Jon Favreau Confirms ‘The Mandalorian’ Will Match Up To Disney’s Sequel Trilogy, Also Claims Viewers Influence Continuity Decisions
Jon Favreau, the head writer and Executive Producer for The Mandalorian, recently claimed that The Mandalorian will indeed lead into Disney’s Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.
In a recent interview with YouTube channel Moovy TV promoting the new season of The Mandalorian, Favreau was asked, “You spoke about needing to have a team to keep track of all this continuity that you got going. Is it a challenge also as a storyteller knowing where this universe, this galaxy of Star Wars is like 20, 25 years down the road in terms of the sequel trilogy and having to match up with that?”
Favreau answered, “Yeah. It’s a little closer than that now. We’ve been on the air a little bit.”
“It’s interesting because, you know, what’s come before, and then in our time period there’s also been extended universe fiction,” Favreau continued. “There’s characters that have been slowly introduced in [Star Wars Rebels] like Thrawn. So there’s a lot of stuff that’s in canon like canon proper. But I think there’s different tiers of things.”
Next, he indicated that they look at what’s canon based on audience reaction, “We really look to the fans to see what they embrace too. It’s not like a science. There’s definitely a conversation that’s going on.”
Favreau also expressed he’s looking past the sequel trilogy despite current Disney Star Wars canon not extending past the sequel trilogy, “And then also what happens after the sequel trilogy because the sequel trilogy only takes place over the course of a few years. It’s a big thing on the screen and it’s very eventful, but it is relatively brief moment in history over the course of thousands of years that Star Wars takes place. And so what happens after it is interesting too.”
“And I know there’s some discussion, exploration going on about what happens after it,” he added.
Favreau continued to explain how he looks at Star Wars continuity, “So I think that there are certain markers that we have. It’s almost like studying ancient history where you kind of know a few things that happen, but there’s a lot of murkiness in between and we just don’t have archaeological evidence in the real world to know exactly what happened so we kind of connect the dots.”
“If you look at someone like George R.R. Martin and his novels, it’s really interesting to see how he treats these things because he really does treat it like history,” Favreau went on, “Sometimes you have stories told from different perspectives. Sometimes you have flawed storytellers. Sometimes you have different versions. And, of course, you have different media: the books and the shows. And that interplay and that level of sophistication. And I think also having somebody like one author of it really adds to the complexity that you can have.”
He concluded, “So how do we emulate that with the teams that we have both at Lucasfilm, ILM, and on the team of our shows? How do we all work together and try to formulate that kind of consistency?”
The fact that they are looking past the sequel trilogy could indicate that Grogu and Din Djarin’s story will continue past the events of the sequel trilogy and thus they would be dealing with a galaxy once again finding itself in the middle of chaos with the New Republic’s core planets wiped out by the First Order. The First Order’s quick rise to dominance throughout the galaxy, the usurpation of the First Order by Darth Sidious, and then Sidious’ death and destruction by members of the Resistance.
It’s possible the Mandalorians could fill the power vacuum left by the destruction of the New Republic, the First Order, and Darth Sidious’ Sith forces.
As for Favreau’s comparison of Star Wars canon to ancient history, it doesn’t really hold water given there are clear documents, namely George Lucas’ original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, that Star Wars canon has as its foundations. Disney also made clear they were sidelining the Expanded Universe in favor of their own continuity that included Lucas’ films and The Clone Wars animated series.
A blog post from 2014 on StarWars.com detailed, “While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.”
As for Favreau’s comments about Star Wars stories having different perspectives, flawed storytellers, or different versions, it doesn’t really make sense given the films are considered canon by moviegoers and as noted above by Lucasfilm in 2014 albeit given Favreau’s comments it appears they don’t actually hold that opinion anymore.
Nevertheless what happened in the films was indeed canon. Outside of Lucas’ special editions there are not other Star Wars movies that tell the stories of Luke and Anakin Skywalker from different perspectives or from a flawed storyteller. The events as shown in the films are not only presented as fact, but taken as fact by moviegoers as well.
Luke Skywalker did indeed blow up the first Death by trusting in the Force. Anakin Skywalker did slice off Mace Windu’s hand and then become Darth Vader. As StarWars.com put it these are “immovable objects of Star Wars history.”
It’s possible these comments might be interpreted that he and Lucasfilm might retell the Sequel Trilogy from a different perspective or offer an alternative to it. However, as noted above, he made it clear his show will match up with the events of the Disney Sequel Trilogy.
What do you make of Jon Favreau’s comments?
NEXT: Jon Favreau Says He Does Not Have An Ending Planned Out For ‘The Mandalorian’ And Its Characters
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