The Mandalorian Shutting Down Production?
The Mandalorian might be shutting down its production on Season 3 starting next week. It would be a major blow for the show's timeline
This article is more than 2 years old
For those waiting on the edge of their galactic seat for the return of The Mandalorian Season 3, this news is going to hit kind of hard. There is a chance the series, and other productions over at Disney are setting up to face major delays going forward. According to Murphy’s Multiverse, the possibly- impending IATSE strike could force Disney and other major studios to stop different productions. In their current filming schedule, The Mandalorian would be the first one affected by this news.
There are a couple of issues at hand which would have The Mandalorian looking at a delay here. The first is the aforementioned strike which would potentially begin on Monday. The labor union, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is in negotiations now with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over a variety of different work-related contractual points like meal breaks, weekend breaks, and, of course, higher wages. The current plan is for the strike to begin at 12:01 AM Monday morning. If that were the case then productions across the industry would be held in limbo for an undetermined amount of time.
In this Murphy’s Multiverse reporting, The Mandalorian was initially setting a plan to shut down production on the third season for up to 90 days. This is likely the worst-case scenario but with the strike deadline looming, it doesn’t appear the two sides are going to come to final contract agreements before Monday. As with all of these situations, there would likely be a cascading effect across the studio and the industry as well. Sure, The Mandalorian is currently in production, but considering the Star Wars productions overlap sound stages in Los Angeles, moving the timeline back on one series likely means issues down the production chain as well.
The Mandalorian had started filming its third season only a couple of days ago on October 13th. After facing some Covid-19 delays to get things ramped up over the last year, the idea was the filming would take place over these next couple of months to ensure a 2022 release date on Disney+. That is looking increasingly unlikely to happen with this current news. If the IATSE does, in fact, end up striking on Monday then the delays would begin to immediately mount up.
This situation is fluid and could be resolved at any moment. If the IATSE and AMPTP come to a working agreement to stave off the strike then things would continue as they are now. And that doesn’t even necessarily mean they come to a full contractual settlement and agreement. Sometimes just solid progress in negotiations can mean pushing back a planned strike as a sign of good faith. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for The Mandalorian and other productions.
No matter how this situation plays out, fans of The Mandalorian will have waited more than a year for the next season when it is all said and done. Chapter 16: The Rescue aired on Disney+ all the way back on December 18, 2020. For now, a 2022 release looks like the best-case scenario for the series.
