Jon Favreau on 'The Mandalorian and Grogu's Run Time, IMAX Release, and If the Toys Will Spoil the Movie [Exclusive] -

Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub speaks with Jon Favreau on the red carpet at Star Wars Celebration 2025 for The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Favreau discusses evolving The Mandalorian into a cinematic experience, using IMAX and expanded filmmaking capabilities.
He talks about what a feature-length format allows for that the series couldn’t, and balancing accessibility for new viewers as well as rewarding longtime fans.

Jon Favreau is stepping fully into the feature-film spotlight with The Mandalorian & Grogu, marking a monumental evolution in the saga he helped bring to life on Disney+. As both writer and director for the highly anticipated 2026 release, Favreau is leading the charge on this next chapter, translating the intimate, stylized storytelling of the series into a full-scale cinematic adventure.

With a focus on big-screen scope and IMAX presentation, he’s diving deep into a production process that allows for greater planning, more elaborate set construction, and an expanded visual effects pipeline. While the film retains the spirit and tone that made The Mandalorian a phenomenon and spearheaded a new era in the beloved sci-fi franchise, Favreau is embracing the opportunity to explore new creative territory, blending practical and digital techniques to craft something that feels both fresh and true to the Star Wars legacy. In addition to Pedro Pascal and Jonny Coyne, the movie also features Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White.

At Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Tokyo, Japan, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with Favreau to discuss the film’s progress and the unique challenges of adapting a beloved streaming series for theatrical release. In the interview, Favreau speaks about everything from virtual scouting and visual effects workflows to balancing accessibility for new audiences while rewarding longtime fans. Though details about surprises and runtime remain under wraps, Favreau’s enthusiasm for the project is palpable, and his reflections offer a fascinating look at how The Mandalorian & Grogu is shaping up to be a defining moment for the franchise on the big screen.

Evolving ’The Mandalorian’s Story for the Big Screen Format

“Since we’re coming from television to the big screen, we really wanted to find what opportunities we didn’t have available to us in the other format.”

Grogu and Din Djarin in the Razor Crest in 'The Mandalorian' episode "Chapter 4: Sanctuary." — Image via Disney+

COLLIDER: I have a ton of questions for you. So is The Mandalorian as a series done? Is it now moving into the feature realm permanently?

JON FAVREAU: Right now, I’m focusing on the feature because we still have another year of the story. You discover so much as you edit a film and put it together with visual effects. Right now, we’re really locked in on the big screen story that’s coming.

You mentioned IMAX. Did you film with IMAX cameras?

FAVREAU: We filmed digitally, but we filmed in an IMAX format. So, on set, we digitally filmed it for IMAX.

Do you know if it’s just 20 minutes of full frame IMAX? Have you figured that out yet?

FAVREAU: I haven’t yet, but we really leaned into it. We really liked it. As we did tests, we looked at what looked good in IMAX and used a lot of different tools to do that. On the set, we actually use VR to be able to view the IMAX image so we weren’t just looking on a monitor. We found in our scouting report, which we did a lot of additional scouting at that time, which is part of the workflow we developed around The Mandalorian because in The Mandalorian, we’re using a lot of the Volume, and that requires a lot of planning about the set. So, we use that extensive previs and set design and virtual scouting to see what it would look like in that framing.

We found that a lot of stuff in space looked great in IMAX, and a lot of stuff looked great in sets that we built taller. We really embraced the opportunity. And again, remember, since we’re coming from television to the big screen, we really wanted to find what opportunities we didn’t have available to us in the other format.

The edit, which I’m sure you’re in the heart of right now. Where are you?

FAVREAU: We’re deep into visual effects. You always discover things because there’s so much animation involved in it that even when you lock on a movie like this, you want to leave opportunity to discover in the interplay with the visual effects artists, the animators, and we also bring actors back in. We have what we physically shot locked in, but there’s a lot of flexibility about what happens with the choreography of space battles, of digital characters, CG-heavy set pieces. So, we’re really rolling up our sleeves now on that part of it. It’s a really fun process all the way through.

