Meta description: Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian and Grogu wrapped principal photography at Pinewood Studios — here is what Lucasfilm and Disney have officially confirmed.
News keywords: The Mandalorian, Star Wars, Lucasfilm, Disney, Grogu, Pinewood Studios
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Lucasfilm has wrapped principal photography on The Mandalorian and Grogu, the feature-film continuation of the Disney+ series and the first new live-action Star Wars theatrical film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The production was anchored at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England — Lucasfilm’s longtime UK production base — and is now in post-production for a theatrical release. Here is what has been officially confirmed.
The Announcement and the Pivot
The Mandalorian and Grogu was announced by Lucasfilm in early 2024 as the studio’s strategic pivot from continuing the story on Disney+ to bringing Din Djarin and Grogu to theaters. The decision reflected Lucasfilm’s broader response to the cost economics of streaming-only prestige Star Wars — feature releases generate theatrical revenue that mid-budget streaming series simply do not.
Jon Favreau, who created The Mandalorian for Disney+, returned to direct the feature. Dave Filoni, the longtime Star Wars animation lead and executive of the wider Lucasfilm television slate, has continued on as producer alongside Favreau and Kathleen Kennedy. Variety and Deadline have tracked the production’s progress through casting, production prep, and the eventual wrap.
The UK Production Base
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Pinewood has hosted Lucasfilm’s recent Star Wars feature productions, including the sequel trilogy, the standalone Rogue One and Solo, and (most recently) the Mandalorian Disney+ series for stages of its production cycle. The studio’s combination of legacy infrastructure, a deeply experienced UK crew base, and the British government’s high-end production tax relief has made Pinewood the de facto English-language hub for the franchise. The Mandalorian and Grogu used multiple Pinewood stages, including the studio’s flagship 007 Stage.
Lucasfilm’s StageCraft virtual-production system — the LED-volume technology that became famous via The Mandalorian’s Disney+ series — was used extensively, alongside larger-scale practical sets and limited international exterior work. Coverage of how UK production infrastructure shapes major American franchises is a thread that runs across our wider Filming News coverage.
The Cast
Pedro Pascal returns as Din Djarin (the Mandalorian) for the feature. Grogu, the puppet-and-digital character whose original Disney+ appearances launched a global merchandising phenomenon, returns in his combined practical-and-CGI form. Lucasfilm has confirmed multiple additional cast members through its own channels, with new and returning characters from the wider Mandalorian-era Star Wars storyline filling out the ensemble.
The Visual Effects Workload
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Star Wars features carry one of the heaviest visual-effects pipelines in Hollywood, and The Mandalorian and Grogu is no exception. Industrial Light & Magic — Lucasfilm’s in-house visual-effects shop — is leading the post-production effort, with work distributed across ILM’s London, Vancouver, San Francisco, Singapore, and Sydney studios. That global distribution is part of why feature Star Wars productions schedule their post-production windows over more than a year.
Release Timing
Disney has officially dated The Mandalorian and Grogu for a 2026 theatrical release, with the specific calendar window managed through Disney’s wider release-strategy decisions. The film is positioned as the studio’s flagship live-action Star Wars theatrical event for the year, anchoring a slate that also includes ongoing Disney+ Star Wars projects.
What This Means for Star Wars on Screen
The film’s success or failure will shape Lucasfilm’s broader strategy through the rest of the decade. Multiple additional Star Wars features have been publicly discussed by Lucasfilm — including projects from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, and others — and the cadence of Lucasfilm’s continued theatrical investment will depend in part on how The Mandalorian and Grogu performs. The decision to bring Din Djarin to theaters is a referendum on whether the franchise’s TV-led era has built the audience needed to support a sustained run of new theatrical Star Wars.
For broader coverage of how UK and international production hubs shape global tentpoles, see our other Filming News deep dives.