Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026)

Score: 5 / 10

Category: Movie

Platform: Cinema

One-line verdict

A Star Wars film that squanders massive narrative potential with a mid-tier story and surprisingly lazy direction from Jon Favreau.

Why I watched this

I watched this on 29 May in the cinema. I went into this because I am a huge fan of Star Wars. I am not just a normal fan; I have followed most of the lore on Disney Plus and covered all the animation until recently when I got busy. I have watched the Mandalorian series end to end. So naturally, I came for this. I was expecting a massive theatrical event to bridge the gap between the shows and the larger universe.

Story & Structure

The premise of this movie is about Mando and Grogu continuing their mission to capture the Empire's officers. This is set after the downfall of the Empire, with them now working as freelancers for the New Republic. The core narrative quickly shifts to rescuing Rotta the Hutt—Jabba the Hutt's son, who was introduced as a baby ("Stinky") back in the Clone Wars animated series. Now, he's a jacked gladiator fighting in an arena, trying to earn his freedom from a crime boss named Janu.The structure feels more like an extended television episode rather than a cinematic event. Instead of pushing the main narrative forward or bridging the gap to the sequel trilogy, the film hyper-focuses on Rotta rejecting his family's criminal legacy and choosing to be a good guy. While the theme of breaking cycles is nice, it feels entirely disconnected from the grand scale this movie promised.

What worked

What worked for me is purely the character of the Mandalorian and Grogu. That is about it. The consistency of their dynamic and every scene with them in it remains the strongest part of this era of Star Wars. The action scenes were also good. I thought they executed the combat well and made Mando look cooler than ever on the big screen.I will also give credit to the 15-minute sequence where Mando is poisoned. It slows the movie down and forces Grogu to step up and care for his father figure. It is a quiet, emotionally resonant stretch that reminded me why I love these two characters in the first place.

What didn’t

What didn't work was quite plenty. I genuinely thought the potential of this movie was vast, seeing where it built from the series. It branched out so many paths—from exploring Mando's origins, to the reintroduction of Luke Skywalker, to the introduction of Ahsoka, to many more possibilities for expanding the Star Wars universe.But how this movie actually went was incredibly mid. Neither Luke nor Ahsoka even appear in the film. Instead, it is entirely about dealing with the Hutts and Rotta's redemption arc. In the previous Star Wars movies, the Hutts were part-time figures and background gangsters, not the main emotional core of a theatrical release.Then there is the bounty hunter antagonist. Initially, I thought this was just a cheap Cad Bane lookalike, which felt like a massive disappointment. I have since been corrected—this is actually Embo, a Kyuzo bounty hunter with the metallic hat who is a well-known, fan-favorite character from the Clone Wars animated series. While that makes more sense lore-wise, it still felt underwhelming for a theatrical villain. If you are going to bring a character from animation to the big screen to hunt Mando, it needs to carry more weight than this.Finally, returning to that poisoning scene—as much as I hate sad endings, they missed a massive opportunity here. They could have used that moment to truly pivot Grogu into the main protagonist role, raising the stakes and making it a far more impactful story with real consequences. Instead, they played it safe.

What others think

Critics are fairly split on this. A lot of people are praising Rotta the Hutt's character arc, noting that his storyline of rejecting his father's evil legacy mirrors Luke Skywalker's journey. Many appreciate that the film stayed "small" and focused on character relationships rather than massive galactic stakes. However, a significant portion of the audience agrees with me that the movie doesn't actually advance Mando and Grogu's main narrative in any meaningful way. It is also catching heat for being the first Star Wars movie to feature absolutely zero legacy characters from the original trilogy and zero lightsabers.

Final thoughts

A final take: I am disappointed. As a fan, after witnessing so many good materials from Jon Favreau over the years, I am surprised this is his direction. It felt lazy. It feels like they put very little effort into making this feel like a true movie rather than a padded-out Disney Plus episode. When you have a canvas this large, playing it this safe feels like a failure of imagination.