waited to see if the risk being taken with The Mandalorian would pay off, and it not only did so, but it also became its own global success and cultural phenomenon. The Mandalorian continues to be the most popular original Disney+ TV show of all franchises on the platform, and seeing as Star Wars has no new original TV shows in the works – with all of them due to be released in the next 12 months – removing The Mandalorian season 4 from TV could run the risk of losing the Star Wars TV format altogether.

The structure of The Mandalorian also proves it works best in the format of a TV show, especially considering its episodic adventures. As a space Western, The Mandalorian thrives when it sees Din Djarin and Grogu going planet-to-planet on journeys, jobs, and other adventures that are nothing short of riveting every single week. The Mandalorian season 2 is the best example of this, and it’s a season that remains the favorite and most highly-rated of the show’s 3 seasons thus far.

Star Wars Has Made The Mistake Of Changing Formats Before

Changing formats after a story’s been created isn’t anything new for Star Wars. Unfortunately, these decisions haven’t boded well for the franchise in the past, with both The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi as examples. These shows were originally planned to be movies, but following the struggle of Star Wars movies at the box office and the massive success of The Mandalorian, they were changed into shows. Now, these two shows remain some of the franchise’s lowest-rated, mostly for the way their stories suffered as a result of being stretched out across TV’s episodic format as compared to the more appropriate framing of a movie. This puts The Mandalorian at risk of missing the same mark, in the opposite way.

The Mandalorian Season 4 Should Stick To TV

While a movie centered on The Mandalorian would by no means be bad, Star Wars ought to stick to releasing it as an additional season of the TV show on Disney+. The Mandalorian season 3 proves the TV show needs another chance to redeem itself in its normal format before it can even think about hitting movie theater screens, and there are too many other risks that would put the beloved The Mandalorian franchise in danger. It would undoubtedly be better to wait until the culmination movie event for these characters to hit the big screen, where they can all share the screen together and draw in viewers of many different shows rather than just one.

The Mandalorian has benefited greatly from its TV show model, with the slower pace allowing more time for characterization and world-building. This is something The Mandalorian needs with a protagonist who doesn’t show their face and an adorable alien baby who still cannot speak. Should The Mandalorian take the leap to the big screen too soon, the stories of Din Djarin and Grogu could both be put at risk, which would be nothing short of disastrous following the critiques of season 3. Star Wars, then, should continue to release The Mandalorian season 4 as an additional installment on Disney+, allowing for at least one more chapter of their story to be told before moving on to the big screen.