The future looks bright for Star Wars television with multiple live-action shows on the way and the Bad Batch animated series currently delivering adventures in that galaxy far, far away. That said, production on the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series, which will see Ewan McGregor reprising the role he debuted back in 1999's Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, is affecting the third season of The Mandalorian, and not in a way that will probably make fans too happy.
The third season of The Mandalorian is not currently in production or slated to begin production any time too soon, according to a report from Collider, because Obi-Wan Kenobi is occupying the stages in Los Angeles that The Mandalorian would need to take Pedro Pascal's Mando back to the galaxy far, far away.
The two shows simply can't use the same stages at the same time, but the plan is reportedly for production on The Mandalorian Season 3 to kick off filming by the end of 2021, or early 2022 at the latest. While that means more Mandalorian probably won't debut until late 2022, fans won't be dealing with a shortage of Star Wars content between now and then.
The Book of Boba Fett spinoff of The Mandalorian has finished filming on those LA stages and is scheduled for a release in December of 2021, and the show that brings back Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen is expected to be very closely tied to The Mandalorian. Then, Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut at some point in 2022, and ideally followed by The Mandalorian Season 3 before the end of the year.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is unlikely to have too close of ties to The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett due to its place in the Star Wars timeline. Ewan McGregor's series is set ten years following the end of Revenge of the Sith, which presumably will see him hanging out on Tatooine and watching young Luke from afar, but since that doesn't sound like much of a basis for a six-episode show, we can probably count on some twists coming to complicate Obi-Wan's life. Hayden Christensen is returning as Darth Vader, after all!
It's also possible that there will be some surprise and/or tangential connections between Obi-Wan Kenobi and other Star Wars TV shows. One particular casting announcement resulted in speculation that Ahsoka Tano could turn up in Obi-Wan's series, although played by an actress younger than Rosario Dawson, with Dawson still starring in the Ahsoka series. And there's also speculation about characters ranging from Clone Wars' Satine (who is unfortunately dead by this point in the timeline) to Jar Jar Binks, although Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best debunked that particular theory.
All things considered, Star Wars and Disney+ have plenty of action on the way even if fans won't find out how Mando is coping with the absence of Baby Yoda until late 2022, unless he turns up in the Boba Fett show. It's worth noting that Pedro Pascal's starring role in HBO's upcoming The Last of Us may also have something to do with the Mandalorian delays, even though his Star Wars show could technically film with a stand-in behind the mask.
For now, you can find plenty of Star Wars content streaming on Disney+, including The Bad Batch as the currently ongoing show. Our 2021 summer TV premiere schedule can help you pass the time during the wait for more live-action Star Wars TV that will arrive by the end of the year.
