The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives on Disney+ today, 2 September, a little over three months after it opened in cinemas. It is the first Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, and it lands on streaming with a reputation that depends entirely on who you ask.
What is The Mandalorian and Grogu about?
Jon Favreau directs, as he did the series' pilot, and Pedro Pascal returns as Din Djarin, with Grogu once again a puppet rather than a render. Set after the fall of the Empire, the film sends the pair on a New Republic errand: rescue Rotta the Hutt, voiced by Jeremy Allen White, in exchange for intelligence on a warlord operating in the outer systems. Sigourney Weaver plays Colonel Ward, a veteran X-wing pilot who becomes their reluctant handler. It is, deliberately, an adventure rather than a saga: one job, one crew, one villain.
How did it do?
Respectably, without setting anything alight. It opened over the Memorial Day weekend in May to $81.7 million across three days and around $100 million across four, then settled to roughly $346 million worldwide, a figure that has barely moved since early August. Against a reported $165 million budget that is a profit, but it is also the softest theatrical run a Star Wars film has had, and Lucasfilm will have noticed.
Why are the scores so far apart?
This is the interesting part. Critics gave it 62% on Rotten Tomatoes and 53 on Metacritic, with the recurring complaint that the story is slight, episodic and does nothing to move the characters or the wider galaxy along. Audiences gave it an A- on CinemaScore and an 89% audience score, which at the time was reported as a record for the franchise. Both verdicts are defensible. Favreau has made a well-crafted, good-natured film that plays like an extended season finale, and whether that is a compliment depends on whether you wanted a season finale. People who have spent three series with these two characters mostly did.
Where does Star Wars go from here?
The slate is busier than it has been in years. Ahsoka returns to Disney+ on 20 January 2027, with a trailer already out. Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, opens in cinemas on 28 May 2027, and a second season of the animated Maul: Shadow Lord has been confirmed for 2027 without a date. The Mandalorian and Grogu sits in the middle of all that as a bridge: not the film that decides the franchise's future, but the one that proved a Star Wars film can be modest, cheap by the franchise's standards, and still make money.
Save the date
Streaming on Disney+ from today. If you skipped it in May, the reviews are less useful than the audience score.
Halidom's Star Wars editions include the Mandalorian and Grogu.