Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Director ~  Jon Favreau
Writers ~ Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor
2026, US
Stars ~ Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder

Okay… (deep breath): first two seasons of ‘The Mandalorian’ were hugely enjoyable for undemanding pulp sci-fi. Aside from ‘Andor’, many of the endless Disney ‘Star Wars’ spin-off series that I have tried have inspired me to abandon them at various stages because of, oh I don’t know, that the franchise is plagued with negible writing and characterisation, for example. It seemed that ‘The Mandalorian’ was what we sort of expected Boba Fett to be, and maybe only the Sandpeople episodes of the ‘Boba Fett’ series seemed to hit expectations, although there was sporadic fun to be had. ‘Boba Fett’ even turned into ‘The Mandalorian’ for a chunk, explaining why the latter’s third season was quite messy. I was won over by Grogu, even though that kind of cutesy thing was expected to be why I wouldn’t be convinced (ref. Ewoks, and Ja-Ja Binks). That Grogu is a puppet and doesn’t do the CGI thing so much is the key ingrediant to his success.

Which is kept for the film ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ where the fun is in the buddy chemistry between the former’s bounty hunter seriousness and Grogu’s muppety goodness: the former’s daddy disapproval and the latter’s todler behaviour. The general consensus and criticism is that it feels like a TV series dressed as a film, but I am wondering if that is just a side-effect of the fact that TV is looking more cinematic than ever. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ frequently offers some gorgeous visuals – TIE fighters in the sunset, spaceships in warp drive, Frank Frazetta inspiration, for example – and never lacks for that even if it is mostly Mando punching CGI for a lot of the time (physics optional). It is one long sequence of action CGI set-pieces and only slows down to let Grogu step down from his shoulder-parrot position to take centre stage. What is clear is this is very much leaning into the children’s entertainment angle of ‘Star Wars’, and for that it is far more successful than the series’ pretentions to adulthood (I’m not including ‘Rogue One’ or ‘Andor’, which are legitamately mature). In fact, I will argue that it is the most successful of the outright kid-friendly element of ‘Star Wars’, perhaps even a better crossover than ‘Skeleton Crew’ (which I lost interest in; and ‘Ashoka’ was ultimately just embarassing). The stoic father-figure anti-hero of Mando is offset by the unapologetic cuteness of the Grogu puppet.

An undemanding romp with simple narrative that gets Din Djarin the Mandolorian from one fight to another, Martin Scorsese and Sigourney Weaver cameos for the film nerds, a little politics of some double-crossing, some nice spaceship porn, some daft extraterrestials which have always been a staple of ‘Star Wars’ even since the cantina, some pleasing synth score by Ludwig Göransson rather than the Williams orchestral approach, and … buff slug aliens? No matter how much Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) is meant to be the tragic figure of this adventure with the most story-arc, there’s no getting away from how funny the buff Hutt look is, although the rolling maneauvre when fighting is a nice, logical touch. 

‘Star Wars’ has always been a mess and a platform for disagreements, so for obsessive fans that take it very seriously, ‘The Mandolorian and Grogu’ is likely to outrage because it uses the universe just as a playpen, or it will be embraced just for being in that world. It’s very much the ‘PEW-PEW-PEW!’ end of pulpy scifi made with a huge budget: just enjoy the sets and the ambience – one city has a little ‘Blade Runner’ overcrowded neon vibe. No, it is nowhere near the heights of ‘Rogue One’, which jettison’s the juvenilia, but it lies at the other end of the ‘Star Wars’ spectrum and is nowhere near the nedirs of other sequels. It is long enough for you to note the weaknesses in full and there’s no real substance, so if you’re looking for more, you won’t get it. But Jon Favreau knows what he is doing and delivers, embracing the silliness in a non-condescending way that makes this a very family friendly crossover.