It’s been almost seven years since the last Star Wars feature film, the much-maligned Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. But that doesn’t mean that Disney has been dormant with their cash cow property. They’ve been constantly and consistently pumping out episodic television shows on their streaming platform to expand and explore the mythology, shows like Andor, Ahsoka, and, of course, The Mandalorian. It’s no surprise that one of the most successful of those endeavors would spawn the next and newest Star Wars movie – The Mandalorian and Grogu.
For the uninitiated, The Mandalorian series is, in short, about a Mandalorian bounty hunter (think Boba Fett-style) named Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal from, well, everything, but most recently The Fantastic Four: First Steps) who finds himself entrusted with the care of a tiny little force-sensitive creature named Grogu (think baby Yoda). Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu finds Mando and Grogu hunting down Imperial war criminals for the New Republic.
The latest mission assigned to them by the New Republic’s Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver from the Alien movies) involves them also having to track Ratta the Hutt (voiced by Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’s Jeremy Allen White), the kidnapped son of notorious criminal leader Jabba the Hutt, and return him home safely to his aunt and uncle. This expedition and extraction leads to a whole lot of betrayal, double-crossing, and mayhem.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu was directed by Jon Favreau (who created the series) from a script he wrote with Dave Filoni (who writes pretty much everything Star Wars these days) and Noah Kloor (who wrote The Book of Boba Fett). So, as you might suspect, this is absolutely a Mandalorian movie. In fact, it feels like a long episode of The Mandalorian. Or, more precisely, two long episodes stacked together.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is definitely a tale of two movies. The first half, the Mandalorian half if you will, involves the mission to track down the fugitive imperial officer and, therefore, the abducted nephew of the Hutts. And this first part is actually pretty exciting, if a bit stereotypical of the characters’ adventures. It’s what people watch The Mandalorian for. Butt-kicking and name-taking.
The second half, the Grogu half, is where things slow down a bit. This section covers the after-mission intrigue and drama that tries to be just as exciting, but the juice just isn’t there. Add in the many plot conveniences and contrivances, and it feels like Favreau, Filoni, and Kloor were just trying to find a way to pad the story out to feature film length before they just crammed in an ending. There are only so many times that one rogue bounty hunter can get lucky before the audience stops thinking it’s The Force and starts thinking it’s just lazy writing.
Both halves have plenty of action, and the stunt choreography, while very visual effect-laden, is excellent. And there are plenty of cool creatures and robots for the Star Wars fans to line up to buy in action figure form. And, perhaps best of all, much of the creature design is practical, done with either puppetry or animatronics. Sure, the big stuff is entirely CGI, and there’s cleanup that is digital as well, but a surprising amount harkens back to the original trilogy days. And that, aside from the note-perfect score from Oscar-winning Sinners composer Ludwig Göransson, is the high point of the movie.
Speaking of the original Star Wars trilogy, The Mandalorian and Grogu is packed with little winks and nods to its roots. There are easter eggs, sure, but more noticeable than those are little influences and nuances. There are cool flashes of the Millenium Falcon holochess game scene, as well as reminders of the Death Star trash compactor sequence. And none of it really comes off as fan service so much as Favreau seeming to say “hey, I loved these first movies, too!”
That love doesn’t translate to the meat of the movie, though. Unfortunately, The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn’t deliver the same magic as the original trilogy. It doesn’t even deliver the same magic as the last three Skywalker Saga sequel films. There’s something about seeing an X-Wing Fighter or an Imperial Bolt Cruiser in deep space that just gives you chills, and none of those chills are there in The Mandalorian and Grogu. It’s a serviceable long episode of a TV show, but there’s no big-screen spectacle. It feels like just another sci-fi action movie that’s ripping off Star Wars. It’s a good movie, just not a good Star Wars movie. It feels like Mando is stuck in a Marvel movie (resisting the urge to make an Iron Mando joke…).
Alas, this kind of thing may be the future of the franchise. Disney is clearly pumping more money into these newer characters than they are into rehashing the old, which is admirable. And, thanks to its three-season television roots, the fully-developed world that Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu steps right into feels familiar and comfortable. But the shock and awe is lost. The wide-eyed fascination that came with the Star Wars movies seems to be a thing of the past, and, not to get too personal, but it’s a past that I am glad I got to live through.
GRADE: C-
Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
Release Date: May 22, 2026