Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

Jon Favreau’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu arrives on cinema screens like a reliable old friend who has turned up at the door with a decent bottle of wine and no particular agenda for the evening; and you realise, about twenty minutes in, that you were hoping for something more.

Seven years have passed since a Star Wars film appeared in theatres, long enough for audiences to remember what they missed and to half-forget the reasons they grew tired. This film restores the affection without quite earning back the faith. It is, in my opinion, an enjoyable and well-made piece of work, though as the first theatrical Star Wars release in seven years, it neither seizes nor especially acknowledges the opportunity that represents.

Set in the uneasy years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, the story reunites us with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), the helmeted, laconic Mandalorian, and his small green ward Grogu, now a more active presence than the wide-eyed McGuffin he once was. The fledgling New Republic, still finding its feet after the Empire’s collapse, enlists the pair to hunt down Imperial warlords still extorting the galaxy’s outer settlements. Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), a Rebellion veteran with the bearing of someone who has seen too much and slept too little, coordinates their mission. The plot turns on a rescue involving Rotta the Hutt, son of the notorious Jabba, who proves, against all reasonable expectation, to be a character with genuine dramatic interest.

Favreau directs with the assurance of a man who has spent years building this universe and is entirely comfortable inside it. That same comfort shapes the film’s limits: it is confident, well-paced filmmaking that stays within what Favreau already knows how to do. The action sequences are crisp and inventive, and the film, shot for IMAX, is frequently a visual pleasure, with production design that earns its budget honestly. Ludwig Göransson’s score, expanding on the themes he established in the television series is, in my opinion, the single finest element on offer. There are passages where the music supplies an emotional weight that the screenplay does not pursue.

Pedro Pascal conveys paternal devotion and weary resolve through posture and voice for much of the film, though he does appear without his helmet in several sequences. Grogu has been granted actual dramatic agency this time, a full and consequential participant in the story. The dynamic between the two carries the film’s most affecting moments, particularly when the screenplay gives the relationship room to register without plot machinery running in the background.

Sigourney Weaver, however, is somewhat wasted. Colonel Ward is a character with a history worth exploring, a Rebellion veteran now navigating the bureaucratic compromises of a New Republic that is still learning to govern, but the screenplay gives her too little to do, using her largely to deliver mission parameters and move the plot along. The role as written does not match the intelligence Weaver brings to it.

Favreau has made something that keeps its audience comfortable: episodic in structure, modest in scope, and largely uninterested in asking its characters the difficult questions their situation raises. The screenplay moves the characters from one set piece to the next without pressing them very hard. A theatrical Star Wars return, after a seven-year gap, carries expectations that go beyond comfort, and this film does not rise to meet them.

Critics who have noted its resemblance to an extended television episode have identified something real. The observation is pointed precisely because it describes a creative decision; the film has been built to the pacing and scale of prestige streaming, and on a cinema screen that difference is visible.

The Mandalorian & Grogu delivers its pleasures honestly, and anyone seeking well-crafted galactic adventure anchored by a father-and-son bond that still holds will leave satisfied. Those who hoped the return to the big screen might carry genuine cinematic ambition will find a film that is accomplished and warm at the level of a very good episode of television.