In theory, the seminal <em>Star Wars</em> TV series <em>The Mandalorian</em> concluded at the end of its third season in 2023. However, small-screen spinoffs Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew have proven to be precursors to a fully-fledged feature film starring Din Djarin and Grogu, which is billed as the sequel to the original show.
It turns out that there’s another sequel that comes before <em>The Mandalorian & Grogu</em> in the chronology of the Mandoverse. That sequel has been released today, on July 22, 2026. It fills a gap in The Mandalorian’s timeline between season 3 and the recently released movie by sending Djarin and Grogu off on another mission.
During the course of its story, Grogu comes of age as a warrior by taking on the guidance of his mentor and navigating both of them through a perilous situation. While The Mandalorian and Grogu: Danger in the Dark is principally presented as a prequel to the show’s big-screen spinoff, it effectively replaces a fourth TV season, too.
If The Mandalorian were to return with a new televisual adventure on Disney+, then this story would likely be its starting point. Danger in the Dark is the first original one-shot comic book featuring Din Djarin and the first Star Wars comic appearance of any kind for Grogu. This release makes franchise history for Mandoverse fans, in particular.
Danger in the Dark Is Set After The Mandalorian Season 3 But Before The Movie
The events of Danger in the Dark take place before Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, but after the season 3 finale of The Mandalorian, when Din Djarin decides to settle on the planet Nevarro for good. It’s for this reason that the comic book’s story is set where they’ve chosen to live.
They haven’t yet taken on the work we see them do for the New Republic in the movie, which sends them across the galaxy in search of warlords. Instead, Danger in the Dark finds Djarin and Grogu exploring the lava tubes beneath Nevarro’s surface as they attempt to defuse a crashed pirate ship that threatens their planet’s future.
The story’s central heroes rely on sympathetic Anzellan engineers for help, but it ultimately falls to them to save Nevarro. It isn’t just the crashed spacecraft that poses a danger, as Djarin and Grogu also confront notorious dragonlike reptavians whose poisonous fangs often prove deadly to humans and other creatures.
Reptavians roost in dark, rocky areas around lava tube entrances. At the same time, as suggested by the comic’s cover page, Djarin and Grogu will come face-to-face with Nevarro’s fire rats, who live within lava tubes but are generally considered harmless.
The Mandalorian and Grogu: Danger in the Dark was written by Delilah S. Dawson, who has previously penned comics for the Star Wars Adventures anthology series and episodes of the web series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. Mario del Pennino and Arianna Florean are behind the one-shot’s artwork, published by Mad Cave Studios imprint PaperCutz.
Will The Mandalorian Season 4 Ever Happen?
©Disney+/Lucasfilm/Courtesy Everett Collection
While Danger in the Dark shifts The Mandalorian’s genre somewhat to fit a middle-school comic-book readership, it also clearly indicates that there are many more stories of Din Djarin yet to be told. Indeed, there are whole storylines already written for a future Mandoverse release that haven’t yet seen light.
Jon Favreau famously had fully worked-out plans for The Mandalorian season 4 before he ended up making a big-screen spinoff instead. Nevertheless, much of what Favreau wrote for a prospective fourth season wasn’t included in the plot of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
With the Mandoverse, arguably one of the most celebrated creations of the Disney age, and its movie being a relative box-office success without doing spectacularly well, there’s every chance that a small-screen revival of The Mandalorian could come to fruition sooner or later. It might go against Disney’s new cinema-centric strategy for the franchise, but Din Djarin’s popularity surely counts for something.
