“The Mandalorian and Grogu” will hit theaters next month, but it got an early look at the first 17 minutes of the film during Disney’s presentation at CinemaCon, the annual convention for movie theaters owners held in Las Vegas.
Pedro Pascal‘s Mandalorian warrior Din Djarin, better known as Mando, and Grogu, the beloved green alien affectionately called Baby Yoda, team up for their first big-screen adventure after starring in their Disney+ series for three seasons. They’re joined by Sigourney Weaver as a New Republic leader named Ward and Jeremy Allen White as the voice of Rotta the Hutt, the son of crime lord Jabba. The film hits theaters next month on May 22.
Director Jon Favreau took the CinemaCon stage to debut the openings 17 minutes of the film, which saw Mando infiltrate a secret meeting of Empire sympathizers and blow up massive AT-AT walkers on a snowy planet. The bounty hunter shot, stabbed and flamethrower-ed his way through the base full of Snowtroopers, with Grogu helping along the way. The Empire leader sends out a recon droid, which meets an explosive end when Grogu uses the Force on it.
The heroes steal a mini AT-ST walker and sprint down the snow-covered cliffs, dodging AT-AT footsteps and lasers. Mando uses a bomb to trip one of the lumbering mechs, sending it crashing down the mountain, then jetpacks up to the hatch of another. The Empire baddie zooms away on an escape pod, but Mando overrides the AT-AT blasters and shoots him out of the sky.
After completing their mission, Mando, Grogu and their pilot Zeb Orrelios from “Star Wars Rebels” fly back to the New Republic base and report to Weaver’s Ward. She chastises them for killing their Empire target without getting any intel, but hands them their next mission: rescue Rotta the Hutt from rival gangsters. They board a shiny, brand new ship and fly off into space.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” marks the first big-screen “Star Wars” story to release since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” The impressive footage had plenty of explosive “Mandalorian” action, adorable Baby Yoda gags and brand new “Star Wars” enemies and tech. The Snowtroopers were dressed in different armor than the Hoth soldiers from “The Empire Strikes Back, and Mando’s AT-ST was a smaller, nimbler version than what we saw on Endor in “Return of the Jedi.” Rather than start with the iconic opening crawl of past “Star Wars” movies, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” begins with static yellow text explaining where the fledgling New Republic stands in the wake of the Empire’s fall.
“The Mandalorian” was the flagship show when streaming service Disney+ launched in 2019, and it spawned two more seasons and spinoffs “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Ahsoka” and “Skeleton Crew.” They all took place in the same time period after the Empire’s fall in “Return of the Jedi” and 25 years before the First Order rises in “The Force Awakens.” The New Republic tries to keep order in the galaxy, but there are still remnants of Stormtroopers and Empire forces hiding out. Other Disney+ shows, like “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Andor” and “The Acolyte” explored other timelines of “Star Wars” history as the franchise expanded on the small screen.
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After “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” fans won’t have to wait as long for another movie because “Star Wars: Starfighter” is flying into theaters next year on May 28, 2027. Directed by Shawn Levy, the new standalone film stars Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Amy Adams.
From Variety US