The third season of the American television series The Mandalorian is part of the Star Wars franchise, set after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). It continues the story of a bounty hunter and his charge, Grogu, after they were reunited in the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett. It also depicts efforts to unite the scattered Mandalorian people and retake their home planet from remnants of the Empire. The season was produced by Lucasfilm, Fairview Entertainment, and Golem Creations, with Jon Favreau serving as showrunner.
Pedro Pascal and Katee Sackhoff star as the title character and Mandalorian leader Bo-Katan Kryze, respectively. Development on a third season of The Mandalorian began by late April 2020, and it was officially confirmed that December. The season concludes storylines from the first two seasons as well as The Book of Boba Fett, and teases new stories for future projects. Filming began by October 2021 and wrapped in late March 2022. Joseph Shirley took over as composer from Ludwig Göransson.
The eight-episode season premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on March 1, 2023, and ran until April 19, 2023. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances, musical score, direction, cinematography, and action sequences, but criticism for the writing and pacing, with some deeming the season weaker than its predecessors. The season won a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award and was nominated for eight others. A fourth season entered development, before Lucasfilm re-evaluated their plans for the franchise and instead announced a continuation film, The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026), in January 2024.
Contents
Production
Development
By late April 2020, The Mandalorian creator and showrunner Jon Favreau had been writing a third season for "a while" and further development on the season was beginning. That September, co-star Giancarlo Esposito said the second season would "start to lay the groundwork for the depth and breadth that's going to come in season 3 and season 4, where you're really gonna start to get answers." After the second-season finale announced The Book of Boba Fett for December 2021, commentators speculated that the third season would be shifting focus from Din Djarin, The Mandalorian, to Boba Fett. Favreau soon clarified that The Book of Boba Fett was a separate spin-off series that was already in production in December 2020, with the third season of The Mandalorian again focusing on Djarin. He added that the third season was in pre-production, and filming would begin in 2021. Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, and co-star Carl Weathers all directed episodes after doing so for previous seasons, with Famuyiwa also being promoted to executive producer. Lee Isaac Chung, Peter Ramsey, and Rachel Morrison all directed episodes of the season.
Writing
Favreau wrote all eight episodes of the season, working with Noah Kloor on the third and Dave Filoni on the fourth and seventh episodes. The season picks up after the events of The Book of Boba Fett (2021), with the Mandalorian and Grogu traveling to Mandalore so Din Djarin can redeem himself for his transgressions of removing his helmet. Discussing the absence of Cara Dune in the season following the firing of actress Gina Carano, Famuyiwa said the character was still "a big part... of the world" and that Favreau took the time to address her absence. However, the creatives knew "the heart of the show" was Din Djarin and Grogu with Filoni stating the season was "mainly dealing with Mandalorians and the Mandalorian saga, the Mandalorian tale", and how that affects the duo's story. Famuyiwa stated the season would resolve a number of plot points established in the previous Mandalorian seasons as well as in the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, particularly in the final two episodes, concluding the first chapter of these connected stories. The season would also plant seeds as to where the connected storyline was heading.
Casting
Pedro Pascal stars in the series as The Mandalorian. The Mandalorian is also portrayed by stunt doubles Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder, with Wayne and Crowder receiving co-star credit for the first time in the third season. In November 2020, Esposito said he expected to be featured more prominently in the third season than previous ones. Also returning are Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze, Emily Swallow as The Armorer, Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, Omid Abtahi as Penn Pershing, Simon Kassianides as Axe Woves, and Mercedes Varnado as Koska Reeves. Katy O'Brian co-stars as Elia Kane, reprising the role from the second season, while Ahmed Best co-stars as Jedi Master Kelleran Beq; Best originated the role on the children's game show Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. Due to the previous experience and concern to how his character would fit in the story, Best was initially reluctant to appear. However, executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were able to convince him to appear. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also reprises his role as Carson Teva, as does Tait Fletcher as the Mandalorian Paz Vizsla, with the character voiced by Favreau. In March 2022, Christopher Lloyd was revealed to be a guest star for the season, as Commissioner Helgait, and in May 2022 it was revealed that Tim Meadows would appear in the season, as New Republic Colonel Tuttle. Jack Black and singer Lizzo co-star as Captain Bombardier and his wife The Duchess, respectively, of the planet Plazir-15. Favreau cast Black and Lizzo as Bombardier and the Duchess because of their reputations in social media as Star Wars fans, with Black often doing funny videos of The Mandalorian on his Instagram and TikTok accounts while Lizzo often cosplayed as Grogu in videos that Favreau's kids showed to his father. As the showrunners were preparing to make an episode with an eccentric royal couple in a court that felt like something taken from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Favreau reached out to Black and Lizzo and they gladly accepted, especially for the opportunity of interacting with the Grogu puppet.
