Lucasfilm shared the first footage from The Mandalorian season 3 at Star Wars Celebration on Thursday, and that's now been followed by comments from Jon Favreau confirming season 4 is officially in the works. The writer, director, and executive producer of the series broke the news during an interview with Cinema Blend, revealing he's in the process of writing the show.
This is news bound to be welcomed by Star Wars fans, especially after rumours that season 3 could be The Mandalorian's last.
"With television, we're very lucky that we don't have to rush things through into an hour-and-a-half, two hours," the filmmaker started, explaining the advantages of long-form storytelling. "We get to tell stories slowly. So now, as Dave [Filoni]'s doing Ahsoka, it's very much informing the writing that I'm doing for [The Mandalorian] Season 4. It becomes more precise."
The series is, of course, set after the events of Return of the Jedi and there have been a few hints throughout the series that we'll learn more about 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, this would be welcomed by fans.
You might also notice that Favreau appears to be confirming plans for Ahsoka to inform what we see in The Mandalorian, and with Grand Admiral Thrawn no doubt up to something, all these different plot threads could start coming together to tie up some loose ends.
"I think that inevitably, no matter how simple you start, the story threads start to connect and weave and overlap," Favreau added. "And with Dave Filoni's deep understanding of everything around the time period, opportunities will always arise when we have story meetings and conversations about, 'Well, you know what character would be here now.'"
Needless to say, it sounds like The Mandalorian will continue to be Lucasfilm's most important Star Wars project moving forward, and seeing how all these shows start informing each other should be part of the fun for fans. There's no denying that the studio has found more success on television, anyway.