The Mandalorian & Grogu recieves significant tax credit as budget revealed

Receiving a tax credit of $21.75 million from the State of California, it would appear that after a decade of vast budgets, Lucasfilm have tasked the tech to its fullest extent to bring in a big screen chapter for $166.4m. That would appear to point towards director Jon Favreau steering towards the George Lucas ethos of making the project on a budget, surely a very positive sign for the financial future of the saga and for the box office destiny of The Mandalorian & Grogu.

Is this a sign of Disney being more frugal? Or just a sign that Jon Favreau can be trusted to work under a budget? The Mandalorian & Grogu appears to have an overall production budget of $166.4 million and was the recipient of a bountiful tax credit from the state of California to the tune of $21.75 million, which certainly helped when it came to the bean counting at the end of the day. The figures were revealed by the California Film Commission.

The movie will follow the return of the titular bounty hunter portrayed by Pedro Pascal alongside his adorable sidekick Grogu, colloquially known as Baby Yoda. The plot of the movie is completely under wraps at the moment, but we expect we’ll see the likes of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Ahsoka Tano (Roaario Dawson) and more returning, while Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver have also joined the cast.

By way of comparison, here’s a look at some of the previous budgets for the saga, which highlights how frugal the first Disney Plus era big screen spin-off has been.

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
1977
$11 million

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
1980
$18 million

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
1983
$32.5 million

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
1999
$115 million

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
2002
$115 million

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
2005
$113 million

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2015
$245 million

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016
$200 million

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2017
$317 million

Solo: A Star Wars Story
2018
$275 million

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
2019
$275 million

The Mandalorian and Grogu
2026
$166.4 million

Stay tuned to Making Tracks as next week we’ll be catching up with the hair designer of The Mandalorian & Grogu, Maria Sandoval.