Another Star Wars movie may be heading to the cutting room floor following new information straight from the House of Mouse.
It’s by no means a secret that The Walt Disney Company’s Star Wars franchise is in a severe state of flux. With little on the confirmed slate and projects lying dormant for literal years, the future of the beloved galaxy far, far away has never been more precarious. Of course, a big turning point for the franchise was the streaming era evolution.
Led by Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, which debuted alongside the launch of Disney+, Star Wars has quite the footprint on the streamer. From animated series to live-action events, Disney+ has been the hub of Star Wars content ever since the sequel trilogy wrapped in December 2019.
That said, as time went on, audiences began to reject the near-constant stream of Disney+ content. The Mando-Verse expanded with the likes of The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka, two series that received mixed to negative reviews upon their release. There is clearly no future for the former, while the latter will return for a second–and likely final–season in early 2027.
Even The Mandalorian showed signs of slowing down with its third season, and the pivot to theatrical in 2026 has confirmed that audiences are not favoring the New Republic era anymore–even if it comes with Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and his little green ward, Grogu.
Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu—the apparent replacement for The Mandalorian Season 4–vastly underperformed at the global box office, netting just over $340 million on a circa $165 million budget. The trajectory of The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s box office performance became increasingly worrying when indie horror movies like Obsession (2025) and Backrooms (2026) outperformed the major IP on its first and second weeks of release.
Just last week, during The Walt Disney Company’s third-quarter earnings call, CEO Josh D’Amaro commented on the box office for both The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live-action Moana (2026), which also performed poorly worldwide.
“While audience scores for both Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and fiscal Q4’s live action Moana have been strong, both films underperformed our box office expectations,” Disney wrote in its shareholder letter. “Even so, these franchise investments contributed to value creation beyond their theatrical releases.”
The company went on to acknowledge that the movie “drove healthy growth in retail sales for the Star Wars franchise during the quarter,” noting as well the launch of the Mandalorian-themed overlay of Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run at both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort.
So, with the poor performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the delay for the sophomore season of Ahsoka, and apparent cancellations of fellow New Republic shows, The Book of Boba Fett and Skeleton Crew, what happens to the future of the Mando-Verse? Well, chances are the previously announced crossover movie from Dave Filoni is no longer happening.
Back in 2023, former Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced three major Star Wars movies: a New Republic movie from Dave Filoni (one of her eventual successors), a “New Jedi Order” movie from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and starring Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and a “Dawn of the Jedi” movie from James Mangold. Later, the executive also confirmed that a trilogy from Simon Kinberg was in motion at the studio.
Since 2023, though, nothing much has emerged on any of the announced projects, aside from the odd comment about delays and schedule. With Filoni now leading Lucasfilm along with Lynwen Brennan, chances of his Mando-Verse movie getting off the ground are slim. His appointment, paired with the waning interest in the Mandalorian era and the box office performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu, will likely lead to the movie’s cancellation.
Per earlier reports, it seems that Filoni has written Ahsoka Season 2 with a clear ending. What this means is unclear, but it will surely explore the aftermath of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) return to the galaxy, and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren’s (Natasha Lui Bordizzo) escape from Peridea.
As time goes on, the chance to see the culmination of seven years of New Republic storytelling is depleting as more evidence comes to light. Chances are, the Thrawn plot will remain on Disney+ as a series or TV special event.
Star Wars isn’t out of theaters altogether, though. Next May, Shawn Levy will debut his Star Wars: Starfighter (2027) movie starring Ryan Gosling. The project is described as a standalone and will chart new territory for the space opera as the first Star Wars story taking place beyond the events of Star Wars: Episode IX–The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
If Star Wars: Starfighter performs well (and there is a big chance it will, thanks to its standalone status and being fronted by a charismatic Ryan Gosling), it will also confirm that appetite for the Mando-Verse era has suffered in the last seven years, further prompting the cancellation of Dave Filoni’s New Republic movie.
The franchise is no stranger to ridding projects from its slate. There was the very public cancellation of Rangers of the New Republic following the firing of Gina Carano (Cara Dune), but there have also been quieter removals. It was recently revealed that a Star Wars project from the writers of Paddington 2 (2017), Paul King (who also directed) and Simon Farnaby, was cut from development and is now being established as a non-IP project.
The future of the Mando-Verse is on shaky ground, and as time goes on, it seems fans are losing interest in the former franchise stronghold.
How do you feel about the Star Wars Mando-Verse? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
