ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Mandalorian Season 4 Cancellation Rumors Explained - Is Filoni Movie Next?

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

According to a leak from Daniel RPK, Disney has no plans to continue the Mandalorian, signaling the end of Star Wars live-action TV. We discuss whether or not this is the right movie for Lucasfilm, and if this means that Dave Filoni's crossover movie is dead in the water. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I'm a bounty hunter by trade. Now that he's with me, I'll be more selective in my assignments. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. And Star Wars fans just got some potentially terrible news. A very reliable leaker named Daniel R.P.K., who we quote a lot on this channel,

has claimed that his sources have told him that there are no plans for the Mandalorian's Now we do have the upcoming movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, but if that flops, it'll mean the end of the Mandalorian story and potentially kill the Star Wars Avengers crossover movie that would have brought together all of the characters from the TV shows. So I'm going to explain whether or not we think this is true and what all of this means and how we got here or whether or not Star Wars TV should even continue on after this. Now, of course, I want to know your thoughts down in the comments, and later on I'm going to talk to Heather Antos and Colton Ogburn about whether or not they think Star Wars TV should keep going or if it's even set up. at this point. Now, I should start off by saying how biased I am here. I love Star Wars TV. I grew up with the original movies, but I also grew up with the comic books and the expanded universe novels. So for me, Star Wars is bigger than just blockbuster movie trilogies. Star Wars TV is a great opportunity to tell stories that are at the fringes of the galaxy.

We can follow characters who may not be Skywalker's, but they still have compelling stories. The Mandalorian, at least for the first two seasons, always felt like a side story in Star Wars. Mando might brush up against better-known heroes or epic stories like the Dark Saber saga, but it was always about this guy protecting this little guy. And along the way, we got some breadcrumbs about the wider Star Wars galaxy, the state of the New Republic, the rise of the First Order, but none of that was central to the story of this little guy being protected by this big guy. But then the Mandalorian became a victim of its own success,

and suddenly it became a backdoor pilot for spin-off shows. Season 2 set up Asoka and the Book of Boba Fett, and it tried to set up Rangers of the New Republic. But I don't think those shows were as good because they were Star Wars shows first and compelling character drama second, especially the Book of Boba Fett, which actually interfered with the story of the Mandalorian by reuniting Denna Grogue in an entirely different show. But here's the thing. Season 3 viewership of the Mandalorian did lag behind season 2, but not by much. According to Nielsen, the finale had a viewership of 26 million people, and season 2's finale had 30 million people.

And the Mandalorian is still, by far, Disney Plus, is number one, original show. But season three is where the show did lose some of its audience because it suddenly became too concerned about world building. Instead of telling standalone stories that gradually fed into like a season finale, season three was all about one thing, reclaiming Mandelor. And that was so bogged down in lore from two different animated series that, of course, general audiences felt alienated. And all of this happened when Dave Faloni took a bigger hand in the show. Now, Faloni is the genius who co-created the Clone War series and Star Wars Rebels, and now he's working on Osoka Season 2 and the big crossover movie that will bring together the TV characters to fight Thrawn,

a movie that, according to this report, is now in jeopardy. Now before I keep going here, I want to make sure you guys know about our new and or parody merch. Free Gorman, I have friends everywhere, and fight the empire. And this is on top of other great Star Wars parody merch like Good Soldiers Follow Orders, Hello There, Somehow Palpatine Returned, Original Trilogy, and more. All of these shirts are designed by us for you. Shopping our merch store helps to support our channel and brings us all together as a community. Links are below. Now to give you guys some background, when Disney Plus launched in 2019, Disney didn't mind just throwing money at the service. In fact, Disney Plus has already lost $10 billion, but the point of any tech startup is to lose money for the first few years.

You get people hooked on a subscription, and then you jack up your prices. So Disney's model actually needs high-quality original branding like the Mandalorian, but they let that brand get watered down by focusing on quantity over quality. Actually, Disney Plus made a profit for the first time last year, in part by combining services with ESPN, Hulu, and Max, and also by introducing an ad-free tier. But they also stopped throwing money at costly shows like the Acolyte, which for one season cost $250 million. Like Star Wars TV is very, very expensive to make,

if you want it to look good. And The Mandalorian, comparatively, was actually kind of cheap, with the first season budget of just $120 million. And the two seasons of Andor cost an estimated $645 million combined, But that show focused on building practical sets rather than using the volume. But Andor might be expensive, but it's also one of those shows that raises the profile of Disney Plus. It actually creates buzz. People who don't know Star Wars are getting told to watch Andor.

