It has been repeatedly reported recently that “The Mandalorian & Grogu” will be significantly cheaper than previous “Star Wars” films. That may be the case, but there will still be record spending. The California Film Commission has now unveiled fifteen upcoming projects that will benefit from the state’s film funding. The most interesting title among them is “The Mandalorian & Grogu”. The state is contributing nearly $21.8 million to the cost of the major Disney project. It is the second-highest amount of taxpayer money ever contributed to a film in California. The “Transformers” spin-off “Bumblebee” holds the record with $22.4 million. There was a similar amount for ‘Captain Marvel’ ($20.8 million) and Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film ‘The Movie Critic’ ($20.2 million).
There’s a good reason why there’s so much tax sharing for “The Mandalorian & Grogu” right now. Because The ‘Star Wars’ movie will generate record spending in the home of Hollywood. The film is expected to gross more than $166 million in California, according to the agency (which of course means that a lot of money flows back to the public treasury through taxes). This is achieved, among other things, by hiring 500 crew members, 54 actors and 3,500 extras.
“The Mandalorian & Grogu” – not just California record editions
Additionally, the entire 92-day shoot will take place in California. The majority of ‘Star Wars’ films to date have been made in Britain. George Lucas already shot outdoor scenes in California for ‘Return of the Jedi’. “The Mandalorian & Grogu” now makes “Star Wars” history as the first-ever film shot entirely in California (and therefore in the state in which Hollywood is located and ‘Star Wars’ company Lucasfilm is also at home). In the series sector, however, California has long been a regular “Star Wars” production country. ‘The Mandalorian’, among others, was largely filmed in California.
What speaks for California is that much of “The Mandalorian & Grogu” will likely be recreated on the virtual production stage The Volume. Using technology developed by Lucasfilm subsidiary Industrial Light & Magic, based on an original idea by ‘Rogue One’ cinematographer Greig Fraser and then first used in ‘The Mandalorian’, the stars perform in sets surrounded through very high resolution LED video walls. Here you can see the computer-generated backgrounds during the shoot, which are only created in post-production on the otherwise common green screen shoots. This allows the cast to better interact with the environment and the filmmakers on set to make the necessary decisions about what might need to be changed.
Since then, technology has been on the rise in Hollywood. It was not only used for other ‘Stars Wars’ projects such as ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’, ‘Ahsoka’ and partly also ‘Andor’, but also for many other projects. The fantasy series ‘House Of The Dragon’, the current Netflix success ‘Avatar – The Lord of the Elements’ and films such as ‘The Batman’ and Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ also used The Volume for parts of their production.
“The Mandalorian & Grogu” – in theaters no later than 2026
With the California state tax share announcement, it was once again confirmed that the entire film adaptation of “The Mandalorian and Grogu“will take place in 2024. It will be the first of several upcoming “Star Wars” theatrical projects to be filmed. This increasingly confirms that it will be the first ‘Star Wars’ film to hit theaters since the hiatus following ‘Star Wars 9: The Rise of Skywalker’ in 2019.
Disney has already set a “Star Wars” date on the calendar for May 2026. Currently, it is considered highly likely that “The Mandalorian & Grogu” is scheduled for this date. However, it cannot be ruled out that with this production lead time, an earlier start date will surprisingly be selected and the film will start in 2025.