Baby Yoda is a choice

Lucky break for Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Pedro Pascal that Disney is putting Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on the air, because it means at least for a little while, no one will expect them to do anything about Disney dropping the free speech ball. The teaser trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the feature film expansion pack for The Mandalorian, was revealed yesterday, just in time to not be dragged into the middle of the Kimmel fight.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is expected to be one of Disney’s biggest films in 2026. It looks like an enormous merchandising opportunity, with lots of critters and creatures to turn into plushies and Funko Pops. Seriously, though, I do like the retro styling for the title treatment and poster, which looks like the kind of 1930s adventure serial that inspired George Lucas in the first place.

What it does NOT look like is Andor. There will be none of that rabble rousing or fiery political speechifying in Star Wars anymore! I just cannot tell you how much I think about the time someone at Disney told me the Lucasfilm brass is annoyed Andor is the thing the public decided is the best New New Star War, because they have ZERO interest in making anything like that again (but I think about it all the damn time). They want stuff like The Mandalorian—action-adventures that crank out merch and no divisive political speech. 

To be fair, the first season and most of the second season of The Mandalorian are terrific. It gave us a stellar Star Wars theme to add the playlist, some cool new characters, and it added “this is the way” to the lexicon—I’ve heard people I KNOW don’t watch Star Wars quote that phrase. 

But you know what other instantly indelible phrases have been added to the lexicon?

I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I’ll never see.

Freedom is a pure idea.

The frontier of the rebellion is everywhere.

Tyranny requires constant effort. Authority is brittle.

Try.

Lucasfilm isn’t interested in that kind of trying, though. That kind of trying is hard. It requires more than just effort, it requires bravery. It requires a corporate machine to risk displeasing a petty authoritarian and all that may come with that. And we’re still watching the consequences of Disney’s reluctance to display that kind of institutional bravery play out in real time. 

I’m sure The Mandalorian and Grogu will be a fun time. I certainly don’t begrudge Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver the work (or Jeremy Allen White, who is playing the new Hutt on the scene). But Andor was special. Years from now, Andor will still be relevant. There is something to build from there, to keep following the threads of the rebellion, telling stories about regular people taking action against impossible odds, but it’s hard to merchandize canon fodder. No one makes plushies of the guy who stays behind to buy time so refugees can escape. Just remember that what movies get made is a choice. It’s a choice to double down on space wizards, baby Yoda, and big-eyed creatures that make great dolls. It’s a choice to stop telling stories about regular people standing up against tyranny. A really, really interesting choice.