It's a contender for an Emmy for Best Drama. So I think the key here is that Disney can throw money at Star Wars TV, but hey, get this. They should throw money at good Star Wars TV. Focus on shows like Andor and The Mandalorian, and people will regard Disney Plus as something great that they need to. have. I should note that right now, the most viewed programming on Disney Plus is legacy programming like Moana 2. So Disney might be tempted to just coast on that. But in the long run, that is a losing strategy. Like, look at Netflix. They could have just coasted on reposting pre-existing IP, but instead they created shows like Oranges and New Black, Stranger Things, Baby Rain Deer. Or look at HBO.

They used to just rerun old movies, but now they are known as the benchmark for quality television. The Mandalorian is still Disney's most watched original show. So I think that Disney needs to keep making original stories that are seen as necessary viewing by fans. But like I said, I am biased. There is an argument that Star Wars belongs in movie theaters and everything else is just filler. Now, later on, I'm going to tell you guys why I think canceling the Mandalorian is a huge mistake and why this is a show that could easily run for 30 years. But first, I want to bring on Heather Antos and Colton Ogburn to get their takes on this,

and let's find out if that Dave Filoni movie could really be canceled. All right, so I'm joined here by two of my all-time favorite people. we have Heather Antos and Colton Ogburn, the guy who's trapped in our television, but doesn't know it. So please don't tell him. Colton, I just want to start with you. Let's get your thoughts on this right now. Like just cold open. What do you think about Mando not being renewed for season four? It's extremely disappointing. I mean, the one Star Wars story that actually belongs on television, they are taking to the movies. And I feel so conflicted on that because for so many years now, I've been saying, how like Star Wars stories belong on the big screen, the one exception I would have to that is the Mandalorian. And And Andor.

Well, yeah, and Andor. But even with Andor, I think, you know, it could have been a, you know, a phenomenal, you know, series of films, you know, and continuing what they have with Rogue One. The Mandalorian specifically being that spaghetti Western new story every week, these adventures in the galaxy beyond that of the Skywalker saga, what they've done, especially as they got into season three is they've just, they've drugged that show closer and closer to the, the main story and the somehow Palpatine returned and setting up the sequels. And it's just so much. And I think that they have just gotten further and further from what made season one so great, what made season two

great. And I think we started to see that downfall happen kind of with season three as it started to blend with all these other shows that Flonie was doing. And then setting up that movie, you got Asoka, Book of Boba Fed, that was basically what, like, Mandalorian, that was kind of our Mandalorian season four a little bit, right? Or season two and a half. I'm disappointed. I'm excited about the movie. I think it's going to be great. I just don't understand why the one story that actually does belong on Disney Plus is the one they're going to pluck out and then throw on the big screen. Meanwhile, and you know, Ryan, I'll get on a rant about this. They keep Kenobi on Disney Plus. All right, let's reel that in. You had a whole video to talk about it. Well, Heather,

I think maybe you can shed some insight into this because you always know a lot about corporate licensing. Your, you know, head editor of group licensing at IDW. You worked in the Disney Star Wars machine. You're an editor of Star Wars Marvel Comics, created or co-created some of my favorite characters like Dr. Afra. So I think you have a unique insight here between us about what the hell they're doing and why they're doing it. So what are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, to give the really boring answer is a lot of streaming shows don't go past a season four or a season five and beyond these days. Really, really boring. These subscription platforms are about bringing in new subscribers. And once you hit a season three and beyond, it becomes a lot of work for new people

to play catch up, especially in connected universes like the Star Wars or Marvel universe where you know, now with Mandalorian, you might have to watch book. You have to watch Book of Boba Fett in order to, to understand what's going on. You know, you have to watch Asoka. You have to watch all these other shows to watch a season three, a season four of Mandalorian. And that's asking a lot, especially because what was so great about Mandalorian season one is you didn't have to have ever watched a Star Wars ever to follow that story. There are people who thought that, that baby Yoda was actual baby Yoda. Exactly.

When I watched it, yeah. And that's, you know, that's just the really boring business side of it is, you know. I don't think that's boring at all. I find that kind of thing fascinating because it, you know, we look at things from a very story perspective. The story was so good. Why do they cancel? Well, it costs $120 million a season. And knowing, just hearing that from you so interesting that they're only looking for discovery.

