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The Mandalorian and Grogu Film Underscores Star Wars' Shift to Side Stories

The latest Star Wars movie, "The Mandalorian and Grogu," highlights a perceived change in the franchise's narrative scope, suggesting a move towards more tangential storylines.

Consequence·May 19, 2026·via Consequence

The Mandalorian and Grogu Film Underscores Star Wars' Shift to Side Stories

Liz Shannon Miller May 19, 2026 | 9:00 AM

While watching The Mandalorian and Grogu on a massive IMAX screen, I tried imagining what it would be like to watch it as a Star Wars fan with no Disney+ subscription — someone who just happened to hit the multiplex on a whim for a return to a galaxy far away. This hypothetical fan might be amused to learn that there’s a whole TV show (plus spinoff ) of set-up for this moment in time. In their eyes, it would be a prequel.

This hypothetical fan feels like a rare creature, though. Not the part where a Star Wars fan doesn’t have a Disney+ subscription, but the part where someone who hasn’t watched The Mandalorian on TV would feel driven to see The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters. Directed by Jon Favreau, the feature-length adventure does try to present itself as a stand-alone story. However, it can’t escape its TV roots, a reflection of how the live-action Star Wars universe has gotten so much bigger over the past few years, while somehow feeling smaller and smaller.

The movie opens with a title card that explains the basics: In the period following Return of the Jedi , Din Djarin ( Pedro Pascal /Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder) and his apprentice/adopted son Grogu (a team of skilled puppeteers and artists) are working to track down former baddies who worked for the Empire, prior to the destruction of the second Death Star. Think post-World War II Nazi hunters — a vibe the movie deliberately courts.

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The opening sequence finds Din and Grogu on the hunt for their latest target, with some big action beats including the destruction of an AT-AT. Then, the duo report back to Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) for their next mission, which involves tracking down another high-level Empire dude, which sends them to an array of planets like the gritty and urban Shakari and Nal Hutta, home planet of the Hutt race.

What follows is a pretty straightforward pulp adventure tale with a few deranged choices. This includes the introduction of Rotta the Hutt, who isn’t just Jabba the Hutt’s son, but a ripped-as-hell prizefighter who has a lot of angst about his nepo baby status. Let me repeat that: Swole emo Hutt prize-fighter. He’s Huttmaxxing, as the kids say. Rotta is voiced by Jeremy Allen White , which is a hilarious fact to keep in your head while watching his scenes, even though his voice is digitally altered to sound more Hutt-esque. And to be honest, White is a more convincing Hutt than he is a Springsteen .

Favreau has said in interviews that while the canceled Season 4 of The Mandalorian was written in full , this movie is a wholly separate concept from those plans. That’s all very well and good, except for the part where The Mandalorian and Grogu still plays like a three-episode arc of the original Disney+ series. It’s even possible to get a sense of when each potential episode would have ended.

A swole Rotta the Hutt in The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney)

When other TV shows have made the leap to film with their original casts, they’ve taken far more advantage of the scale made possible: The 1998 X-Files movie not only advanced the show’s mythology but featured an epic climax set in Antarctica. Sex and the City saved its own epic event — the wedding of Carrie and Mr. Big/John — for the 2008 movie. And although Joss Whedon’s Serenity got flack from fans for killing off a few beloved characters, those deaths did ensure that the Firefly continuation felt like more than just business as usual.

Meanwhile, nothing that happens in The Mandalorian and Grogu would have felt out of place on the original TV show, which is simultaneously a knock against this movie as well as praise for the level of action and spectacle that was happening semi-regularly on Disney+. The choice of director doesn’t really help matters, as Favreau’s skill set has always leaned less towards spectacle and more towards engaging characters. (Name one fight sequence from the first Iron Man more memorable than Robert Downey Jr. eating his way through a bag of cheeseburgers.) Beyond a few first-person shots, the execution fails to expand to the bigger screen in a major way.

This is a movie where the most formidable adversary the Mandalorian and Grogu face is Embo, a bounty hunter whose appearance is a real Leo pointing moment for those who watched The Clone Wars . If you weren’t previously familiar with the character, though, his appearance makes zero impact, thanks to the zero backstory or development he’s given by the script. Embo does quickly establish himself as a more-than-capable bounty hunter, but without the context that comes from watching yet another pre-existing series, there’s no emotional weight to his presence here — a continuing issue with the Dave Filoni era of Star Wars , aimed largely at the completists in the crowd.

The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney)

It is still nice to see more of both the Mandalorian and Grogu, however — quite literally in the former’s case, as the trailers have already revealed that Pedro Pascal was on set, unhelmeted, for some period of time. In addition, Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder, Pascal’s body doubles since the beginning of the series, are listed right after Pascal in the movie’s opening credits (even before voice actor Martin Scorsese), a testament to the complicated mash of performances that result in one character, a long and proud franchise tradition . One detail worth enjoying: The Mandalorian has always been a space Western, but in a movie theater, you can really appreciate how Mando’s armor jingles when he walks, like he’s wearing a cowboy’s spurs.

Although it still feels weird to call Baby Yoda “Grogu,” no matter how many posters you put it on, the lil puppet is still cute as a button, and gets even more definition as a character despite still not being all that verbal. The movie isn’t afraid to let him drive the action for a significant period of time, and the sequences that result have a quiet, understated power to them. If nothing else, it’s confirmation that both he and Din are some of Star Wars ‘ best characters to date .

Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of them, though there’s no guarantee that they’ll be back anytime soon. In general, the future of Star Wars on screen feels very nebulous: There’s Star Wars: Starfighter , the Shawn Levy standalone film starring Ryan Gosling , set for 2027. The second season of live-action series Ahsoka is coming in 2027 as well, along with more of animated series Maul — Shadow Lord and a spinoff of Star Wars: Visions entitled The Ninth Jedi .

Beyond that, there are no shortage of projects in development , but nothing confirmed, and certainly nothing that indicates a bold new direction for this universe. Andor was remarkable and important TV, but was treated very much like a one-off. Star Wars: Starfighter could bring with it a new direction (it’s set five years after Rise of Skywalker , which is fresh territory), but it’s intended to be a stand-alone adventure . In short: Star Wars has always drawn so much excitement from the epic scope of its storytelling, and that’s increasingly lacking these days.

The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney)

Talking this much about the way The Mandalorian and Grogu fits into the general Star Wars ecosystem feels essential because of how little of an impression the movie makes on the viewer. There are no huge changes to the status quo, no dramatic developments that make it feel essential to see. It is a solid space adventure featuring some fun moments, but nothing that plots a course forward for the future.

It all speaks to this universe’s continued inability to fully move past the Skywalker Saga (as the core nine movies and spinoffs are known) — even The Mandalorian couldn’t resist including multiple appearances of a de-aged Mark Hamill to connect deeper into the main narrative. There have been some exciting new stories told in this universe since the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, but watching this latest installment of Lone Wolf and Cub in space just confirms the degree to which Star Wars feels like it’s spinning its wheels.

Without any new developments, what we’re left with is a collection of side quests largely connected by cameos, without any of the narrative momentum that has made past Star Wars projects into must-see events. It’s not the Star Wars anyone over the age of 25 grew up with, and the muted excitement for Mando and son’s return reflects that. At least Baby Yoda — sorry, Grogu — is still the cutest.

The Mandalorian and Grogu jet-packs into theaters on Friday, May 22nd.