“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” (2026) is the first live action “Star Wars” movie based on Disney+ live action “Star Wars” series, “The Mandalorian.” Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder dos Santos), nicknamed Mando, who adopted Grogu (puppet) after he chose the Way over the Jedi Code, is teaching Grogu as his apprentice how to become a Mandalorian. Din Djarin works for the New Republic as an independent contractor for Colonel Ward (THE Sigourney Weaver, who is like Thanos except instead of infinity stones, she collects franchises). She needs intel, not bodies, to figure out what the Galactic Empire is up to so at the request of the Hutt twins from “The Book of Boba Fett,” father and son must rescue Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), Jabba’s son, so the Hutt twins can disclose the location of an elusive outlaw. Will the pair be able to survive another job or will this be the job that leaves Grogu alone? He is just a baby! This one is for the kids and the adult sized kids with rousing action scenes, shameless fan service and boatloads of emotional manipulation with cute baby noises and an air-conditioned helmet, so Din Djarin looks fresh instead of having helmet hair when he loses his helmet to an enemy. Oh no (oh yes). It is a movie set in the “Star Wars” universe, but not impactful to the mythology.
Most people with eyes to see and ears to hear agree that Pascal is hot, a good actor and a green flag (please be a green flag). With the rocket backpack, there are definitely Superman vibes. The transitive powers of Pascal get passed to Din Djarin in spirit and action. Din Djarin is everyone’s daddy (ahem). He treats all smaller sentient beings with the utmost care, respect and protection, and he even has a soft spot for Rotta, who has a tale of woe as a cautionary tale of what could happen to Grogu if Din Djarin ever died and left Grogu alone. Side note: is it an unofficial sequel to “The Iron Claw” (2023)? Additional side note: does White refuse to take roles if they do not have repetitive, heavy handed dialogue and tons of awkward prose dumping? White voiced the character well, but was damn clunky, and it is becoming harder to distinguish where the fault lies. Most of the rest of the galaxy sees Grogu’s size as a sign that he is food, a toy or a pet, not a powerful, autonomous being whereas Din Djarin sees him as family and a future warrior. Din Djarin’s heart validates his lethal skills.
Din Djarin is also a badass who is ready for the big screen. He is a do-over for Oberyn Martell in “Game of Thrones.” The fights are excellent, and a lot of the sequences feel as if the writers revamped existing scenarios that Din Djarin could replace Luke Skywalker in the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), Decker in “Blade Runner” (1982), the gladiator scene in “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017) or battle kaiju in urban settings. You get the picture. No wonder Grogu chose the Mandalorian over the Jedi. Just as effective, less emotional angst and way more fun. In a lot of settings, Din Djarin looks like Darth Vader if he was a good guy or a sci-fi, fantasy reboot of Saint George and the Dragon. Oh, and Westerns. Don’t forget Westerns complete with the sound of spurs clanking where there are none. Sure, it is hella derivative, but it is fun, cute and satisfying for their target audience.
There is a massive chunk of “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” devoted to Grogu. This portion should be called Disney test driving whether they can have an all puppet “Star Wars” movie. Even the most hardened critic cannot get too angry because they will be too busy laughing at the ridiculousness of watching an adorable puppet playing a super powered baby who goes on adventures, especially combined with the Anzellans (Shirley Henderson), who are renown for their mechanic skills. Disney is in on the joke and plays it up to the hilt with great success. At times, Grogu has amazing skills, and others, he acts like a baby just blindly pressing buttons. It is so stupid that you have no choice but to go with it or get out. He is definitely growing up because he gets less sleepy as he uses the Force. He still leads with his stomach though, but he hustles with a ton of little steps complete with a cute, audible pitter patter. My heart! The emotional manipulation is strong with this one.
As for other things that have not changed, there is a blink and miss him scene with Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), who appeared in series and is still a New Republic X-wing pilot. Cowriter Dave Filoni appears more often as Trapper Wolf, another pilot. Din Djarin has a pilot when he is on missions, Garazen “Zeb” Orrelios (Steve Blum), a fan favorite from the animated television series “Star Wars Rebels.” He may remind you of Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) from “X2: X-Men United” (2003). It also would not be “Star Wars” without a badass, understated older woman leader. Even if I was not a film critic, I would watch “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” just to see Weaver dish out orders for around ten minutes. It is as if Ripley entered a parallel dimension, and people listened to her. It is not a showy role, but sci-fi fans do not need more than Weaver doing her thing to keep us happy.
“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” embeds an important theme: what makes someone a monster? Understandably, Din Djarin’s targets see him like a monster, probably Michael Myers, always moving unrelentingly to kill them. Monsters are also living beings that do not adhere to conventional beauty standards or are not humanoids such as the fighters. By the way, sentient centipede was about that life and tried to escape and fight the real oppressors before turning on his fellow fighters. No one can tell me that sentient centipede is not the star of their own show. Side-quel! Side-quel! Side-quel! Rocky from “Project Hail Mary” (2026) demands it. Stop specist content in fantasy in sci-fi. More non-humanoid good guy characters! Then there are the moral monsters such as everyone pro-Empire or galactic gangsters who enjoy causing pain and have zero functional, healthy relationships with the occasional exception of a “pet” who adopts their cruel attitude, but they are devoted to each other as an exception, which also explains why people mistake Grogu for a “pet.”
Fresh off winning an Oscar, Ludwig Göransson, who scored the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian,” is back on the team. The scoring is a bit obtrusive in the first act, but as “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” unfolds, Göransson is doing a lot of the heavy lifting to pull everything together. Television series are generally not supposed to be movies, and vice versa. And for those complaining that it is not a “Star Wars” movie, for better or worse, it is, it just is not the kind you want. It is not the best (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), but it is not the worst (the prequels or “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker”). Movies from television series creators always try to stuff too much story in the film at the price of cohesion, but that does not happen here. You do not even need to see the television series to understand the movie. It tells a story about love surviving a universe not built for it and rising from stony ground. It is powerfully dumb, transparently manipulative and utterly complete.
