The Mandalorian And Grogu
Credit: Lucasfilm
The first trailer for Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu dropped on Monday and I have to say, it looks like a lot of fun. I loved the first two seasons of The Mandalorian on Disney+ and I still get chills thinking about that Baby Yoda reveal. Hearing the soundtrack playing again during this trailer made me remember just how much fun those first two seasons were – and how dreadful the third one was. This show went from being the new hope of Star Wars to just another lackluster, half-baked Disney+ series, but I want to believe that this new movie – which looks like such fun to me – will be a return to the glory days.
“The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy,” the logline for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu reads. “As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.”
In any case, there are tons of Easter Eggs and other important little details in the trailer. We’ll go over the big ones. The movie’s story takes place around 9 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) and a few years after the start of the show. This is still many years prior to the events of the sequel trilogy. With Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) out of the picture, our heroes Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu will face a new threat, though it’s still tied to the Empire as evidenced by the many Stormtroopers in this trailer.
1. We get our first look at Sigourney Weaver’s character, Colonel Ward.
Sigourney Weaver
Credit: Lucasfilm
Sigourney Weaver plays New Republic officer, Colonel Ward, in the movie. She was a fighter pilot during the rebellion and hires Mando and his baby sidekick for a job of some sorts, though details on what that may be are unclear. I suspect, however, that it might have to do with the Hutts.
2. That’s Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta, played by Jeremy Allen White.
Rattaa the Hutt
Credit: Lucasfilm
Jabba the Hutt was a fat, slovenly crime lord. His son, Rotta, is the opposite. This is a swole Hutt if ever there was one. Rotta first appeared as a baby Hutt in The Clone Wars as a baby who spent a good deal of time in Ahsoka’s backpack:
It’s unclear whether Rotta will be friend, enemy or frenemy here. We do see Mando going up against a couple of massive droids at one point in the trailer. The symbol on the door behind them is the Desilijic clan emblem, which Jabba the Hutt was a part of, so it’s likely these are Rotta’s minions.
Desilijic clan droids
Credit: Lucasfilm
3. The two other Hutts appear to be the twins from The Book Of Boba Fett.
The Twins
Credit: Lucasfilm
We only see these two hulking Hutts in the new poster for The Mandalorian and Grogu (see below) but they’re quite obviously the same as the twins from The Book Of Boba Fett. These were perhaps the coolest new addition to that show and a massive missed opportunity for a cool story (that ultimately went nowhere). It’s good to see them return.
4. Watching AT-ATs fall down will never get old.
AT-AT destruction
Credit: Lucasfilm
When I showed my daughter the trailer for this movie, we got to the part with the AT-ATs walking alongside this clowy cliff-face and the one tumbling off the edge and she said “Whoa, classic!” And it’s true. There’s something so epic and classic and nostalgic about watching an AT-AT take a tumble. The Mandalorian at its best did such a good job at capturing the feel – the vibe, as the kids say – of the original trilogy. Hopefully the movie does the same.
Apparently fans at the actual presentation got an extended version of this trailer that showed Mando infiltrate the AT-AT and take out the crew of Stormtroopers before blowing it up from inside and flying out to safety.
(When the first season of this show came out, my daughter was 12 and my son was 9 and they adored it as much as I did. By the time Season 3 came out, neither bothered to watch at all. They’d lost interest in Star Wars for the most part, other than Andor, and since I disliked the new season so much they just never bothered. This goes back to a point I’ve made many times: Star Wars fandom is driven by dads.)
5. Mando has a new – and improved – Razor Crest.
The Razorcrest
Credit: Lucasfilm
Mando’s old Razor Crest met its untimely end during the series. He then did a stint in an N1 starfighter. The Naboo yellow was removed, except for a few stripes. But that was a bit of a small vessel for a bounty hunter. It was high time Din Djarin got a new ship. The Mandalorian’s new Razor Crest keeps the yellow stripes, but looks a lot nicer than his old rust bucket.
6. There’s a brief glimpse of Zeb from Star Wars: Rebels.
At about the 47 mark in the trailer we see a big alien fighting Stormtroopers in a hallway, and while it’s very brief and the action is fast, it’s quite clearly Zeb from Star Wars: Rebels. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the character in The Mandalorian. He was featured in a short cameo in Season 3, Episode 5. The Lasat’s full name is Garazeb Orrelios. The former Lasan Honor Guard captain and rebel was a key character in Rebels, and looks like he’ll be taking on a bigger role in the film. This is also a pretty clear indication that The Mandalorian And Grogu will tie in to Dave Filoni’s upcoming Star Wars film in some way, with the cast of Ahsoka and The Mandalorian converging.
