It’s been quite a long time since we’ve had a Star Wars movie in theaters. In the time between Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and now, we’ve had a revolution in entertainment in streaming and Star Wars moved from controlling the theater to a fixture in our living rooms with shows like The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi. That left the movies without the characters and worlds that we know and love. Well, we’ve got a new Star Wars movie with The Mandalorian and Grogu coming out in theaters on May 22nd, 2026. It follows up on the story of the first three seasons of The Mandalorian and comes from the brains behind that series in Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.
This time around, we follow Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal, Lateef Crowder, and Brendan Wayne) and Grogu as they work for the New Republic, hunting down the remnants of the Empire. There’s a deck of cards that has all the Imperial generals they’re after, and a mystery card comes up. Turns out the Hutts know some information about this general, but Din and Grogu need to do something for them to get it. Their nephew, Rotta the Hutt, has been imprisoned on a world outside of New Republic jurisdiction, so its up to Mando to get him.
That’s the crux of the story here, but along the way, things get complicated, the Imperial general’s story becomes kind of a red herring to the story being told with Rotta and how that relates to Din and Grogu.
The Bad Of The Mandalorian And Grogu
So we’ll start off with it right here. I was more worried about this being an extended episode of the show turned into a movie. What we end up getting with this film is what looks to be a fourth season of the show, squished down into a two hour movie. It leads to some pretty big pacing issues with the first hour of the movie being all-out action and non-stop. It’s thrilling, and provides a lot of what makes the movie fun. The second hour slows down a lot and has some extended sequences that look like they would have been single episodes of the show.
We get a sequence that only features Grogu, which really feels like it would have been its own episode. That slowdown also takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of the film. Besides the pacing issues, there really isn’t any character development for almost anyone in the movie. Din Djarin is the same good dad to Grogu that he is before the movie started. Grogu doesn’t really learn anything. Rotta the Hutt is a better person at the end of the film. The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn’t change the status quo of these characters. Outside of Din getting the Razor Crest back, we don’t see any meaningful changes.
There are also some weird things that they needed to do to make it make sense for people who haven’t watched the Star Wars animated series. They MAKE SURE to mention that Rotta the Hutt is Jabba the Hutt’s son, at least four or five times. The bounty hunter, Embo, who chases after Din and Grogu, doesn’t even get his name dropped in the film.
The Good Of The Mandalorian And Grogu
So, with that being said, it might sound like The Mandalorian and Grogu is a hopeless failure of a Star Wars movie. It is not. If you enjoyed the TV series and the stylings of that, you’ll like this movie. It feels a lot like George Lucas intended Star Wars to be. This is your episodic Flash Gordon-type story.
The action is fast, frenetic, and fluid for a good portion of the film. There are also the creatures of the film. While Rotta the Hutt looks a bit rough at times (Hutts are really difficult to make look good, go watch the Special Edition of A New Hope), the other creatures in the film look fantastic. Grogu is adorable as always, but even in motion, they’re astounding from a technical standpoint that it’s an animatronic puppet instead of something CG.
Then there’s the score. Ludwig Göransson mixes the classic Mandalorian score with some synth-wave and eurodance inspirations that make for some of the most BANGING songs we’ve heard in a Star Wars movie in a while.
All in all, this is still a good return to movie theaters for Star Wars. There are some issues, but there’s also a lot to like. All the things that make Star Wars special are here: whimsy, adventure, weird monsters, action, heart, and rolling Hutts.
If you like the TV show, you’re going to have a good time. Seeing Mando “cowboy up” and shoot bad guys will always be cool. There’s plenty of action like that in The Mandalorian and Grogu and then some.
The Mandalorian and Grogu releases in theaters on May 22nd, 2026.
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