Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mae Abdulbaki | Film | May 25, 2026
The Mandalorian and Grogu is one of the most uninspired movies I’ve seen this year. It’s less of a movie and more of a prolonged episode of television, one that comes between two big storylines in the season and serves as more of a filler than anything else. Character development? Practically nonexistent. Even Grogu’s cuteness level has faded into the background. Maybe the novelty has finally worn off. The film, based on the series that began in 2019 and followed Pedro Pascal’s stoic loner Mandalorian (aka, Mando), is overlong and disappointing in its execution. It almost feels like the creativity has run dry and Star Wars fatigue isn’t helping.
The Mandalorian and Grogu sidesteps some of the development from the series, avoiding characters who had made their long-awaited appearances to give us new ones, like Jeremy Allen White’s Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba the Hutt, who died before the start of this film (which is set between the original trilogy and its sequels). On the surface, Rotta is an interesting character; he’s a gladiator-like figure who genuinely believes he’s being treated fairly, a story point that could have been explored more thoroughly alongside his desire to leave his family behind. But the intrigue surrounding him and his story quickly flickers and dies before it can flourish.
Mando is still a good character, but a lot of what’s going on with him is either a retread of past story beats or an overall lack of imagination on the writers’ part. He’s still a good father figure to Grogu, and the idea of the old taking care of the young and vice versa, because, to quote Mando, “This is the way,” is wonderful, but too much of the film’s runtime drags on to the point of exhaustion.
Even the action set pieces aren’t all that exciting, and while the creature designs and puppetry are excellent, the story itself suggests that there’s really nowhere to go for Mando and his lovable sidekick. Perhaps it’s caught in a state of flux because the concept of space dad and his son going on adventures that are more like pitstops in other people’s lives has run out of juice. The movie also feels made for audiences who may not have seen the series — and that’s fine — but co-writers Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor, and Jon Favreau, who also directed, don’t trust viewers enough to engage with the material beyond the surface. The result is an ultimately wholesome film that is missing a spark. Our potential to enjoy it is overshadowed by how unmemorable and stale it is.
The script isn’t economical in its pacing, either, stretching out scenes unnecessarily. When the film attempts to tug on our heartstrings, thanks to a good chunk of focus on Grogu doing his part to help Mando in the final third, it falls flat. This is a movie that clearly understands what it is about the pairing of Mando and Grogu that works, but it doesn’t seem all that interested in giving us anything remotely new to grapple with. It’s very low stakes, operating on autopilot instead of taking the opportunity to give us more — of the Star Wars universe, of Mando and Grogu, and the New Republic, which is barely prominent despite Mando’s working relationship with Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward.
The Mandalorian has always required a bit of patience, but it had some great highs. The film, on the other hand, is operating on a lower, less engaging level. It’s like a drawn-out episode of television we’d sooner forget existed because nothing much happened. It has no real ambition, and by the halfway point I was caught between feeling tired of the story and its characters and feeling indifferent. If The Mandalorian and Grogu is the Star Wars franchise’s big return to the big screen (the box office numbers suggest otherwise), then it doesn’t bode well for its future.
