I’m still a big advocate for using as much content as possible though (suggesting three movies), and there are three remaining ‘strong endings’:
- BOBF’s big final fight
- Gorian Shard battle
- Mandalore finale
I agree here, but the problem I’m facing isn’t with the endings, it’s with the lack of beginnings. I have 3 good endings, but only content to sustain a beginning and middle for 2 films. This is why I was considering moving the BoBF fight into an Act 2 conclusion of a 4-act film in Book 6.
So here’s (yet) another suggestion:
- Movie 5: As you propose. Mando and Grogu apart. Lovely arc focused on Mando’s loneliness post-Grogu, apostasy, redemption, and establishment of Nevarro as a staging ground. End on the tag of Boba taking the throne.
- Movie 6: Your excellent current BoBF movie 5 as the core. Grogu’s training with Luke and eventual rejoining Mando. Mando’s scenes on Plazir early on, and the general mobilising and prep for the Mandalorians in the background. (Presumably you already have decent voice lines to explain why the Mandos are still using Rock World while also staging out of Nevarro.) End the movie on Boba committing his help to the Mandalorians, and ideally something about the Mandalorians being ready to retake their planet. Reveal Gideon’s escaped his prison ship.
- Movie 7: Main focus on Pershing (initially) intercut with Boba being delayed by the Hutts. Into the finale two parter and your inclusion of Boba in it too, for that Avengers moment.
That way, you get the big bombastic finales, and more time to breathe and use more of the good content. It also gives you more time with Grogu away from Mando, more time for the Mandalorians to establish on Nevarro before retaking Mandalore, and more time for Boba to both take the throne and get established as Daimyo. And each movie brings the Mandalorians closer to retaking Mandalore.
I would love to do this, but that proposed Book 7 doesn’t have the Mando-Grogu content to sustain it. I structured every single remaining unused scene, and I wrote in a previous post “If I combine all of Dr. Pershing, all of my unused BoBF scenes focusing on Boba, and the whole assault on Mandalore, I can indeed make a functioning 2-hour movie. But Din and Grogu are only the focus of like 10-20% of it, and most of that is them fighting. They barely get any dialogue or development and it feels terrible and jarring to watch.” They aren’t the main characters of that proposed film and as I watched the scenes play out, it was extremely anti-climatic, especially coming off watching their reunion at the end of Book 6, you’re expecting this incredible story with them as the focus again and it’s the complete opposite. I don’t have the content even to move storylines around like I did in Seasons 1-2 because even though Din and Grogu are reunited in the Disney show, Grogu goes away for all of the Plazir-15 episode, Grogu goes away for all of Raptor kid rescue episode, Grogu/Din are pretty much not in the Pershing episode, and for some reason Din and Grogu are not the narrative focus of the assault on Mandalore and are mostly side characters in a larger storyline. So even without me VFX’ing Grogu out of the mines, I already have about 40% less footage of them together to work with in Season 3 compared to earlier seasons. I have some touching moments in the N-1 that I haven’t used but those are going in during their trip to retake Mandalore and are only ~2 minutes, but there really aren’t many other options for additional scene movements, the base content just doesn’t exist in Season 3.
If you think I’m missing something there with your Book 7 idea, I’m very open to solutions to it. So while I can make a 2-hour movie with your plan, Grogu and Din are only the focus of ~20 minutes of it, and that makes me uncomfortable for the saga concluding film. It would never make it to a theater like that, so I am not too fond of doing it here just for the sake of maxing content/runtime.