The Mandolorian and Grogu (2026)

 

A Star Wars movie used to bring out huge crowds enthusiastic acolytes in an energy level that would be hard to match. Those days are long gone primarily because the movie going experience is changed so much in the last 50 years. Next year we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Star Wars, which had the cultural impact of the nuclear bomb on Hollywood and the youth culture. This new Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu, it certainly not going to have that kind of impact. This is an adaptation of an IP created for the Disney Channel after it acquired the Star Wars property.

The Mandalorian has been a successful streaming series for Disney Plus, and in many ways it recreates some of the emotional touchstones of the original franchise. There are characters that we get a chance to know and care about although frankly the emotional depth of those characters is less than it should be. The benefit however is that we are a little more invested in what happens and are not just there for the spectacle, although frankly the spectacle is pretty spectacular.

Mandalorian and Grogu is a standalone feature enjoyed by anyone with a passing familiarity to the Star Wars universe. You do not have to be particularly invested in the three seasons of the show before you see this film. If you've seen any of the other Star Wars movies then you are relatively well prepared for what comes here. Like the original film which has subsequently been dubbed A New Hope, the Mandalorian and Grogu is a straightforward Western plot setting outer space. We know who the good guys are we can identify the bad guys, and there are a lot of other characters who show up that we can enjoy regardless of which side they end up on. 

There is a three act structure in the film; they really seem to focus on three story arcs that probably would have been episodes of the TV series. The cold open, extends the sequence long enough to have probably covered three episodes before we move on to the main villains of the season. The second act introduces key characters that are going to be in play for the rest of the film, and we get some good set pieces that take advantage of new technologies. In a call back to the original Star Wars there is a gladiator style contest that looks like it is a real world version of the game that R2D2 and Chewbacca play on the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. Only in this instance do we have life-sized creatures facing off against each other and our heroes. And later turns into a chase with these creatures in the film Noir environment but the movie seems to be emulating. If you took Bob Hoskins out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and dropped him into Blade Runner you would have the second act of this film, as the Mandalorian is in Pursuit of a gangster who is also part of a revived Galactic Empire movement. 

When that section of the film ends we get reconnected to the true big bads of the film, the evil twins who were brother and sister to Jabba the Hutt. A lot like Han Solo the Mandalorian ends up disfavored by the huts and captured to be tortured and killed. It is up to Grogu to manufacture I'll rescue and that takes up the last third of the film. There's nothing wrong with the three story arcs, but it does make it feel as if this is a condensed version of a 9 or 10 hour series of episodes.

There are plenty of other callbacks in the film both to the original Star Wars franchise into cross-pollinating Disney Plus Star Wars series. People who are fans of those series will probably be excited to see some of the characters that show up but folks who haven't seen all of those other shows will not be too confused by what's taking place. It's safe to see this film without having completed all of your homework. I was not on the episode of the Lambcast where we covered this movie. But my fellow Lambs expressed the same sorts of feelings I had about the movie! It is generally delightful, a little derivative, and maybe not as well structured as it could be, but you don't care because you're having a good time watching a Star Wars movie, and it's fun.