7. The creature coming out of the water is an Amani.
The first time we saw one of these ugly aliens was in Return Of The Jedi. The hilariously named Amanaman was one of the bounty hunters in Jabba’s palace. You can see him here on the far left, helping escort Han Solo and Luke Skywalker:
Return of the Jedi
Credit: Lucasfilm
It’s unclear if this Amani is Amanaman, but with all the Hutts in this trailer and the poster, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m still a little sad that new Star Wars demystified Boba Fett so much, but I’m happy to see more vestiges of Jabba’s palace rear their ugly heads.
8. Those little aliens hanging out with Grogu are Anzellans, the same species as Babu Frik.
Anzellans
Credit: Lucasfilm
The first time we met an Anzellan was in The Rise Of Skywalker, filling the Star Wars movie quota for “cute aliens.” That was Babu Frik, the rebel black market droidsmith who helped work on C-3PO and was that droid’s “oldest friend” (one of the better gags in the movie, though the whole sequence was an unfortunate piece of mangled writing. The end of the trailer shows Baby Yoda and one of the Anzellans in a sewer where they’re attacked by a giant alien sewer rat. Grogu shoots it in the eye with a green paint dart from his little wrist gauntlet and the Anzellan says, “Nice shot, Baby!”
This is not the first time Baby Yoda and the Anzellans were together, as he terrorized the little guys in Season 3 (one of the few good moments in the entire waste of a season).
Grogu and the Anzellans
Credit: Lucasfilm
9. Mando encounters some of the creatures from the Dejarik game from A New Hope.
Mantellian Savrip
Credit: Lucasfilm
This friendly looking fella is a Mantellian Savrip, a reptilian alien that holds a special place in Star Wars lore. It’s one of the pieces of the Dejarik holograph game, the chess-like board game that Chewbacca and R2-D2 were playing in A New Hope on the Millenium Falcon. The game was first referred to as Space Chess in the 1979 Kenner Product’s Millenium Falcon toy, and was named dejarik two decades later. I wonder if we’ll see more of its famous creatures in Rotta’s gladiator pit?
A New Hope
Credit: Lucasfilm
Lots and lots of characters from the show are not present in the trailer, though this doesn’t mean they’re not in the film. These include Boba Fett, The Armorer, Peli Motto, Cobb Vanth, Migs Mayfield and Cara Dune among others. Of course, Gina Carano was fired from the show over controversial tweets years ago, though the actress recently settled her lawsuit against Disney. That means she could theoretically return, though I very much doubt that will happen. It would be a fun cameo if she showed up in a post-credits scene or even for a brief reunion with Mando and Grogu.
Greef Karga actor Carl Weathers passed away in 2024, and it appears Weaver’s Ward will take on something of that part in the film (though obviously quite different since she’s part of the New Republic). The year prior, Ahsoka star Ray Stevenson (who played the mysterious Baylan Skoll, by far the best part of that series) also passed away. That character has been recast with Game Of Thrones alumni, Rory McCann donning the black robes of the dark Jedi.
The Mandalorian and Grogu lands in theaters on May 22nd, 2026 and was “forged” for IMAX, a bit of a reference to the Mandalorian Armorer and all the Beskar steel forging that goes on in the series. Even though the nearest IMAX screen is over two hours away from where I live, I think I’d like to see this on the biggest screen possible. It’s been 6 years since a new Star Wars film came out, and even longer since a good one hit theaters. I hope this is as good as Rogue One, at the very least. Rebellions are built on hope. I want to believe.
Lucasfilm released this amazing poster alongside the trailer. You can see Zeb standing by Grogu, and a pair of Hutts below them. It’s very Golden Age Of Hollywood in design, calling back all those great adventure films of the past.
The Mandalorian And Grogu
Credit: Disney
I do have some hope in a Star Wars revival, though some of that is probably due to just how incredible Andor was. You can read my review of Andor Season 2 right here. Most of Disney-era Star Wars has been pretty lackluster. I wish Lucasfilm had combined the plot of the Book Of Boba Fett and Season 3 of The Mandalorian into one season/show because neither had enough story to stand on its own two legs, but combined they might have made for a really good season of TV. I guess I want to believe that this movie will right the ship somehow, sweet summer child that I am.