While the sequel trilogy has its legion of fans, one thing that’s evident about The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker is the filmmakers admittedly didn’t plan out the overarching structure of the stories. This led to some backtracking, unfulfilled plot threads, and characters getting pushed to the side. Determined not to make the same mistakes, as well as building on the shared universe, Variety is reporting that scripts of the fourth season of The Mandalorian is already written so it can connect more smoothly to other Star Wars series like the upcoming Ahsoka.
Jon Favreau has confirmed to BFM TV that season 4 scripts were written during the post-production of season 3, “Season 4, yeah I’ve written it already. We have to know where we’re going to tell a fully formed story. We had mapped it out, Dave [Filoni] and I, and slowly you start to write each episode. I was writing it during post-production. All of it has to feel like a continuation and one full story.”
With the anticipated Ahsoka on the way, Favreau adds, “[Dave’s] doing Ahsoka, which I’m producing with him. He’s the writer and showrunner on that. To understand what’s happening on other shows….Skeleton Crew all take place within the same ‘Star Wars’ time period. There’s a lot more things that we’ve got to keep in mind and also stuff that we’ve built up to from previous seasons of The Mandalorian as well.”
The third season of The Mandalorian is due to premiere on March 1st, although Disney has not yet officially announced a renewal for season 4, they will still seemingly be closely connected as Ahsoka is planned to take place around the same timeframe as The Mandalorian. Rosario Dawson made a surprise introductory appearance in the previous season of Pedro Pascal-starring series, and the popularity of the character had granted her her own spin-off. In addition, the Jude Law series, Skeleton Crew, is also planned to take place around the same timeframe. The announced Acolyte series that will be starring Amanda Stenberg is set years before this timeframe, so that show will operate on its own schedule.