The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal and Jon Favreau are sharing their thoughts on a Mandalorian movie.
Star Wars is by and large a movie franchise. But in the last few years, we’ve seen a huge shift in the franchise as it’s begun to take over the TV landscape as well. And as far as traditional media goes, movies and films stay separate. Even if one project is a spinoff of another, there are still rarely any moments where those paths can intersect.
Take, for instance, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Yes, the show continued the narrative of the Star Wars prequels. But with the release of the sequel trilogy, there was little to no crossover element or broad acknowledgment of events that happened in The Clones Wars or even Rebels that had an impact on the sequel movies. In other words, if you didn’t watch shows like the Clone Wars, you weren’t missing out, and you’d still understand what was going on in the movies.
Now, with the advent of Disney+, things are going to change. The Marvel universe, with its Disney+ series, is already creating some “required viewing” series if you want to keep up the new movies. But so far, this model hasn’t affected the Star Wars universe yet. In no way is The Mandalorian a required viewing for any upcoming movie — mainly because it hasn’t been announced. But now the possibility is definitely out there.
So, what do the people behind The Mandalorian think? Could there be a Mandalorian movie, or could we see the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda show up in a future film down the line? Speaking to Variety, the two expressed their thoughts on this subject. Here’s what showrunner Jon Favreau had to say:
"The line is blurring now. Things that you would have only seen in the movie theater, you’re seeing on streaming, and I think it could go the other way as well."
He further clarified that he’s in no rush to begin doing something like this, but he also added:
"But we’re definitely open to it… and excited to see where the story leads us and have that flexibility — because there’s no rulebook now.Technology is always offering new opportunities to tell stories in a fresh way. It’s a very exciting time to be doing this and I feel very grateful that we’re able to be able to work remotely, because of the nature of the technology that we’re dealing with. So we’re continuing to try to move forward and keep the ball rolling, even though it’s been a challenging time for everyone."
As for Pedro Pascal himself? Variety quotes that if a project like that were to come up, he’d certainly love to do it. Here’s what the Mandalorian actor had to say on the matter:
"I think that the work is so beautiful that I would love for that to be held by a big-screen experience. But it seems to work so well that also I’m not sure it’s something that I would want corrupted by any kind of change, you know? I mean, I certainly know that the challenge can be met. It’s not like these people don’t have the experience. If anybody can do it, they can!"
In a nutshell, it looks like these two are open to the possibility of integrating the Mandalorian into the cinematic side of the Star Wars universe. But at the same time, their feelings about keeping it as a television show are certainly valid. These lines are blurring now. And The Mandalorian is basically an extended Star Wars movie. It doesn’t feel like a cheaper version of a Star Wars production. When I watched the series premiere for the first episode, I was blown away at how high quality the production value was just because I had equated traditional television to being of a lower quality. But this isn’t traditional television anymore.
This is almost in line with Disney’s plans to put more of an emphasis on streaming content, whereas some big movies may go directly to streaming instead of having a theatrical release. The fact is, the days of low-quality television is over; being on the small screen can come with a lot of prestige now. And for a Mandalorian story to be told in a 2-hour movie than an eight-episode series just doesn’t feel right. TV shows that traditionally go for a movie are looking for something on a bigger, grander scale. But why try to do that with The Mandalorian when it’s already there?
Meanwhile, the Mandalorian as a character can certainly appear in new movies. While some may not enjoy too much crossover, it would be cool to see what these characters do outside of their own shows. This is really a time of playing and experimenting with the TV show/movie connection, and we should expect to see some fascinating content down the line.
You can see Pedro Pascal in season 2 of The Mandalorian, which begins streaming Oct. 30 on Disney+.