Disney screened almost half an hour of The Mandalorian & Grogu for fans on May the 4th, and the preview was enough to completely change my tune on the upcoming Star Wars blockbuster. The Mandalorian & Grogu marks the first time a live-action Star Wars TV show has transitioned to become a movie, and all eyes are on this experimental move to see if it will pay off. With the movie just weeks away from release, there remains a lot of skepticism among the Star Wars fandom over whether The Mandalorian & Grogu will be worth going to the big screen for.
The Mandalorian & Grogu is directed by Jon Favreau, who also served as creator, writer, and director on The Mandalorian series alongside Dave Filoni. The movie picks up from the events of Season 3 of The Mandalorian, shifting a planned Season 4 into a two-hour blockbuster film instead.
The marketing for The Mandalorian & Grogu so far has left a lot to be desired. Early trailers gave little idea of what the movie was actually about, nor why it was worthy of the cinema treatment. A lackluster Super Bowl spot also did little to move the needle.
This isn't to say there's anything wrong with the Mandalorian or Grogu themselves; the pair are Star Wars favorites, and the Disney+ show was a hit. It's the fact that marketing has so far struggled to show why fans should spend their money to see it in cinemas rather than wait to see it on Disney+, where The Mandalorian has traditionally been available. On top of that, box-office tracking has been respectable but not particularly strong, which is concerning for Star Wars' first major theatrical release in seven years.
To try to turn sentiment around, Lucasfilm opted to celebrate May the 4th, aka Star Wars day, by hosting free IMAX screenings across North America of the first 25 minutes of The Mandalorian & Grogu (slightly longer than the preview shown at CinemaCon a few weeks prior). Star Wars fans, including The Direct, flocked to theatres to see a preview of the movie almost three weeks before its release.
The Mandalorian & Grogu Preview Changed My Mind About the Movie
While barely a quarter of the movie was shown, the preview of The Mandalorian & Grogu was enough to change this skeptic's mind.
The movie's opening delivers on much of what the trailers promised. Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin is shown single-handedly taking down AT-AT walkers in the snow, using every tool and trick in his arsenal. Star Wars Rebels' Zeb Orellios makes his feature debut, as does Sigourney Weaver's new character, Colonel Ward. Grogu is, as expected, adorable, with Disney really leaning into his cute factor.
The footage moved at a brisk pace. It sees Mando go from the snowy planet to the rebel base on Adelphi, then to Nal Hutta to meet the Hutt twins, and finally to the gladiator fighting pit to retrieve Rotta the Hutt. The speed at which things move does make you question whether Lucasfilm left out certain bits for this preview, because if this is what fans can expect from the first quarter of the movie, there's certainly a lot that hasn't been revealed in the trailers yet.
The preview answered a lot of my questions and eased many of the concerns I'd had about The Mandalorian & Grogu. It's finally clear that the movie does have a central driving narrative, with the Mandalorian given an overarching mission to bring in the elusive Commander Coin, the New Republic's top target. While this does seem like something with considerably less stakes than other Star Wars movies, the secrecy around Commander Coin hints that there could be more to this elusive villain than meets the eye.
The footage also proved to me that this is a cinematic experience. The Mandalorian & Grogu feels like the premise that fans know and love from The Mandalorian, but with everything dialed up to 11.
There's something undeniably satisfying about seeing beloved TV characters in your home get their moment on the big screen. The Mandalorian & Grogu is a big promotion for Clan Mudhorn, but Favreau ensures that his two creations are well supported by plenty of blockbuster action, slick visuals, a movie star cast, and epic music.
Favreau is well-versed in what it takes to create a big-screen experience, having shepherded blockbusters like Iron Man and The Lion King. Despite concerns about how a TV show would translate, these action sequences do feel like they've had an adequate upgrade for the cinema screen. Seeing Djarin blaze into hand-to-hand combat with his flamethrower, or zip around an AT-AT on his jetpack, is adrenaline-pumping and feels far more immersive now that you're not squinting at your TV or phone screen.
Ludwig Göransson's music also deserves a special shout-out. Having also composed for the Disney+ series, Göransson reuses the show's iconic theme in The Mandalorian & Grogu, but with added grandeur. Plus, the original music interspersed throughout the first 25 minutes ranged from soulful to electronic to downright epic. If nothing else carries this movie, the music will.
The IMAX theatre does its share of heavy lifting in this cinematic experience, for sure, but The Mandalorian & Grogu's visuals, music, and scale are worthy of filling it. The movie feels undeniably Star Wars, with plenty of Easter eggs, sci-fi action, and a brand of humor that upholds traditions from the galaxy far, far away.
What's missing for me right now in The Mandalorian & Grogu is stakes. The movie spends so much time making Djarin effortlessly kick-ass that it's hard to feel any concern for him, let alone what he's fighting to protect, without knowing what threat Commander Coin poses. Although if The Mandalorian & Grogu intends to kill off Djarin, as the marketing is making us believe, it seems those stakes are coming.
It also remains to be seen whether The Mandalorian & Grogu can uphold the standard set by this opening, and it's entirely possible it could fall flat in the back half. Not to mention, the movie has some work to do to appeal to non-fans of The Mandalorian who aren't already invested in Djarin and Grogu.
As a Star Wars fan, I'm aware I'm an easy mark for what The Mandalorian & Grogu is selling, but, like many others, I am concerned about how this film will turn out. But if The Mandalorian & Grogu is anything like its first half hour, we should be in for a treat.