Also starring in the season are Temuera Morrison reprising his role as the voice of the clone troopers, Steve Blum reprising his role as the voice of Rebels character Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, and directors Deborah Chow, Rick Famuyiwa, and Dave Filoni reprising their roles as New Republic pilots Sash Ketter, Jib Dodger, and Trapper Wolf, respectively. Brian Gleeson and Xander Berkeley appear as Brendol Hux and Gillad Pellaeon, two Imperial warlords and members of the Shadow Council. Jonny Coyne, Jodi Long, Hemky Madera, Ron Bottitta, Marco Khan, and Imelda Corcoran appear as additional warlords.
Filming
Filming for the season began by October 13, 2021, with David Klein serving as the cinematographer. It had previously been expected to begin once filming for The Book of Boba Fett completed in June 2021, but was unable to then because Obi-Wan Kenobi was using the Los Angeles soundstages. Esposito noted that the production did not need to wait for Pascal to complete filming the HBO series The Last of Us since the Mandalorian is primarily seen with his helmet on. Regarding filming the season during the COVID-19 pandemic, Favreau felt The Mandalorian was in an advantageous situation since many characters are in masks and the series employs "a lot of digital work that augments things", allowing the production to be flexible to adhere to filming protocols. Filming wrapped on March 29, 2022. Reshoots occurred in early July 2022.
Music
In February 2023, Joseph Shirley was revealed to be composing the score for the season, replacing Ludwig Göransson. Shirley previously provided additional music for the first two seasons and used Göransson's themes to compose the score for The Book of Boba Fett. Like the previous season, its music was released into two volumes. The first volume featuring selections from "Chapter 17" to "Chapter 20" of the season was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on March 29, 2023, while the second, featuring selections from "Chapter 21" to "Chapter 24" was released on April 21, 2023.
Marketing
Filoni, Favreau, and Sackhoff promoted the season at Lucasfilm's Star Wars Celebration panel on May 26, 2022, revealing the first teaser to those in attendance. They returned for a panel on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett on May 28 along with Pascal, Esposito, and Weathers, where more footage from the season was shown. Filoni, Favreau, and cast members promoted the season at the 2022 D23 Expo, while also debuting a trailer. A second trailer for the season was released on January 16, 2023, during Monday Night Football. The trailer had 83.5 million global views in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer in that time period for a Star Wars Disney+ series; surpassing Obi-Wan Kenobi (58 million views).
Release
The season premiered on March 1, 2023 on Disney+, and consists of eight episodes.
Reception
Audience viewership
According to Samba TV the first episode was the number one streamed show that week and watched by 1.6 million households over the first five days. According to Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, The Mandalorian was the most in-demand streaming original series in the United States during the week of 25 February to 3 March 2023, and during the week of 4 March to 10 March 2023.
According to Whip Media's TV Time, The Mandalorian was the most streamed television series across all platforms in the United States during the week of March 5, 2023, during the week of March 12, 2023, during the week of March 19, 2023, during the week of March 26, 2023, during the week of April 2, 2023, during the week of April 9, 2023, during the week of April 16, 2023, and during the week of April 23, 2023. Whip Media later announced The Mandalorian was the most-watched streaming original television series of 2023.
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating with an average score of 7.55/10 based on 248 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Mileage may vary by a couple parsecs as The Mandalorian becomes more and more about the connective tissue of broader Star Wars lore, but this remains one of the most engaging adventures in a galaxy far, far away." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.