Dank farrik! The Mandalorian is headed to the big screen! We kind of already knew that but now it’s official – Jon Favreau is set to direct a new feature film featuring none other than everybody’s favorite Beskar-sporting space dad and his little buddy Grogu.
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one, especially for Mando fans. So is this basically The Mandalorian Season 4? And why is it a movie and not on Disney Plus?
The answer, of course, is simple. It’s The Mandalorian. Everything is always all about The Child. And this is his destiny.
Last we saw of Din Djarin, he was sitting on his porch on Nevarro, watching his adopted son Din Grogu play with space frogs. For once we got to see the good guy actually get a shot to be happy. But with this newly announced movie, it looks like all that is gonna get disrupted.
The new film, which is titled The Mandalorian & Grogu, is supposed to go into production sometime this year, meaning 2026 is probably the earliest we’ll see the finished film. The movie will be produced by Favreau, newly-minted Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm Dave Filoni, and of course, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, who is still very much their boss (regardless of whatever did or did not happen on an episode of South Park).
But I digress, of course. I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan and Din Djarin and Grogu have become my favorite characters in the whole saga. This is good news. This is great news, actually. And I think this was always the plan for these characters… and it’s more because of Grogu than it is Mando, regardless of the drip or his ride. It’s always been all about Grogu.
Mando Heads to the Big Screen
The Mando movie is yet another new Star Wars feature film project Lucasfilm is adding to the production slate, which now includes James Mangold’s ancient Old Republic movie, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order movie and, we assume, Dave Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie.
This is the part where I have to mention that Star Wars hasn’t had a film in theaters since 2019. Putting that into perspective, the Marvel Cinematic Universe released no fewer than 10 feature films during that same period. Yes, Star Wars has been busy with streaming series and video game projects, but since The Rise of Skywalker, the brand has announced several projects that are now either stuck in development hell or have been shelved completely.
For a while there was a Kevin Feige Star Wars movie that was talked about but never got off the ground, Patty Jenkins was supposed to direct a Rogue Squadron movie and even did a cool announcement video about it after she got the gig, but that too is no longer a thing at Lucasfilm.
So how confident should Star Wars fans be that this newly announced Mandalorian film will actually make it to theaters? Pretty confident, I’d say! This is Jon Favreau. I mentioned the MCU earlier… Well, guess what? He started that! He’s still a part of that!
It’s my opinion that Lucasfilm is looking for bangers in the movie theater and so they turned to the guy with a bunch of bangers under his belt. Also, let’s not forget that Favreau and The Mandalorian basically carried the entire launch of Disney Plus.
And all of this is interesting, sure, but I’m veering away from the main point: This is all about Grogu! Din Grogu, sorry. From both a lore perspective and a real-world business standpoint, Grogu is the… (ahem) Force that’s driving all of this.
Grogu: One Character, Three Different Eras… So Far
Here’s what I mean: Little Grogu, we know, is already 50-plus years old at this point, and based on what we know of how his species ages, this little guy is gonna be around for a long, long time into the future of what we currently know as the Star Wars timeline. What this does is give Lucasfilm a useful tool in joining different eras of that timeline together.
As things are now, Din Grogu is tripping the light fantastic with Papa Din in their souped-up N-1 Starfighter almost a decade after the Empire fell at the Battle of Endor. Meanwhile, Filoni and Favreau have laid the breadcrumbs for how Grogu is connected to the eventual return of Emperor Sheev Palpatine some years later. So right there you have Grogu as a connecting thread to two major eras.
And what about looking in the other direction? We’ve known since Mando Season 2 that Grogu was an Order 66 survivor, but in Season 3 we actually got the flashback of Jedi Master Kelleran Beq fighting to get Grogu out of the temple as not-a-Master Anakin Skywalker and the 501st showed up to do a little housecleaning.
One character, three different eras, and that’s just a start. Grogu’s life could span centuries and he could easily be a thread that connects pretty much everything up through the time he actually becomes one with the Force.
Grogu is set to star in this new movie with Din Djarin but that doesn’t mean he won’t also appear in at least two other Star Wars feature films Lucasfilm has in the works, assuming they get made. Throw out Mangold’s Old Republic/Dawn of the Jedi movie. I know Grogu takes a long time to age, but that’s too long.
