The next Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian & Grogu

, officially has the lowest budget of any Disney Star Wars film to date. Filmed in California, The Mandalorian and Grogu took advantage of ILM’s latest innovations – notably the Volume technology. This clearly made it much cheaper than other Star Wars movies.

According to the California Film Commission (via Collider), The Mandalorian and Grogu had an overall production budget of just £$166.4 million. It received tax credits of $21.75 million, which will have further helped. This is unusual for Disney, which has frequently struggled to keep costs under control when it comes to Star Wars.

How The Mandalorian & Grogu Compares To Other Star Wars Stories

A Staggering Degree Of Budget Control

The news comes after surprising discussions over the cost of Disney’s live-action Star Wars TV shows. Andor seasons 1 and 2 had a combined $645 million budget, while The Acolyte cost ran over-budget to the tune of $231 million. This had led to intense concern that Lucasfilm had lost a George Lucas talent; keeping the budgets under control. The Mandalorian and Grogu has, therefore, clearly broken a trend.

The Mandalorian season 1 had an overall budget of just $120 million – or under $150 million, factoring in inflation. That means the next Star Wars movie cost only a little more than a single season of The Mandalorian, a remarkable accomplishment for director Jon Favreau. There are, of course, good reasons the budget was so low.

How The Mandalorian Kept Its Budget Under Control

The Volume is An Absolute Game-Changer

The key to this achievement surely lies in the Volume, ILM’s revolutionary CGI technology that allows for more filming on closed sets (this is also why there have been precious few spoilers to date). While the Volume has become quite controversial of late due to sloppy use, it must be noted that Jon Favreau is surely an exception to that rule; the pioneer who first mastered the technology, he is also well-known for skillful and creative use of CGI. This should be a best in class when it comes to the Volume.

We’ll be learning more about The Mandalorian and Grogu at Star Wars Celebration next month, which will kick off with a panel dedicated to the next Star Wars movie. It’s pretty certain the event will feature a first look of some kind, although it remains to be seen whether this will be shared online or whether it will instead be exclusive. ScreenRant will be on hand to keep you up to date.

Source: California Film Commission (via Collider)