Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | May 4, 2026
The box office tracking for The Mandalorian & Grogu is not great. As of this writing, it’s heading for a lower opening weekend than Solo: A Star Wars Story. Why is that bad? Solo’s collapse at the box office was not only a financial disaster, but it forced Lucasfilm to pull the plug on an unknown number of standalone movies. Solo was the first falling domino that lead to Star Wars fleeing from theaters for the better part of a decade.
So, with May the 4th in full swing and M&G’s release date rapidly approaching, Lucasfilm has decided the best way to promote the film is to release the opening four minutes on… sigh… Disney+. If I wanted people to leave the house and pay top dollar for my new Star Wars movie, I would simply not remind them that it will probably be streaming barely halfway through the summer. Granted, Disney+ is the house that Mando built, you’re sending the wrong message here.
That said, the Special Look opening to The Mandalorian & Grogu is surprisingly dope. Because this particular corner of the galaxy is still very much a streaming franchise, it pulls from the Netflix playbook of immediately opening with an action scene. I’m talking Mando is doing the Lord’s work barely a second after you see his helmet. More importantly, the scene captures that Baby Yoda magic that made The Mandalorian a must-see juggernaut — until it wasn’t. He’s as adorable as ever banging on his dad’s helmet. As much as Season 3 killed my enthusiasm for this whole endeavor, I can’t stop myself from grinning at these two at work. I went from waiting until it’s on Disney+ to thinking about buying a ticket, which is huge for me! I hate the theater. God, it sucks so bad…
But because Star Wars can’t stop tripping over itself, Lucasfilm inexplicably dropped the brief clip below on YouTube while I was writing this article, and it looks like the actual opening? The Special Look on Disney+ goes right from the text crawl to Mando laying down the law. It’s great, and it works like gangbusters. This scene clearly happens right before that, and it’s awful. This is a toy commercial, which I need to remember has always been the point of Star Wars since at least 1980.
Back to waiting for streaming!