Because I think if they announced, hey, we're canceling the Mandalorian, they would lose subscribers, no? Um, yes and no, you know, how many people have subscriptions that they don't know they have? Everyone check your bank accounts right now, you know? Which is why I use Rocket Money. See, Rocket Money is a great. I can't turn it off. Rocket money, that's a free one. They didn't pay us. They're not, hashtag not sponsoring this video. I hear what you're saying, right? And it also is very true. I think back and there's a lot of shows like, you know, that did last two seasons. You go, why'd they cancel that? It was great.

I think there's a thing, a line in between here, where Colton's saying they started to pull it into the wider universe, and I think we've both, we've all three agreed, that was a mistake. If you just keep it self-contained as possible, I don't even mind Jack Black and Lizzo popping in for an episode. Like, that's just kind of dumb, silly fun. So do you guys think that there was even something here with Star Wars TV? You know, like in season two and three, when they started to kind of seed these. other shows. Heather, did that work for you creatively? I mean, some aspects of it worked better than others, right? I think when it becomes too reliant on you having watched Book of Obofa

Phat in order to understand, you know, how Mandalorian got Grogu Back, right? You know, when you have to watch another show in order to understand the current show that you're watching, that's when it becomes too complex. One of the things that I think, what I would love to see in my perfect, you know, Star Wars Television Universe is you have the movies and the big screen that stand alone on their own, but then you have the TV shows that kind of show what else is going on in the background, that not necessarily is imperative for you to watch the films or to watch the other shows. Like, season one, Agents of Shield, I think, you know, the first couple seasons of Agents of Shield, I thought, did this really, really well when it came

to the MCU. It's here's what's going on with the regular people. on the sidelines, you know, occasionally you might get someone with fancy superpowers popping in here and there. But, you know, it's supportive material. It's not necessary. And Winter Soldier, that did really well. So, okay, dealing with Star Wars then, you can look at like Andor. Andor does exactly what you're saying. If you've seen Rogue One, fantastic. You can watch Andor. And if you have it, you can watch it as a standalone bit. Where they, I think they started to kind of, like you said, the line was Book of Boba Fett and something you have to watch to understand this. instead of creating stories that maybe stand on their own.

Like, Andor is a story about revolution and sacrifice. Book of Boba Fett is a story about this guy and Return of the Jedi who came back in this other show, and now he's doing crime. And also, there's a wookie and also there's, and there's, and there's, like, all this. But it doesn't have, like, what is this show about? Like, it didn't start from a central story conceit, which is kind of in line with what you're saying. Colton, right now we're in this awkward transition period, right, where it seemed like especially post-COVID, Disney Plus and Bob Paycheck were very much like, hey, we want nothing

but streaming, right? Make all the Star Wars streaming that you can. We have to build up Disney Plus. Here's a few billion dollars make it happen. And then Iger came in, looked at the price tag, and said, hold on. Now, you know, let's be reasonable about this. Let's adopt this model that Heather talked about, where we only put the show in for three seasons and then move on. Or we only use characters from the original trilogy. Why are we doing the Acoly? And then, meanwhile, we're getting like movies like Ryan Gosselin and Sean Levy's Starfighter movie getting greenlit. And I'm excited about that. But do you think that now it's swung back too far the other way? There's no live action shows and development apart from Asoka's

season two. So where do you, where's the line for you, man? Like where do you think we should have what makes it a show and what makes it a movie? Well, you know, I've been a huge advocate for the majority of projects, both with Star Wars and Marvel. I think their main focus. They're their bread and butter should be the theatrical experience, putting stuff on the big screen. I think that even from a monetary standpoint, that is where studios are going to make the bulk of their money is, you know, putting out these films that can, you know, hit $2 billion at the box office and then put it on streaming and bolster your streaming service. I think that's the model. As far as the TV shows go, you know, I really, as much as I love the end of,

Mando Season 2 with Luke and all that. You know, I cried like everybody else, and I was terrified by the horrible deep fake face. But I think that is really when things went south for this show, because you have Grogu going to be with Luke, and then, like you said, they undercut that by having that story lead into the book of BobaFet, and then all of a sudden he's back for season three. And like I was saying earlier, it just all got too, like intertwined with the deeper story. I feel like they are just doing this. If I could give a visual example,

they are going in the complete opposite direction with what they need to do. They are taking the movies, the complete opposite direction, taking the, like I said, the one thing that actually worked on their Disney Plus show. Even those 30-minute episodes that, you know, we like to shit can a lot, that worked for the Mandalorian because it felt like this episodic, separate thing that you could just tune in and watch. It's about this, these two characters that we love. You don't have to watch anything else.

