It wasn’t the planet Coruscant, it was Madrid. Director Jon Favreau landed this Thursday from the most technological Hollywood to a always tumultuous Callao square that seemed, on the eve of a holiday, like an amusement park. Among a perfume stand with Rosalía’s image, tourists, and lines for a pop-up event of a cosmetics chain, a giant Chewbacca, Mandalorian helmets, and the legion of Imperial soldiers that have been in Star Wars for almost five decades peeked out. Fans and influencers gathered to be the first in the world to see the initial 27 minutes of The Mandalorian and Grogu. It wasn’t even the whole movie, which will premiere on May 21, but it was tangible proof that now, after seven years, George Lucas’s galactic universe is about to return to where it always belonged, the big screen. Even if it is with a duo of characters invented for television.
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Favreau himself said that he saw the first installment, Star Wars, in 1977 when he was 10 years old, in a cinema with his father. Since then, he has always been a fan, recalled the director of Iron Man and The Lion King at the presentation: “I had never seen anything like it, I couldn’t believe the ships were so big. The theaters used to gather us before this excitement and grandeur, as we do today.” That feeling is what he seeks to bring back with the saga’s return to cinemas after some ups and downs and overexploitation on Disney+: “There is a generation that has never seen Star Wars in theaters, only on TV. Grogu and Mando, moreover, are characters known even to those who are not fans, so it is an opportunity to attract new viewers. There are many nods for followers, but above all it is a fun adventure to get hooked on the universe,” he said before the screening of the twelfth film in the franchise.
From the first moments with the classic overlaid text that usually introduces these movies to give context to the political situation (but without much relevance beyond that), the first 27 minutes already show both sides. The Mandalorian and Grogu begins with this bounty hunter as a kind of James Bond or a Mission: Impossible assignment, carrying out missions for the new republic led by Sigourney Weaver. The introductory sequence, in which he dismantles the plans of several landowners nostalgic for the Empire, takes place in the snow, like the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back in a sequence that almost seems like a video game. The gigantic four-legged AT-AT mechanisms return, the fights, the explosions, and also the furry pilot Zeb (Steve Blum) from the animated series Rebels.
But above all, what many expect returns intact: the adorableness of Baby Yoda (now Grogu), even if he now has to wear armor. Although between mischief and cuddles, Favreau warned that this movie takes him from “vulnerability to being a true apprentice and warrior who will become one with the Force” after having studied with Luke Skywalker.
In this introduction, after returning from his first mission, Mando reluctantly receives a new assignment: to find the mysterious Commander Coin. But for that, he will first have to negotiate with the Hutts (those giant worms who controlled the galactic mafia). On their swampy planet, they ask in exchange to find Rotta the Hutt, Jaba’s gladiator and strong nephew, voiced by Jeremy Allen White (The Bear). That leads Mando to a futuristic and dark city, a kind of Tokyo in Blade Runner style where metallic music composed by Ludwig Göransson plays. The first person he meets there: a four-armed food truck monkey cook with white eyebrows and the voice of Martin Scorsese (yes, it’s him). He tells him where to find the Hutt.
Pedro Pascal, first in the opening credits in Apocalypse Now style, still hasn’t taken off the helmet, so it is fitting that the third and fourth credited actors are Brendan Wayne (John Wayne’s grandson) and Lateef Crowder, the Mandalorian’s body and stunt doubles who have shaped this protagonist, while Pascal has spent entire seasons not appearing on set. With this leap to cinema, by the way, Favreau also anticipated new “sets, characters, and a scale that couldn’t be achieved on TV, where eight episodes had to be shot in a year.” Less LED screens and more space and creatures. These first 27 minutes also use less of the western style that made the series famous, although they could fit perfectly in it, still without showing the cinematic greatness Favreau talks about.
The goal of the movie is to tell a self-contained story that doesn’t have too much connection with the rest. Thus, this 132-minute feature film dashed the already advanced plans for the fourth season of the series, now that LucasFilm is putting all its eggs back in the cinema basket. That season would have been more connected with the series’ plots, with Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) as the enemy, but when converting it into a movie, they had to invent an accessible and standalone story, according to Favreau.
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A new hope in theaters
Just as it was a spearhead on Disney+, The Mandalorian and Grogu is a key experiment for Star Wars in cinemas. When Bob Iger bought the brand from LucasFilm in 2012, the plan was to have a movie set in this galaxy far, far away every year. But the reality is that, after some fruitful years, Star Wars has not made box office for seven years, since 2019 and Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, which performed worse than expected and was rejected by fans and critics. Doubts exist, but perhaps this break is what it needed to revitalize itself. Promotion will enter hyperdrive starting on Star Wars Day, May 4, to try to surpass the not very optimistic box office forecasts (especially because the comparisons in the previously unbeatable saga are very high).
For that, Disney went for the easy option: a pair of characters with proven popularity who have filled merchandising stores since they debuted on streaming. Getting back to the cinema was vital after announcing movies by Guillermo del Toro, Taika Waititi, Damon Lindelof, James Mangold, Rian Johnson, Patty Jenkins, and the Game of Thrones creators, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and none came to fruition. There was such a lack of direction that, at the 2023 Star Wars convention, Lucasfilm presented three more film projects. None have been filmed.
In this time, moreover, the overexploitation of series on Disney+ has caused the brand to deteriorate. In 2019, The Mandalorian was an event. It was the long-awaited first live-action Star Wars series, captured the essence, and captivated new audiences. It also put the nascent platform on the map. But it not only became one of the great triumphs of the streaming era, but Baby Yoda was born as an unexpected phenomenon (there weren’t even dolls designed for that Christmas) that soon filled shelves and memes. “I was grateful it was secret, because if you make dolls, it’s very hard to hide it. Since they saw his little face, everyone was captivated. He became a social media star even where Disney+ wasn’t available. He is the character known by those who have never seen Star Wars,” Favreau pointed out. His adorableness was a milestone in pop culture like Star Wars hadn’t seen in years, a triumph of a franchise also born to sell dolls. But with each project added on television, the audience has been diluting both in numbers and in influence and conversation.
After converting them from film scripts (the opposite step to this Mandalorian), The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi did not work as expected, despite their connections to the movies. The very political Andor at least succeeded in critics and awards. And The Acolyte and Lost Crew were half-canceled due to low audience. Besides the animated ones, the only survivor is Ahsoka, which not coincidentally shares characters with The Mandalorian. Now efforts have shifted to making the return to theaters a real event, not just another one.
In 2017, Star Wars: Starfighter by Shawn Levy will face that test for relevance, another project starring Ryan Gosling as a space pilot, alongside Amy Adams, Mia Goth, and Matt Smith. It will be an adventure after the last episode of the saga and independent of the Skywalkers and the Empire, to try to attract new followers from all spectrums to this religion on its 50th anniversary.
These movies will also be the first to be released under the new leadership of LucasFilm, after Kathleen Kennedy’s departure (who remains as producer) and the arrival of Lynwen Brennan and Dave Filoni at the helm, George Lucas’s creative heir and creator of the Mandalorian, little Yoda, and the vast majority of the television universe. It is also the first blockbuster for Disney’s new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, who begins his tenure with the nostalgic success of The Devil Wears Prada 2. But while the romantic comedy draws the audience captivated 20 years ago, Star Wars needs to convince a new generation to its Jedi pantheon so that the Force can continue to accompany cinema for 50 more years.