When CinemaBlend attended Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Japan over the weekend, we had the chance to see The Mandalorian and Grogu director Jon Favreau unveil the first footage from the movie to a crowd of fans (which looked incredible). Immediately after, we got to chat with the filmmaker about making his first Star Wars movie, and how its 2026 release will mark a full circle moment for him, thanks to Avengers: Doomsday and Robert Downey Jr.
Since The Mandalorian and Grogu release date is over a year away, it probably hasn’t occurred to most that the Star Wars movie is coming out three weeks apart from Avengers: Doomsday. When I asked Favreau about this, here’s how he responded:
Oh yeah. It's always fun. I'm a big fan of Robert. Of course, we have so much history together. Looking forward to seeing his work on the film.
The Avengers: Doomsday release date is set for May 1, 2026, while The Mandalorian And Grogu is coming out on May 22. Considering Favreau helmed the first Iron Man movie with Robert Downey Jr, which effectively started the MCU, it’s kind of amazing that his first Star Wars movie will be sharing air with the return of RDJ.
Downey is set to star as the next big Avengers villain, Doctor Doom, alongside a huge cast, which was unveiled last month. This will be his first Marvel movie in years, as well as the first one where he won't be playing Iron Man.
Favreau has been at the forefront of big movie franchises multiple times now, not only through Iron Man, but through his live-action The Jungle Book movie, too. After being a huge part of The Mandalorian series for three seasons, he also talked about having the chance to make a bigger-scale story this time around. In his words:
As far as what the big screen offers, the bigger thing is having more time and also being able and having a bigger canvas. Having an IMAX screen with all of that aspect ratio as opposed to just for home viewing, opened up a lot of opportunities for set building, for composition, cinema style sequences, creating an immersive experience for sequences. So we really filmed it with IMAX in mind and everything from our production designers, our set builders, they were there to help bring a bigger experience that took it up a notch from what we’re able to do on television.
Ever since this Star Wars TV show became a hit, we’ve been wondering whether The Mandalorian could become a movie, and via the footage we saw at Star Wars Celebration, the director is absolutely taking advantage of his “bigger canvas.”
The footage opened with an awesome fight sequence from Mando before showing all sorts of exciting nuggets from the movie, from tons of Grogu using the force moments, to Sigourney Weaver’s character, to the return of AT-AT to the big screen. As Favreau also shared with us:
I think it is a [dream to have the AT-AT in his Star Wars movie]. You get to play with the toys. That’s part of the job... And to work with Dave Filoni, who has a very deep knowledge of it's so fun to write with him because we figure out what we can present in the films. And So the Walkers was a great piece of mechanics for us to use and show in a different way. Actually go inside of them, which I think has only been done in video games. It hadn't been done on the big screen.
Jon Favreau has a great track record of creating big-screen experiences for audiences, and The Mandalorian and Grogu will be no exception. While we wait for the release, you can check out other upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows (and more exclusives from Star Wars Celebration) here on CinemaBlend.
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