The Mandalorian might never crossover with the Star Wars sequel trilogy, says Dave Filoni

The Mandalorian season 3
(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

The Mandalorian season 3 has arrived, and, though the show is set years before the events of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, the natural question to ask is – where were Mando and Grogu during The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker

According to Dave Filoni, though, we might never see The Mandalorian and the sequel trilogies cross over. "That's a great question, and we talk about many different things," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "That’s a question for a bunch of characters by the way, not just Grogu. Where are they during these events? If anything, having made The Clone Wars and weaving a tale so intricately between two movies that were much closer together, I've learned that there's expansive room in this galaxy for us to tell stories and have characters doing things." 

He added: "As a kid, when Yoda said, 'When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be,' to Luke, I took that very literally. Well, now we know that’s anything but true. There are many different people that could wield the force, and maybe Luke is the last Jedi as far as what Yoda would consider a Jedi. So we'll just have to wait and see how the story evolves and what makes sense. But in my experience, there's definitely a way to weave everything together and make it exciting. It's possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw [in the sequel trilogy] if the story has us somewhere else." 

The Mandalorian has made reference to the sequel trilogy before, though, with one episode in season 2 potentially revealing the origins of Snoke – and the season 3 premiere featuring Anzellans, AKA the Babu Frik species

Season 3's debut also brought back a major guest star, got everyone thinking a key Clone Wars character was returning, and set up the Ahsoka spin-off show with a mysterious scene

The Mandalorian continues on Disney Plus weekly, and you can keep up to date with our The Mandalorian season 3 release schedule

For more on the new episodes, see our exclusive interview with Jon Favreau, which touched on Grogu's Jedi journey, breaking the internet, and if season 4 will be the end, as well as what Pedro Pascal had to say about Mando and Grogu's bond and the "epic" third season

Molly Edwards
Entertainment Writer

I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.