{"id":316896,"date":"2026-05-15T08:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316896\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:03:08","slug":"mandalorian-and-grogu-is-first-star-wars-movie-to-be-shot-entirely-in-los-angeles-thanks-to-california-tax-incentive-says-director-jon-favreau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316896\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mandalorian and Grogu\u2019 Is First \u2018Star Wars\u2019 Movie to Be Shot Entirely in Los Angeles Thanks to California Tax Incentive, Says Director Jon Favreau"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been almost 50 years since the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d was released. And it\u2019s taken that long for a movie in the beloved franchise \u2014 \u201cStar Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d \u2014 to be shot in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to thank the California Film Commission for allowing us to have a tax incentive here and allowing us to be the first \u2018Star Wars\u2019 film to be made entirely in Los Angeles,\u201d \u201cMandalorian\u201d writer and director Jon Favreau said to applause while introducing the movie at its world premiere Thursday night at the TCL Theatre in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/p>\n

Favreau also thanked his father for introducing him to \u201cStar Wars\u201d after taking him to see the original movie when he was just 10 years old. \u201cThat movie changed my life with that first shot,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI sat by my dad\u2019s side 49 years ago watching \u2018Star Wars\u2019 for the first time and tonight, I\u2019m getting to sit next to my dad and watch this movie. Thank you, dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d is a spinoff of the Disney+ series, \u201cThe Mandalorian.\u201d The film follows Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his apprentice, Grogu, as they fight criminal warlords on behalf of the New Republic.<\/p>\n

Sigourney Weaver makes her \u201cStar Wars\u201d debut as a New Republic commander. She told me she had never watched \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d before speaking with Jon Favreau over Zoom about the movie. \u201cI\u2019ve admired [\u2018Star Wars\u2019] from afar,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have such wonderful actors in it, such wonderful characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d will be in theaters on May 22.<\/p>\n

Spotted at the premiere were Disney CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro and his predecessor Bob Iger as well as fellow studio execs Dana Walden, Asad Ayaz and Alan Bergman. A pre-screening reception included branded product from Burger King, Olive and June nail care and special edition Nilla wafers that are tinted blue in homage to a snack seen in the film.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to \u201cJust for Variety<\/a>\u201d email alerts\u00a0here<\/a>. Click the \u201cFrom the Magazine\u201d box.<\/p>\n

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Best of Variety<\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been almost 50 years since the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d was released. And it\u2019s taken that long for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14148,132418,48,52,51,47,50,49,132421,132420,1925],"class_list":["post-316896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california-film-commission","tag-jon-favreau","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mandalorian","tag-mandalorian-and-grogu","tag-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}