Thanks for all the comments, folks! It definitely looks like a consensus on making a longer high-quality Book 6 conclusion, and perhaps reevaluating in a year or two once we see the status of a Season 4/Mando movie. I am full steam ahead on this grand finale film.
It’s tricky. When I edited Clone Wars, there were times when I just had to include certain content, even though it was weaker. To my mind, since Season Three is weaker, I’d make that compromise, and have its movies just be the best I could make them. Your AI lines are excellent, and I think that gives you the best options here for improving season three’s movies. And I think your latest Book 5 is just so, so good. So for me, I’d stick with your book 5, and focus on doing what you can for Book 6/7 with the season three content.
You’re definitely drawn to your current approach - it’s where you ended up when you watched season three originally - so there must be merit to it. Instead of arguing my existing stance further, I’ll suggest a middle stance here instead, for your consideration:
- Book 5: Remains as it is right now. Mando and Boba focus, with Grogu absent.
- Book 6: A single movie from ALL of season three, trimmed, plus the remaining Grogu-Luke content. Perhaps you drop the vast majority of the sidequests from season three, including Gorian Shard’s pirates and perhaps even the rocky planet covert (using instead the movie 5 ringworld covert to set up the redemption). Have your Groguless redemption, almost directly into the hiring of Axe Woves and giving Bo Katan the darksaber, intercut with Grogu’s training and return to Mando, and then straight into reclaiming Mandalore since he’s just discovered it’s unpoisoned. That way, Mando’s arc is about redemption and reclaiming Mandalore all in one, and Grogu’s is about returning to Mando. Character focus amongst the large-scale conflict.
Looking at that proposed structure, the main challenge is that I need the Nevarro scenes with Bo-Katan and the Armorer. Those are quite essential, and I am currently re-voicing the Armorer here so that her reasoning makes a little more sense for Bo-Katan to remove her helmet and unite the clans for the sake of Mandalore, as I thought the original lines were quite confusing and vague. If I cut out the whole Nevarro-pirates arc, I lose why the Mandalorians use Nevarro as a staging ground. I am also altering Greef’s lines so that he doesn’t gift it to them as a home, he now thanks them and says he appreciates that they have moved past their rocky history together to a brighter future. Same with the Rock World scenes, I need a lot of those to drive forward main pot points regarding Bo-Katan.
At the end of the day, Boba Fett doesn’t have enough content to be a major player in both Books 5 AND 6, he can only shine in one of them. I think it makes a little more sense for the focus of Book 5 to be on Din rather than Boba, as we have just had Din go through such a transformative event by giving Grogu away and it’s a huge hook to see what he’s going through. I always thought he kind of helps Boba Fett for no reason in the D+ series and it was just forced so Grogu could join them, but if I structure this story into Book 6 instead, he has a big purpose for aiding Boba… He is buying himself a favor so that Boba is freed up to join the battle for Mandalore. I quite like bringing Boba back in Book 6 for a full story about trying to maintain control of his territory and contributing to Mandalore’s aid. I think we did a great carving out a high-quality Boba story to utilize, so I want to keep that intact but just shift it back to making him an integral part of the conclusion rather than having him drop off the map for Book 6.
In my outline above, Book 6 we see Din find belonging in his clan and serve a purpose in reuniting Boba and the Night Owls, he sacrifices and gives Bo-Katan the darksaber (in a new, revoiced speech that I think is MUCH stronger reasoning), he reunites with Grogu, and is a key figure in reclaiming Mandalore. So he gets a great arc in both Books 5 & 6 this way.
As far as the Pershing interlude idea, I just don’t think there’s that much I can do to improve it as a standalone story. I can make some very minor edits, but it is what it is… It’s just an out-of-place storyline that hogs the spotlight and doesn’t lead to much, but it’s well-produced for what it is. I am leaning towards utilizing several scenes in Book 6 to lead to Gideon’s return as my outline post above shows.
Will post some more preview scenes next week!