You don't have to know what else is going on in the wider universe. So then, go ahead. What's a movie then? I mean, is a movie not the same thing? Like, where do you draw the line between this would make a good show or this would make a good movie? You know, I think the movies need to be, they spent $5 billion on Star Wars, right? And I think a huge chunk of that is the characters of Han, Luke, and Leah. Yeah, I think you recast the characters and tell a trilogy of films after Return of the Jedi and before episode seven.

That's the movies I want to see. Keep your movie characters in the movies and then do what they have proven they can do with the TV shows, with shows like Andor, which introduced a ton of new characters, with shows like The Acolyte, which, yeah, it had its problems, but I still think that it was a pretty good show. to tell these other wide-ranging stories from the Star Wars Galaxy, I think, on TV, and then keep your film characters that you still have, you know, the IP for and that are beloved characters, keep those in the movies. I feel like it would kind of, like, their abandonment and their refusal to recast these original characters, it feels like if Disney, like, when they bought Marvel was like,

okay, but we're not going to use Spider-Man, Iron Man, you know, a Hulk, like, I named two characters that they don't even fully have the rights to, but you get. well i i agree on recasting i don't agree on only focus on them i think for instance the acolyte would have made for a great movie uh and obi one like we've talked about before heather what about you where would you draw the line of hey this is something we should explore as a tv show that's got to be cost effective compared to a movie and this is something we should explore as a film it depends on what the story is is this an episodic story does this justify you know I don't want to say six episodes because that's where streaming is right now.

But does this justify 10, you know, 10 episodes? Is this something that can be episodic? Mandalorian, season one, a perfectly episodic story, and or a perfectly episodic story. There is a span of time that is here to be explored. You know, and that to me, you know, you can tell a great, great TV show with any character. you can tell a great movie with any set of characters. It really depends on what the story is and how much time we have to justifiably spend with that story.

You know, there's a thing with YouTube, and by the way, I agree completely. I think it always does come down to story first, which is why things like maybe Asoka Season 1 and Book of Bobafet didn't work because they were IP-focused first instead of story first, like Andor was. There's a thing right now. I think that when we get to step back and we get to look at this chaos behind the scenes, right?

Like in YouTube, we have a thing called panic posting. Like, oh, my God, we've got to make a video about Lilo and Stitch. Put the video up now because it was a big thing, right? Or whatever it is. Like, oh, my God, we need views. Go do this. I think Disney was panic posting, especially post-pandemic. And you can see that in Mandalorian season three.

So a little behind-the-scenes stuff. I talked to a couple people who worked on Book of Boba-Fat, who shalt remain anonymous. And they said they thought they were working on Mandalorian Season 3. and that they agreed with a lot of the stuff that we were saying about Book of Boba Fett. And when you look at it, it definitely seems like they got into production and they thought, oh, shit, we have to stretch this. And then there's other things about Mando's Season 3, like the very weird half episode where half of it is following the doctor on Corrassant. Oh, my God, I've forgotten his name.

I used to be an encyclopedia for this stuff. But that episode, a friend of my Brian Silliman, who's worked here on the channel before, thought, that's probably something they were going to do in Rangers of the New Republic. that had to cede the movie, and instead, they were like, okay, it's got to go in there. And you can just kind of feel this chaos behind the scenes. So in a way, it makes sense that they would want to kind of wipe the slate clean and start again. The thing is, though, they're not starting again.

They're leading into Asoka Season 2, as far as has been announced, as far as I know, is the last live action Disney Star Wars show, which is terrible news for us at the channel, and I think should be terrible news for all Star Wars fans. but that show presumably is getting made because it's going to lead directly into the Dave Filoni directed crossover Avengers type movie that will be about Mandalorian, Grogu, Asoka, probably not the skeleton crew people

and whoever the hell else they want to bring in from what was going to be Rangers in the New Republic to set up Thron and heir to the empire and all that stuff. So I guess my question here is, Heather, I'll start with you, is that going to be too much now for audiences to digest if there's not a regular TV show? Like, is that even a movie they should make if it doesn't feature a recasting of Han Luke and Leyen? Here's a thing. I think there is a world in which

it could work and be a good movie. I, you know, I think if you have the right people on the script, if you have the right producers, the right directors, who are able to provide the context and framing necessary in order to understand everything, I think it could be successful. I don't know if Dave Filoni is that person, as we've seen with Asoka. You know, Asoka, in order to fully understand the nuances of all those characters, that we talked about very, very heavily, is you have to do a lot of homework. And I just don't know if he is the person who is able to accomplish that. Colton, what about you?

