Jon Favreau pitched the idea for The Mandalorian to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in 2017, while he was in the middle of directing The Lion King. Officially hired in March 2018, he had already written four episodes before signing a contract. When Kennedy connected him with Dave Filoni, the two combined Favreau's lone-gunslinger concept with Filoni's deep knowledge of Star Wars history, and The Mandalorian was born. The show debuted on Disney+ on November 12, 2019, and quickly became the streaming service's flagship title, with the Force-sensitive infant Grogu becoming a full-blown pop culture phenomenon.Favreau was one of the best things to happen to Disney's Star Wars, and seven years into his tenure, he appears to be eyeing the exit. Speaking about the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu, during a Disney event, the director strongly suggested the upcoming theatrical film could mark the end of his run in a galaxy far, far away: "I've been working on Star Wars now for seven years," he said, "and to be able to step up to doing it as a film feels like a culmination of what I'm working on."He did not say outright that The Mandalorian and Grogu is his last project. But that word, "culmination", gives us a clue of where the director's mind is at. It describes an endpoint, the top of a long climb rather than a rest stop along the way. Read full article on The Direct.