Buckle up. We have a lot to dig into here, so I’m going to break this down into sections and explain the reasons why I believe making The Mandalorian & Grogu into a movie was a mistake.
1. The Mandalorian Was Built for Television
The Mandalorian established itself as a series instantly. People became accustomed to watching it at home on a weekly basis, while others found enjoyment in having a series at home to binge. The Mandalorian became that for a lot of people, especially during Season 2, as it aired in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
The series suited the formula and the dynamic between Din and Grogu. It allowed audiences to connect with them from the first episode all the way through. I also think The Mandalorian is a story that goes far beyond just Din and Grogu.
As we had already seen, we got Ahsoka’s introduction, Luke Skywalker’s epic moment, Bo-Katan alongside Koska Reeves, the beginnings of the New Republic and so much more. A series allowed a story on this scale to breathe in the right way.
2. The Box Office Tells Its Own Story
Star Wars is a household name. It’s quite simple. Star Wars practically prints money. Now, I’m not saying The Mandalorian & Grogu doesn’t, because it absolutely does. You can walk into almost any shop that sells toys and you’re almost guaranteed to see a Grogu plushie or something similar, alongside a wide range of other merchandise.
That’s why I can see the logic behind taking these characters to the big screen. The problem is, The Mandalorian & Grogu did not perform particularly well at the box office.
It’s currently the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie of all time. It ended its theatrical run with around $345 million worldwide, behind Solo: A Star Wars Story at $392,924,807.
It’s surprising considering how successful The Mandalorian franchise actually is, but the box office numbers paint a completely different picture. That leads me nicely onto my next point.
3. Did The Mandalorian & Grogu Actually Need to Be a Movie?
When you have three seasons of a series, you inevitably lose people as the show progresses. This naturally leads to fewer people being interested in the show itself. Whereas, if you never had The Mandalorian Season 1 and it became a movie first, people may have been more interested in watching the film.
The thing is, you get casual moviegoers who will go to the cinema frequently. I have a colleague at work who has an Odeon pass and goes to the cinema probably once per week. There will be people out there who probably avoided watching The Mandalorian & Grogu simply because they didn’t want to watch three seasons beforehand, or didn’t want to at the time.
The movie itself was largely a borefest. Season 3 already killed a lot of what made The Mandalorian great. You had the likes of Luke Skywalker, the other Mandalorians, the Darksaber and more. A lot of that was practically ruined in Season 3, which is probably the last place you want to slot a movie.
The film had little value. I recently tried to rewatch it again and switched it off after 30 minutes because I was bored, and I knew nothing super exciting was going to happen. Yes, the characters were okay. Rotta and Zeb stood out, but it’s flat after that.
The story is predictable, as is Din’s unmasking. His unmasking even felt like something that happened simply because this was now a movie on the big screen.
All in all, I found this to be the worst of the four outings for The Mandalorian.
4. Would Season 4 Have Been Better?
I believe it would have been. The reason why is that it would’ve allowed some of our characters to be fleshed out more. Rotta and Zeb, despite being standouts, would’ve had a bigger opportunity to breathe within the story, especially Zeb.
If you’re a fan of the Rebels show, it would’ve been interesting to see more of how Zeb ended up working side by side with Din Djarin.
The movie, for the most part, felt rushed because it didn’t have the usual opportunity to flesh itself out more. There’s so much I would’ve liked to see in the series. Grogu did come into his own as he saved Din, but I wanted more than that.
Grogu is the same species as Yoda. We already know how truly connected to the Force that species can be, so it’s natural to want to see Grogu become more powerful, yet he still felt like he struggled.
A full season basically wouldn’t have given us a rushed project that lasted 2 hours and 12 minutes. If you had a Season 4 with the usual formula, averaging around 40 minutes per episode, you would get over five hours worth of content, which is drastically more than we got.
In the end, did Star Wars make a mistake?
I think there are two ways to look at it. Disney are most likely laughing all the way to the bank with merchandise sales across the globe alone. Yet, I think the critical reception and box office performance tell a different story.
For me, the answer is yes. The Mandalorian had already established itself as a television series, and that’s where Din and Grogu’s story worked best. A fourth season would’ve given the characters and story significantly more time to breathe instead of condensing everything into a 2-hour movie.
The Mandalorian & Grogu may still be an incredibly valuable franchise for Disney, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it needed to become a theatrical one.
