As far as we know DK will not publish The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide in July.
It was initially planned that Pablo Hidalgo’s book The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide would have been published on July 1 in the UK and then a few days later in the US. In Hungary, publishing house Kolibri planned to publish it entitled A mandalore-i: Képes útmutató. But according to our source, who knows a lot about Disney’s work,
the English version of the book will not be published, so of course, there is no chance for the Hungarian edition either.
Our source told us that either the publisher (DK) or Lucasfilm did not justify the decision. But our informant heard that neither party really wanted to publish the volume. This comes as a shock because the Visual Guides are among the most popular reference books, containing a wealth of in-universe background information about a particular movie, its locations, characters, and vehicles.
From here, we speculate: I think that what behind the decision may be that they don’t want to issue more and more Visual Guides about The Mandalorian every two seasons. The decision is more logical after it has become official, Lucasfilm is creating a story flow of several live-action series. It is called Mandoverse by fans, which is connected by their story and characters. I find it easy to imagine that we will receive a Visual Guide after the end of The Mandalorian series. Or possibly some seasons of several series in the Mandoverse will be discussed at once by the first such book.
In any case, fans will surely be sad, as I may not be exaggerating if I call The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide the most anticipated Star Wars book of 2021. We asked DK and Lucasfilm about the book’s cancellation, but have not responded to our request in the last few days, and the title can still be pre-ordered on some webshops.
UPDATE (15. February 2021)
Our source has new information that explains somewhat the cancellation of the book. The Visual Guide was shut down at the last minute because the multiple, interconnected series coming to Disney+ requires a different strategy. Lucasfilm wants to have more control over the books. According to our source The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide – or an updated and changed version – will not be released before 2022.
By the way, our source is the same person who told us about Project Luminous last year, which was later renamed The High Republic. We were the first in the world to write the Project Luminous’ info, the vast majority of which were correct and were mentioned by MakingStarWars.net or Star Wars Explained, to name a few. This person also told us months before the premiere of The Mandalorian’s first season that the protagonist would find a child who would spend much of the first season babysitting…