'The Mandalorian' Season 3: Pre-Production Has Already Begun, And Jon Favreau Has Been Writing Scripts "For A While" Already

The second season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian doesn't arrive on the streaming platform for another six months, but a new report says that pre-production on a third season is already underway. Get the details below.

According to Variety, sources close to the production have revealed that creator/showrunner Jon Favreau has been "writing season 3 for a while," and the art department, led by Lucasfilm vice president and executive creative director Doug Chiang, has spent "the past few weeks" creating concepts for season 3. A source explained that pre-production has just started, and another mentioned that work got underway on April 20 because of the long lead time necessary to make the show. Unlike many other television productions, The Mandalorian is almost fully designed ahead of time so the team can use its StageCraft technology to shoot the series in an immersive way on a virtual set. You can see exactly how it works in this video and in the upcoming behind-the-scenes documentary series coming to Disney+ next month.

So what could the third season be about? It's difficult to guess since we're not even sure what the second season is going to be about yet, but we're guessing it will center on the further adventures of the title character (played by Pedro Pascal) and his meme-worthy alien cargo, Baby Yoda. (Who knows, maybe we'll learn Baby Yoda's real name by then!) Last month, /Film exclusively revealed that Rosario Dawson will be playing Star Wars fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian season 2, but it's unclear if she's only going to stick around for one season or if she's in it for the long haul. She could also be getting her own spin-off series. Michael Biehn will also appear in the second season as a bounty hunter, so there's always the chance he survives long enough to be back in action in season 3.

It's simply too early to tell exactly how this will all play out with any certainty, but I'm sure fans of the first season are thrilled about this in a time when we're all desperate for any good news we can get.

The Mandalorian season 2 will debut on Disney+ in October 2020, and we assume the third season will premiere in the fall of 2021 – although the coronavirus pandemic still may end up pushing that back further than normal.