Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Whelp. It’s here — a Star Wars movie. Jon Favreau directs, but can The Mandalorian and Grogu save my childhood memories, or are we doomed to more mediocre to truly awful dreck that has been handed to die-hard Star Wars fans like myself since Disney bought the beloved franchise?

I’ve only seen half of the first season of The Mandalorian, so if you’re new to the series, here’s where we’re at. The Empire (from the original trilogy) has fallen, and former leaders are in hiding, hoping to restore the Empire’s former glory. Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), a veteran of the Rebellion, has hired the Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu to hunt down the missing leaders one by one.

Today’s mission is to arrest the unknown leader. The problem is that no one knows where he is or what he looks like. Well, someone does. It’s Jabba the Hutt’s twin cousins, and they will disclose the location and identity of their target if Mando and Grogu can rescue Jabba’s son, Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), from the evil warlord Janu (Jonny Coyne).

Mando is unsure if he wants to keep working for the New Republic, even after Colonel Ward presents him with a newly procured Razor Crest…or facsimile. Mando agrees and heads off to find Rotta and Warlord Janu. When they find Rotta, we learn that his cousins, “The Twins,” want him dead for territorial rights, and that he is perfectly happy working as an arena warrior for Janu — Rotta is their reigning Champion. In fact, he has only one fight left before he earns his freedom. Ah, freedom. Yeah, Janu is going to give Rotta his freedom (I say sarcastically).

Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2026 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.

“Colonel Ward, a veteran of the Rebellion, has hired the Mandalorian Din Djarin and Grogu to hunt down the missing leaders one by one.”

I guess The Mandalorian and Grogu is OK. I had fun, but this is a Star Wars movie. It should be more than just fun. Let’s talk about it.

First, you don’t need to have seen the Disney+ series to jump aboard; the opening crawl explains it pretty well…shoot, I think I explained it pretty well. We’re also on an adventure. Like Indiana Jones, Din Djarin and Grogu have a baddy to catch, and just when I think the goal has been reached, a new one appears further out of reach. From the start of the series, Djarin has been a mentor to Grogu, and let’s just say there’s a full act where Grogu is on his own and has to apply every lesson he learned from Djarin to save the day.

My assessment is that this is a kid’s movie. If you think Grogu and the other tiny creatures are cute, you’re going to love and adore this movie. Pay special attention to the new breakout character, Trapper Wolf. But honestly, I wanted more, and Trapper Wolf is not enough. The stakes are not that high. The story continues the character development of both the Mandalorian and Grogu. If they failed their mission…whelp, off to another. This is essentially four episodes of the television series padded to feature length.

Let me tell you what really bothered me about this movie. The CG visual effects are sub-par. Right from the start, everything looks flat and lacks depth. You may not notice this, but I sure did. If this were George Lucas, he would be on this like white on rice. He pioneered CG filmmaking — he would have spotted something as basic as depth. This problem extends to all the CG arena fights with Rotta and his opponents…can you guess which character will ultimately be his opponent? Nitpicky, yes. But for me, just a reminder that Disney has ruined Star Wars.

I don’t hate this movie, so that’s enough for a recommendation…barely, which is more than I can say for other Disney Star Wars shows and films. Kids will eat this movie up. Adults deserve better.