So then we’re left with Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie and Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order movie. The former is already supposed to tie together the threads left dangling by some of the Disney Plus series (Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian). We were already expecting that film to feature Din and Grogu as they are right in that mix during the timeline. The latter film already has Daisy Ridley on board to play Rey Palpat… I mean Skywalker, who will be working on rebuilding the Jedi Order from scratch after her loverboy Ben Solo got done with it.
Right, anyway… Grogu could very well be in this movie too. If Rey is rebuilding the Jedi Order, Grogu would be uniquely placed to be both a padawan and one of the most experienced Force-users in the galaxy. He would have survived Order 66, the Galactic Civil War and the rise and fall of the First Order for frak’s sake. Think of the knowledge he’d be able to share with this new academy. He’d be able to help teach Rey how to hone that mysterious Force-healing trick she showed off in Rise of Skywalker!
And at the same time, he’d still be a kid because of the way he ages – surely older than he is now by about… 20 or 30 years, based on when the Rey film is supposed to take place. Not a toddler, but definitely still in his youth. Trained by the Mandalorians, wearing Grogu-sized Mandalorian armor – we’ve all seen drawings of this online already. This movie is the place to do that for real.
And I know what you’re thinking because your thoughts betray you. What if Grogu dies before any of this happens? This is a valid question to be sure, but that brings us to the real-world business side of this whole thing. Why in the world would Disney kill this child? Yes, Star Wars has definitely killed kids before… Actually, let’s just say The Chosen One did most of it. But what makes us think they’d spare this specific youngling?
Because of the merchandise. Think of the merchandise! Star Wars movies have always been a big commercial for the merchandise and Grogu is a cash cow or… a cash whatever his species even is. You get what I’m saying.
Remember when The Mandalorian first hit in 2019? After all of the hype and buildup, in that first episode we realized what and who this show was really about. We got that first reveal of what we then all called Baby Yoda and boom, right there, we were hooked. And now that he’s here, he’s not going anywhere.
There’s no way Disney is gonna kill this little moneymaker this early in his career. Grogu is here to stay and unless someone out there in the galaxy actually does eventually punch his little ticket, he’s gonna be around for centuries.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Grogu is the future of Star Wars. Count on it.
Who Is The Mandalorian?
Still, the news about the Mando movie does create some new few questions. For one, what happens to The Mandalorian series on Disney Plus now that the next Mandalorian thing is gonna be a big-screen movie? Our best guess is that The Mandalorian & Grogu movie will take the place of a Mandalorian Season 4, at least in the short term. If we ever do see a Mandalorian Season 4 on Disney Plus, it probably won’t be until after The Mandalorian & Grogu hits theaters, if at all.
My boss, IGN’s Alex Simmons, mused that perhaps the show would shift focus to another Mandalorian, like Bo Katan and her whole deal, for example, and I think that could be true, certainly after seeing how she was the focus for much of Mandalorian Season 3. But once again, I think this is only partially the answer we’re looking for here. Grogu, of course, is the real key.
You’ll remember there was talk during Season 3, as Bo Katan emerged as a major player in Dave Filoni’s live-action plans, that perhaps the title The Mandalorian didn’t refer to Din Djarin any longer but rather the current Mandalorian of the moment like Bo Katan was in Season 3.
This is speculation, my personal belief: Yes, the title The Mandalorian was never meant to focus on Din Djarin… but his replacement isn’t just any Mandalorian. It’s the one destined to be the greatest of them all… He’s a temple-trained Jedi padawan. He’s a Mandalorian foundling. Mark my words, Grogu is the next Mandalore the Great, the one who will eventually continue the legacy of the Great Tarre Vizsla, creator of the legendary Darksaber and the first Mandalorian ever to be inducted into the Jedi Order.
Remember that Mythosaur Bo Katan found lurking in the waters beneath the mines of Mandalore? Yeah, somebody is gonna wind up riding that motherfucker, and it’s not Bo Katan. It’s not Boba Fett, and it’s not Din Djarin.
It’s Grogu. The Mandalorian was always about the most important Mandalorian there is. And that’s Grogu.
This is why The Mandalorian’s adventures were always gonna get pushed to the big screen eventually. If Grogu is destined to become the most important Mandalorian in history, then wouldn’t the small screen be too, well, small for him? He may be the smallest Mandalorian but Master Yoda already warned us against thinking that way.
TV is simply too small for a character with a destiny as big as Grogu’s, and that’s why he always belonged on big movie screens. Like I said at the start – this is his destiny.
But what are your thoughts on The Mandalorian & Grogu? Let’s discuss in the comments!
