Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy says that The Mandalorian season 2 only wrapped production just five days before coronavirus shut down productions worldwide. The Mandalorian season 1 was released the same day that Disney+ was launched and became an instant hit. Not only was it hailed for being an engaging new story set in the Star Wars universe, treating its subject matter with reverence while taking it to new places, it became a cultural phenomenon thanks to the character of Baby Yoda, known officially as "The Child."
The show wasn't just a hit with fans, as The Mandalorian scored no less than 15 nominations at the Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series, a rarity for a show still on season 1. Given the popularity of the show, a season 2 was a fait accomplit, with production starting earlier this year. Reports said that filming wrapped up just before the coronavirus lockdown that occurred in mid-March, but until now it wasn't known just how close it was.
Speaking to The Wrap, Kennedy says that they managed to finish shooting just five days before the lockdown. In a wide-ranging interview about the show, as well as the larger Star Wars universe, Kennedy stresses that it came as close as possible to season 2 being affected by the pandemic. Thankfully, it wasn't, with Kennedy adding that they were able to move straight into post-production thanks to their IT team getting everyone set up at home quickly. You can read her full comments below.
Under the wire? It was literally five days and the country went down. We were enormously lucky, and then we didn’t wait [to start post-production]. Even though we wondered to what extent people could work remotely, our IT department and ILM had everybody up and running within a week, working from home and continuing to work in the cutting room and on visual effects shots. It was pretty staggering how quickly they got everybody up and running. So we haven’t really lost any time.
Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Lion King), who created the show for Disney and Lucasfilm has already said that thanks to the show's technological innovations on set, including using a number of virtual sets, a potential season 3 won't be disrupted by coronavirus safety protocols. However, it's certain that the production would have been affected by the pandemic had it been scheduled to run any longer, especially considering that no one knew how to deal with the coronavirus at that time.
If season 2 had been delayed, it could have caused big problems for Lucasfilm and Disney. They don't have any new Star Wars movies on the horizon, having chosen to take a break following the mixed reception to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Kennedy herself says in the interview that they see The Mandalorian, and future Star Wars live-action shows as the immediate future of the franchise.
If they'd had to delay the release of season 2, it would have negatively affected the brand, and most importantly, would have left the universe without any major live-action releases for over a year. However, that wasn't case, as it's clear from Kennedy's interview that post-production is on track from a scheduled late 2020 release of The Mandalorian season 2.
Source: The Wrap