'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Is Delayed Because Of Production Timing, Not BTS Drama With The Cast

Even before the second season of The Mandalorian aired, there were rumors of behind the scenes drama between cast and crew members. There were rumors that after the second season, there would be no more Mandalorian and that everything was left with a bad taste. 

Thankfully, however, that was proved not to be the case with the rumors being squashed by Pedro Pascal (Mando) and Jon Favreau. 

Now, with season 3 of The Mandalorian announced by Disney/Lucasfilm, more rumors have resurfaced because of an announcement of delaying the next season. 

As with any big studio, there are rumors, and drama that pops up whenever something doesn’t seem to go as planned. Sometimes it is actually true, but most of the time, it is only a partial truth or totally not true. And thankfully, the totally not true part is the answer to the rumors circulating that the reason that the third season of The Mandalorian is delayed is because of cast and crew drama. 

The Star Wars universe news always seems to be teeming with yellow journalism and rumors to the point where the famous quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance is very accurate: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” 

This means that the minute something gets speculated, misprinted, or flat out lied about, it goes around until the fans believe it is real. 

Luckily for us, behind the scenes drama with the cast and crew of The Mandalorian is not the reason that it is delayed in production. Originally, season 3 of The Mandalorian was supposed to air at the end of 2021. It has recently been announced that it will not air until 2022. 

There was a lot of confusion involving the announcement at the end of season 2 of The Mandalorian about The Book of Boba Fett, which is set to come out in December of 2021. Fans were ecstatic but also bewildered. Rumors started going around that The Mandalorian was over and that The Book of Boba Fett was the continuation. Rumors started to say that they would be one and the same show with Mando joining Boba Fett on his adventures. 

All the rumors led to Jon Favreau appearing on Good Morning America to clear up the confusion by confirming  that they were two different shows. However, some fans were still determined to pick his words apart, and the idea of behind the scenes drama was brought up again as to why there was a delay in filming. 

However, the simple reason production is delayed is this: COVID-19 protocols and the fact that now the Star Wars universe is filming several shows in one year instead of just the one. 

COVID-19 protocols have made the biggest complications in filming for Lucasfilm. While they have multiple studios across the world, they can still only film with limited cast, crew, and mobility. They are also navigating multiple shows at once with some of the same cast members in two or more of the different shows. Temuera Morrison, who plays Boba Fett, is going to have the hardest time, which is one of the reasons why The Mandalorian is delayed. Since The Book of Boba Fett was announced, Morrison will obviously be playing Boba Fett in that show as the central character. He is also slated to come back as Boba Fett in The Mandalorian season 3. And there is the possibility that he may be reprising his role as Commander Cody in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

With the juggling of these three series, which are all supposed to be filming this year, they had to push some things around. And The Mandalorian season 3 got the brunt of it. 

From what we can tell so far, once the production ends for The Book of Boba Fett, which is currently starting/going on, Temuera Morrison will then go over to film his parts for the Kenobi series, which should start filming in England in early March 2021. Then, after that, Morrison will come back to the States to film The Mandalorian season 3. 

It’s a lot to juggle for one person, let alone a studio that is trying to create three different stories at once while trying to keep everyone safe and run on a different type of schedule than ever before. So, while there is sometimes drama with different productions, drama is not the reason why The Mandalorian season 3 is delayed in filming. And hopefully, with all of the moving around and care taken to each show and part, it will bring a much deeper, richer story to the Star Wars universe.