The upcoming Star Wars feature film The Mandalorian & Grogu is currently targeting a 2026 release.
According to The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger (via Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter), The Mandalorian & Grogu will indeed be the next Star Wars feature film to release in theaters. Furthermore, the Disney chief told investors that the movie is likely to release in 2026 — about two years from now.
That said, beyond the tentative 2026 release window, it’s unclear when exactly Star Wars fans can expect to see Din Djarin and his green son grace the silver screen. Notably, all the big-screen Star Wars movies released prior to the Disney era premiered in May (with the exception of the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which bowed in August).
However, ever since Disney acquired Star Wars studio Lucasfilm, all the franchise’s cinematic offerings have released in December. The sole exception thus far has been 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which premiered in May.
The Mandalorian & Grogu jumped to the front of Star Wars’ new movie slate
The Mandalorian & Grogu is a spin-off of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, which premiered in 2019 and aired its third and most recent season in 2023. Set five years after the events of 1983’s Return of the Jedi, the series stars Pedro Pascal as Din “Mando” Djarin, a Mandalorian foundling and bounty hunter who comes to care for the (relatively) young Grogu, a former Jedi Padawan belonging to Yoda’s species.
The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau will write and direct the duo’s upcoming big-screen adventure, which marks the franchise’s first cinematic entry since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Lucasfilm’s Dave Filoni recently declined to confirm if Favreau’s movie would take the place of The Mandalorian’s planned fourth season.
The Mandalorian & Grogu is one of four in-development Star Wars features Lucasfilm is currently fast-tracking. Prior to the Mandalorian spin-off’s announcement, it was thought that the Rey Skywalker-centric film written by Steven Knight and directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy would be the first post-Rise of Skywalker movie. Nevertheless, the project — which sees Daisy Ridley reprise her role as Rey — remains a priority for the studio.
Elsewhere, James Mangold is developing a film set 25,000 years before the events of the original Star Wars. Finally, the aforementioned Filoni is developing a movie that will serve as the grand finale of both The Mandalorian and its spin-off series (such as The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Star Wars; Skeleton Crew).
Lucasfilm has even more Star Wars movie plans
Beyond those four tentpoles, a number of other Star Wars films are in the works as well. Taika Waititi is still developing his own take on the galaxy far, far away — as is Shawn Levy. Meanwhile, Donald and Stephen Glover are writing a Lando Calrissian-led movie, which Lucasfilm was previously developing as a Disney+ series.
There are also still tentative plans for Star Wars: The Last Jedi helmer Rian Johnson to return to the franchise. Finally, there remains a chance that Patty Jenkins’ long-gestating Rogue Squadron movie will eventually see the light of day in some form or fashion.
