Jon Favreau Seemingly Lends Credence To Recent Star Wars Rumors, Says ‘The Mandalorian’ Characters Like Baby Yoda Could Make Jump To Big Screen
The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau seemingly lent credence to recent rumors that characters from the series could make the jump to a film from the Disney+ streaming service.
A recent rumor from scooper WDW Pro indicated that Lucasfilm leadership finally recognized that the Star Wars brand is damaged and their plan to fix it is to team Daisy Ridley’s Rey with The Mandalorian’s Grogu.
WDW Pro explained, “I am told there was a decision point in the last few months concerning Star Wars. And that decision point came about because the brand is seen as damaged even internally at Disney.”
He went on to explain why, “That’s due to declining viewership for Disney+. It’s due to declining interest in the parks.”
Next, he illustrated, “And that’s particularly destructive on two fronts. First of all, Star Wars supposed to be an evergreen franchise that has its own marquee spot on Disney+. And second of all, it has some of the most premium real estate in any of the Disney parks, both on the west coast and on the east coast.”
“Star Wars cannot fail for Disney,” he asserted. “And the decision point is that Star Wars is failing.”
He continued, “So it is my understanding that the top level leadership — you make of that what you will — but the top level leadership of Lucasfilm was brought with the top level leadership of Disney as to what they’re going to do in the future to reconcile this problem they have.”
WDW Pro then got into the meat of his video about what Disney’s plans for the future of Star Wars are. First he outlined a number of options that Disney executives allegedly discussed, “I’m told that some of those options included retconning the sequel trilogy as well as continuing the story, the narrative, around what they’ve done so far.”
He then relayed, “I’m told that Disney is going to bring back Rey.”
Later in the video he revealed, “Rey is the character who leads it all. She’s the one that they want to pin this on and try to revive it. If it doesn’t work they are willing to go back and scrap, but Rey is there,” he says. “Chewbacca is back. I am told Chewbacca is in this.”
Next, he says, “R2-D2, number three is what I am told. Number four is a brand new character.” Finally, the fifth character is Grogu.
WDW Pro goes on to detail, “The idea is that somehow Grogu is going to unite with Rey in the next movie if they can work out all the contracts, if they can get Daisy Ridley back that Grogu will be apart of it along with R2, Chewie, and a brand new character.”
Speaking with Variety ahead of receiving a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, Favreau revealed he’s open to bringing The Mandalorian characters to the big screen.
“There’s always an opportunity when you have a set of characters and stories that people connect with that you could cross media into different areas. Marvel does it quite effectively,” Favreau informed the outlet.
He elaborated, “It’s just a matter of where our time should be spent and what the appetite of the audience is. With all these stories we’re telling, it definitely is a full-time job just keeping this going with what we’re doing now. Television has a much different rhythm and schedule than film does.”
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While these comments do leave the door open for a character like Grogu to make the leap into live-action as this most rumor indicates, it also could be seen as tacit confirmation for a previous rumor that claimed Favreau was building out his Mandalorian world to culminate in an Heir to the Empire series based on Timothy Zahn’s novel.
That rumor surfaced over two years ago frm scooper Mikey Sutton at Geekosity Mag who claimed, “Heir to the Empire won’t be interpreted exactly how it is on the printed page, but it’s shadow will be looming over the show.”
He went on to indicate that The Mandalorian and its connected shows would feature a “war between Thrawn and the New Republic…being built up.”
Sutton went on to cite one source who noted the series would make the leap to a theatrical release, “One insider said he wouldn’t be surprised if the endgame of the Mandalorian putting together his team of galactic, ragtag cosmic Avengers will result in a theatrical film named after Heir to the Empire.”
What do you make of Favreau’s comments?
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