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Fans who are expecting Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu to be an overlong episode of the Disney+ series should perhaps reconsider their expectations, based on what writer and director Jon Favreau said about the project during an appearance at Star Wars Celebration Japan.

“In television, [being] a showrunner and as a writer, that’s a big part of the process,” Favreau said when asked about what’s changed between making the show and making the movie for him. “I only [got] to direct one episode of all the seasons that we’ve had. Dave Filoni, my partner… he’s just an incredible mentor and partner, he directed the pilot and together, we established a look, but in a feature film, to get to be a director is a different process. They’re the storytellers, they’re on set every day.”

The other difference between the Disney+ Mandalorian and the big screen Mandalorian, Favreau suggested, is one of ambition. A movie is given the time and space to tell its story in a way that television production simply can’t handle — not even on a streaming service.

“We also had the opportunity, which is different, to have a much larger span of time to tell the story in,” the writer/director continued. “Not on the screen, but in making it. We have to turn around within a year to get each season of The Mandalorian done — here, we have many years, and that allows you to plan differently, to build more sets, to explore things virtually beforehand, to have rehearsals, refine the costumes, build more practical opportunities than we had had before, and then of course, filling the IMAX screen. Traditionally, Star Wars has be [2:35:1] aspect ratio, from its earliest days, but for certain sequence, to be able to open up to a tall format, and how do you fill that with all the wonderful imagery that Star Wars provides.”

So, basically, expect to see a bigger Mandalorian — and a more realized version of the concept than fans have ever had the opportunity to explore before — when Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu is released in theaters May 22, 2026.

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