The Mandalorian is blasting onto the big screen in the not-so-distant future. Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter with a heart of gold will leave Disney+ and bring Baby Yoda—aka Grogu—along for the ride.
The new movie, which leads the current Star Wars development slate, is titled The Mandalorian & Grogu. Disney and Lucasfilm must be worried that audiences won’t know what it’s about unless the characters are in the title, sort of like Darth Vader Strikes Back and The Return Of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia.
Tongue-in-cheekiness aside, I’m excited to see that Jon Favreau is directing. Favreau brought Mando and Baby Yoda to life in the series and has a proven track record as a skilled film director with movies like Iron Man and The Jungle Book and plenty of TV directing credits to his name.
I also hope that the movie repositions its title characters back to the center of the story after the latest (massively disappointing) season of the show shifted them to the sidelines in favor of a plot more focused on dragging The Mandalorian into the “Filoni-verse” than on telling its own story.
I’ve been only mildly excited for Dave Filoni’s own upcoming Star Wars film, simply because the third season of The Mandalorian was so disappointing, and Ahsoka—which was basically a new season of Star Wars: Rebels—left a lot to be desired. Speaking of which, Disney also announced today that a second season of that show is also in the works (though sadly not with actor Ray Stevenson).
I’m even less optimistic about a new Rey movie helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a film director who has exactly zero experience with Star Wars or anything even remotely like it.
From the press release:
“I have loved telling stories set in the rich world that George Lucas created,” said Favreau. “The prospect of bringing the Mandalorian and his apprentice Grogu to the big screen is extremely exciting.”
“Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have ushered into Star Wars two new and beloved characters, and this new story is a perfect fit for the big screen,” added Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm.
I want to believe that all of these projects will be great, and I’m genuinely looking forward to a Mando/Grogu adventure movie, but Star Wars is just such a mess right now. I’m confused about what Lucasfilm and Disney’s vision for the franchise even is at this point. Where is it headed? Director James Mangold is also directing a film, though it’s apparently set in a much earlier timeline, when the Force was just being discovered.
This means we have a little offshoot of the sequels, a Filoni-verse culmination film, something to do with Mando and Baby Yoda, all in a sort of crazy grabbag of projects that are only loosely connected. Very little coming out of Disney’s Star Wars has me optimistic at this point, which bums me out.
The blog post did not mention the Star Wars project that I’m most hyped for: Andor Season 2. That was a genuine masterpiece, and by far the best thing since the original trilogy. More like that, please! This is the way!
