Star Wars Celebration has kicked fully into gear, with news from all across the galaxy far, far away filtering in for Star Wars fans of all ages. The convention is full of guests from across the Star Wars universe, both on film, in books, and in animation, and not least of which is Jon Favreau. While Favreau is also known for his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, both directing and starring as Happy Hogan, begrudging friend and assistant to Tony Stark, he’s a paragon in the Star Wars universe, writing, directing, and executive producing for a variety of projects, including The Mandalorian, which was the highlight of today’s Mando+ panel at Celebration.
Favreau and co-producer Dave Filoni are the current faces of Star Wars as it exists on Disney+, serving as executive producers, writers, and directors in varying capacities on The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. Today’s panel covered the gamut of their galactic exploits, though the focus was primarily on the titular Mandalorian himself, with Pedro Pascal and his body doubles Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne making an appearance on the panel.
The next project Favreau has coming up is the third season of The Mandalorian, which he and Filoni previewed both at Thursday’s Lucasfilm showcase and the Mando+ panel. The season hits Disney+ sometime in February 2023, though an exact release date has not been revealed, and the footage revealed the return of Katee Sackoff as Bo-Katan, who seems to have a serious grudge against Din Djarin (Pascal) for his possession of the Darksaber, which makes him the ruler of Mandalore, homeworld of the Mandalorians, which Bo-Katan believes to be her birthright.
Collider was excited to speak with Favreau after today’s panel, where he revealed just how much of The Mandalorian is planned in advance, and whether the production team has an endgame in sight for Din and his tiny green son. Of course, fans around the world know the problems that eventually crop up during the sequel trilogy, which seems to play at least a partial role in planning out the future of The Mandalorian:
“I think Dave and I talked about this a lot. And, it’s interesting how things evolve and change in small ways, but we all know where everything’s going to end because of when the time period ends. We know that the First Order is going to appear. So, there are things on the horizon that we know, but that’s 25 years in the future. Within that, we also know storylines that are going to unfold within the characters that we’re either inheriting or developing. So, I would say that there is a lot of preparation done in broad strokes with how do these storylines that we’ve established culminate, but we’re doing that within the confines and parameters of what’s pre-existing in canon.”
More details about the upcoming season are being kept under wraps, but fans were also treated to a first look at Ahsoka, including the reveal of Hera Syndulla, a fan-favorite character from Star Wars: Rebels. Ahsoka is also expected to premiere sometime in 2023, though no precise release window has been announced.
Season three of The Mandalorian premieres on Disney+ in February 2023. In the meantime, the first two seasons are available to stream now.