This is me asking you a question you probably can’t answer yet. Do you envision this as a 2.5-hour movie? Do you envision it as a 2-hour movie?

FAVREAU: This is an adventure. You want to lean into the action and the aesthetic and the momentum of that. So, to me, you want it to always feel lean and keep the storytelling propulsive. That’s my answer.

So it sounds like two hours. I’m just guessing. I’m hoping for three.

FAVREAU: Okay.

Film Provides Opportunities Television Can’t for ‘The Mandalorian’

“It always felt cinematic.”

One of the things about the TV show is, what could you do with the movie that you could never have done on the TV show?

FAVREAU: The big difference is the amount of construction you can do. The process is so long compared to television that you can plan, look at it, discuss, use multiple stages, indoor and outdoor sets, do construction, you can do stop-motion. There are a lot of things that you have an opportunity to do because of the timeframe that you would never be able to do to the same extent on a small screen. Although I’m very proud, I have to say that whenever we looked at the stuff that we made for the show, or in an environment where we shared it with fans, it always felt cinematic. I felt disappointed that we couldn’t share it with more people that way.

I would have loved to have seen these things on a movie screen.

FAVREAU: They hold up really well, which is a real testament to ILM and to the cinematographer, and to all the directors that I’ve worked with. So, it wasn’t like a delta in quality. It was more about the timeframe and filling the aspect ratio. But also, there are limitations because we want to invite people to a movie theater who may not watch the show.

Anyone Can Enjoy ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’

“But you also want to reward the people who’ve been there since the beginning.”

There are obviously all these seasons of the show that exist, but there are going to be people going to this movie that have never seen it. How do you, as a writer and director, make a movie that is for both new fans and all the people that have watched every episode?

FAVREAU: That’s honestly a big part of what we see as the challenge that we wanted to meet head-on. A lot of people know these characters who haven’t seen the show. So it’s not just that there are people who saw the show and people who don’t know the characters, there’s a big range of people who are familiar with who they are, the archetypes, what they look like. They’ve seen them in fan-made stuff, social media clips, so you want to lean into that understanding, but not take for granted that they know all the lore associated with every season of the show. But you also want to reward the people who’ve been there since the beginning, and so that’s the conversation that we constantly have, that I have with Dave, especially. How do you embrace the characters, the archetypes, but not have it be required viewing? But if you’ve seen it, you see things that are in there that speak just to you, and that’s a big part of Star Wars.

Are you going to have an opening crawl in the movie?

FAVREAU: I can’t answer that.

1:44

Jon working with Phil Tippet on Mando & Grogu

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“As fans, we just love working with all those tools.”

One of the things I loved about the show was the introduction of Grogu. Nobody saw it coming, and it was because you kept the merch hidden. There was no merch allowed, and so nothing leaked. And what I’m curious about with the movie is, are you going to have surprises that you’re doing that again where there’s no merch coming ahead of time, but it’s going to be in the movie, and then six months down the road we’ll see merch.

FAVREAU: Star Wars is very good about having different blocks of merch that are available at different times within release. Star Wars has been dealing with this since before I was ever there. With a TV show, a big thing is that, for each week, you want to have different surprises and reveals. That’s part of that genre. For a film, it’s different. Once people see it, they see the whole thing. So, you want to have the stuff available for people. I still have memories from the first Christmas with Star Wars when there were no figures to play with — you got a voucher. So, how do you walk that fine line? With Grogu, we went to one extreme. But we want to be able to not spoil things for people who don’t want it spoiled. It’s so hard nowadays, where, like you said, if people are looking on sites, they’re going to be able to find things. So, when you release which toys and what you do is definitely a part of a conversation that we have all the time to make sure we hold certain things back, but share certain things early so they could be on the shelves for when the film is out. So, that’s the balancing act.

The Mandalorian & Grogu is set for theatrical release on May 22, 2026. Keep checking back for more interviews from Star Wars Celebration.