The Mandalorian and Grogu’s Divisive Response Proves It’s Time for a New Era of Star Wars

The Mandalorian and Grogu is playing now in theaters. Following divisive reviews for the new Star Wars movie, the latest adventure is a clear indicator why it’s time for a new era.

While entertaining, The Mandalorian and Grogu still fell back into Star Wars’ old ways

The Mandalorian and Grogu marks the return of Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and the lovable Grogu, and is based on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. While the series earned massive praise for its first two seasons, the show’s third season (which aired in 2023) received mostly mixed reviews. Instead of a fourth season, creator Jon Favreau and Disney turned to the world of movies, converting a fourth season into a new film chronicling the duo’s adventures.

Unfortunately, it seems like most of the divisiveness around Season 3 of The Mandalorian has followed it into this movie. Following the film’s premiere, it’s received mostly divisive reviews, and holds a mixed score of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes (although the audience score is a very good 88% as of now). Personally, I found the movie to be an enjoyable enough time, but believe the movie once again features a litany of things that show it’s time for Star Wars to move into a new, unknown era.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, thankfully, operates mostly within its own tiny world. Instead of featuring massive stakes for the universe, the movie is largely about Djarin tracking down Imperial officers who still support the now defunct Empire. However, even with a plot as simple as that, the movie still does what I feel like has been holding back the Star Wars franchise for some time, and gets lost in making sure fans see things from its past.

While the movie isn’t too heavy in cameos and other throwbacks, most of the big moments from the movie feature creatures or references to past Star Wars things. We get to see a brand new Hutt (played by Jeremy Allen White). We see more of the Anzellan species, the tiny creatures first introduced by Babu Frik in the sequel trilogy. We even get more references to the burgeoning New Republic and the fallen Empire. Unfortunately, it all rings a bit hollow when it’s all so many things we’ve already seen in past projects.

One of Star Wars’ biggest issues, in my view, is how keen it is to hold onto the past. Most of the projects out now revolve heavily around the same stories we’ve all come to know, albeit with a few twists here and there. While it’s great to see expanded stories of the Hutts or a creature or two we recognize now and again, I think it’s time for the franchise to move into the unknown. Star Wars was at its best when fans largely knew nothing about the stories being told, and could be wowed and amazed at what was happening.

It’s for this reason why the next Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, is probably my most anticipated project in the franchise. Taking place after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Starfighter seems to be creating its own story, free from past connections of Star Wars while retaining many of what we love about the franchise. The power of nostalgia is great, but leaning too far into it results in new stories not feeling meaningful in any way. As fun as The Mandalorian and Grogu was, it ultimately just felt like a fun movie, and not the event that Star Wars has become known to be. If we want to get back to that, then we have to start moving forward.

Source: Comingsoon.net