The Mandalorian and Grogu puts spectacle before character

Rather than debut a new trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, Disney/Lucasfilm’s great hope for summer 2026, during the Super Bowl, Disney opted to do a riff on Budweiser commercials, which did not move the needle at all. Now, though, they have dropped the official trailer, giving us the most comprehensive look yet at Mando and Baby Yoda making the leap from streaming to the big screen (a transition that has yet to work out for anyone, but I’m sure this time it will go great!).

The new trailer features Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver and teases more Hutts—one of which is voiced by Jeremy Allen White—and shows Mando taking a job to hunt down and eliminate bad guys either left over from the Empire or emerging from the chaos of imperial collapse. He is accompanied by his space son, the deceptively cute Grogu. I do not hate this setup at all, but then the trailer goes into what can only be described as full creature mode, and I can feel my enthusiasm waning.

A huge problem for Star Wars in the New New era has been the tension between spectacle and character. Andor, led by Tony Gilroy, a creative who doesn’t give a sh-t about Star Wars, focused on character first, and the result is one of the best television series made in the streaming era—maybe one of the best ever, time will tell. But The Mandalorian was developed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and they’re both spectacle guys. Favreau can strike the right balance between character and spectacle (see also: Iron Man), but when collaborating with Dave Filoni, George Lucas’s creative heir, they seem to bring out the worst in each other and can’t resist putting spectacle over character at every opportunity. Lucas, for the record, is also a spectacle guy, which is why the best Star War is The Empire Strikes Back, the one he did not write or direct.

I do like the narrative setup, though, of Mando acting as a bounty hunter to chase down remnants of the Empire, and I like the emotional setup of Mando essentially raising a child he knows will outlive him by centuries. Not only will Grogu outlive Mando, he ages so slowly he’ll probably still be in childhood when Mando kicks it. The concept of Mando wrestling with how best to prepare Grogu for the world when he knows his time is so limited is interesting! It’s emotional! It’s enough!

But then we get speeders and creatures shoved in our faces at such a high rate that I sighed audibly. This is just going to be more Filoni spectacle sh-t, more nostalgia bait and merchandising opportunities. You can practically see the toys making themselves. I don’t expect that the interesting character premises are going to turn into anything important or gripping. At this point, I fully expect the promise to be squandered, as they did with the streaming show, which started so strong but eventually turned into shameless nostalgia bait. It makes me kind of sad, because we’ve glimpsed what Star Wars could be without the nostalgia bait, and we’re actively choosing not to do that. Truly the worst timeline.

The one credit I will give The Mandalorian and Grogu, though, is that Ludwig Göransson’s Emmy-winning music for The Mandalorian is MADE for the big screen. This is easily the single best piece of music to come out of New New Stars Wars. The franchise already has two of the most recognizable, beloved pieces of cinematic music of all time in John Williams’s “Imperial March” and the Star Wars “Main Theme”, and Göransson’s theme stands up alongside Williams’s iconic work. It is distinctive, evocative, and immediately recognizable. I am slowly losing hope that The Mandalorian and Grogu will be any kind of good, but I still look forward to seeing Göransson’s music bumped up to the big screen. He’s composing the score for the film, and I fully expect his music to lend the film a gravitas it in no way earns.

Here’s Pedro Pascal in New York. The press tour will probably be the best part of this movie.