You think this is something they can pull off, or does this also belong on Disney Plus as a limited series? No, I think that the character of Thron and Air to the... Empire would have been a great direction for them to take the films. I don't think that Dave Faloni needs to be involved with it or the character of Asoka. I worry that that movie, we are just going to hear like vague mentions and references to the three main characters who belong in that story, which are Lucan and Leia. That's the theatrical movie that they should be doing, setting up Thron. Because it hits all of those classic beats that Disney supposedly.

wanted and out of a Star Wars story, you know, you got the Empire, you got the Stormtroopers, you got these original characters, you think that is something they'd want to tell, but instead they're going to do this movie with, they're going to rip their two most successful and beloved

streaming characters in Mando and Grogo, they're going to rip them out of their successful thing after they completely rap fuck the show by you know putting the best part of the story between season two and three and Book of BobaFet. So they're going to rip them out. They're going to take a character in Asoka that sure people know, but

you know, she's a, she's a animated series character that hardcore fans love and that I think her story would have been really well served with a Faloni type show. I don't know that her character and all of these characters that they're putting in this movie even belong there. I think that they should have remained in this streaming world and then have the air to the empire movie. It's like they're taking two things that could have been great. on their own and they're mushing them together and it's almost like they're a victim of their own success at this point and they're just like oh that work that work let's just throw it all together and throw it on the big screen instead of like actually taking the time to dissect and say okay this

would work here this would work here it just seems a little directionless and like back to your other point are they swinging too far in the other direction yeah i think so i think they need to take a beat and assess and yeah i know it's been a long time since we saw a theatrical Star Horse movie? What was it? Was it Rise of Skywalker in the 2019? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, I meant the last Jedi. That was the last one, right? I don't know, guys. I definitely agree with everything you both are saying. It's interesting to hear the economics behind everything. What I'm hearing is a lot of, like, we saw this kind of in a microcosm with the High Republic, where they had a great group of story editors get together. They

planned out that first phase meticulously, and then it was successful, and then the second phase wasn't planned out as well, but after it was successful, everybody wanted to come in and raise a leg on it and do something in that era instead of just leaving them the hell alone. And you see this all the time in creative industries, especially in a franchise. And Heather, I know you could go into some stories about this, where you have a really good thing and it's working and people love this Darth Vader comic. But then you have to cancel that Darth Vader comic for reasons that are really silly because it matches some corporate thing that somebody over here who you've never met seems to think works. Now I obviously have really strong opinions on this I want to tell you guys about and why I think this direction is just just horrible for them to go in, but I'm still optimistic about Star Wars. I want to thank Colton and Heather for joining me and I'm going to tell you guys what exactly I think is going on here. Now personally I hate this news because it shows that once again Disney and Lucasfilm are learning the wrong lessons from their mistakes. What do you mean? Well like when solo underperformed and Rogue One did well, Disney thought this meant that they had to see you, see,

eGI recreations of legacy actors because we wouldn't accept the recasting of Han Solo, which is not true, we just didn't want to see a movie about Han Solo. Or, you know, like when The Mandalorian did well, instead of just continuing what was working for that show, they got greedy and forced all these spinoff series to air before they were ready, which overcomplicated and hurt their original show. So now, after one underperforming season of The Mandalorian, they're ready to pull the plug and just triple down on movies. Guys, the Mandalorian is a show that could have run for 30 years, and frankly, it's not that expensive of a show to make, at least not like the acolyte, which cost a quarter of a million dollars a season.

I mean, the main character is a guy in a helmet, and the sidekick is a puppet. There was no need to worry about the actors getting older. It would have been so much fun just to see these guys go on loosely connected adventures every week exploring new corners of the galaxy. The show could tie in with new movies, or the movies could tie in to the show, or they could be totally separate. I think that Disney had a gold mine here, but they listened to the wrong creative voices. They watered down the brand, and now they're going to dump their top show at the first sign of trouble. Look, I get it. There are millions of dollars at stake here, and corporations are risk-averse. But the merchandise of this show alone makes it profitable by a wide margin. But most importantly, it's actually good.

Star Wars fans have put up with a lot over the decades. We tolerated Jar Jar, EWalk TV movies, Ezra Bridger, Disney. Please don't take away the one thing that we all agree on. Bring back the Mandalorian for season four. But guys, that's just my thoughts. What do you think? Should they cancel the Mandalorian? Should we only have Star Wars movies? Let me have your thoughts down in the comments below or at me on Twitter, blue sky threads or on our free to join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.