‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ wastes a potentially brilliant era of ‘Star Wars’

In December 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney live-streamed a much-talked-about “Investor Day” presentation. Along with her Marvel Studios counterpart Kevin Feige, then-Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced a slew of new projects to join Disney+ hit “The Mandalorian” (then nearing the end of its second season) in an impressive slate of “Star Wars” projects.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi“, “Andor“, “The Acolyte“, “Ahsoka“, “The Bad Batch” and “Star Wars: Visions“ have all since made it to the screen (to varying degrees of success), while “Rangers of the New Republic”, “Lando” and “Rogue Squadron” were either abandoned completely or cast into the Sarlacc pit better known as development hell.

But arguably the most intriguing project remained nameless and was little more than an aside. This “climactic story event” would be a theatrical release directed by Dave Filoni (who’s since become president of Lucasfilm), and would wrap up storylines established in “The Mandalorian”, ” The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka”.

This “Avengers”-style team-up, we believed, would be where the Imperial Remnant would get its backside kicked, before running off to hide in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. Yes, we also knew they’d eventually go on to form the dastardly First Order, but that was a problem for another day.

THE PATH AHEAD CONTAINS “THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU” SPOILERS. CHOOSE WISELY IF YOU’RE YET TO SEE THE FILM.

Five-and-a-half years have now passed since Kennedy teased “Star Wars: The Climactic Event”, and it’s not even a dot on the horizon. “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, now in theaters, was ideally placed to progress the story, but — despite a few Imperial entanglements early on — it’s definitively not that movie. And in such an intriguing era of “Star Wars”‘ in-universe history, that feels like a hell of a waste.

It wouldn’t have been proper to interrupt the Ewoks’ party with a reality check, but — whisper it — the Empire was never going to go quietly after Emperor Palpatine’s (temporary) demise in the bowels of the Death Star. Even the old, no-longer-canon Expanded Universe novels (now branded “Star Wars Legends”) told stories of Grand Admiral Thrawn and other Imperial hangers-on making themselves a nuisance for Luke, Han, Leia, and co. So it was no surprise when history repeated itself in Lucasfilm’s official “Star Wars” timeline. The Mandalorian was crossing paths with “Imps” from day one.

But these Imperial Remnants exist as a very different entity to the authoritarian regime that developed a penchant for blowing up entire planets or — perhaps even worse — crushing its enemies via the medium of relentless bureaucracy in “Andor”. With the New Republic now in control, it’s the Imperials who are the insurgents, a ragtag collection of warlords in need of leadership — a dark echo of the Rebel Alliance’s early years.

A meeting of the Shadow Council in “The Mandalorian” season 3 episode “The Spies” (featuring the father of a certain General Hux) showed that the late Moff Gideon was just the tip of a very dodgy iceberg, while “Ahsoka“‘s first season spent eight whole episodes bringing Thrawn back from exile to take his place as the Emperor’s heir apparent.

In an interview with SFX magazine, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” writer/director Jon Favreau said that a fourth season of “The Mandalorian” — which he wrote scripts for, before it was abandoned in favor of the new film — “was teeing up what was happening moving into [the second season of] ‘Ahsoka’. It was about Grand Admiral Thrawn and following the larger storyline [of this era of the Star Wars timeline]”.

But if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that Thrawn is conspicuous by his absence, sidelined in favor of a more standalone story. That said, “The Mandalorian and Grogu”‘s opening act does see Din Djarin and his little green friend working for the New Republic, hunting down rogue Imperials to order on behalf of Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver).

Two members of the aforementioned Shadow Council are soon apprehended — one brought in warm, the other brought in cold — in what turns out to be the best segment of the movie.

Djarin is a bounty hunter at the top of his game, making full use of his Mandalorian box of tricks. Grogu, meanwhile, turns out to be a surprisingly effective foil. There are TIE Fighters, Stormtroopers with appalling aim, and at least two models of Imperial Walker, as the film riffs on some of the franchise’s greatest hits, while continuing (all-too-briefly) the hunt for the Emperor’s disciples. It’s fun, fast-paced, and transports you to wretched hives of scum and villainy as only “Star Wars” can.

But as soon as Mando apprehends Imperial bad guy Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne), “The Mandalorian and Grogu” decides that the Empire aren’t the main threat after all. Instead, its attentions shift to Jabba the Hutt’s twin cousins, who unleash their bounty hunting muscle, Embo, after Mando double-crosses them to free Jabba’s cage-fighting son, Rotta.

It feels like a strange decision — imagine an alternative cut of “Return of the Jedi” that rushes through all that annoying business about Darth Vader’s redemption and the Death Star (y’know, the stuff with galactic implications), so we can all get back to having fun in Jabba’s Palace. There’s monsters galore, a chance to catch up with those cute Anzellans, and too much time watching Grogu slowly (but endearingly) nurse his surrogate dad back to health. All the while, you can’t help feeling that the more exciting, big-screen worthy stories are happening in another corner of the galaxy.

There are a couple of important caveats we should mention here. Firstly, the writer and actor strikes of 2023 delayed productions throughout Hollywood, ultimately prompting Mando and Grogu’s transfer to the big screen. Favreau has also said that he wanted “The Mandalorian and Grogu” to work as a standalone, to keep the movie accessible to newcomers.

That’s an admirable aim — not everybody who goes to the theater has access to Disney+ — but surely it’s safe to assume that, if you’re going to watch a film about Baby Yoda and his armor-wearing chum, you’re going to know that the Empire is/was bad news — especially as the state of play is explained via a title card at the start of the film. Indeed, all of these elements are undoubtedly better known than the movie’s nominal villains. The Hutt twins’ only previous appearances came in two episodes of “The Book of Boba Fett”, which debuted more than four years ago.

That’s the other problem with “The Mandalorian and Grogu”‘s reluctance to face that Empire-shaped bantha in the room. By the time “Ahsoka” season 2 picks up, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s story in 2027, more time will have passed since that show’s first outing than elapsed between the “I am your father” revelation in “The Empire Strikes Back” and its resolution in “Return of the Jedi”. This arc is advancing slower than a glacier on Hoth, and Mando apprehending a couple of mid-level Imps on the big screen doesn’t really fill the gap.

If the story of the Imperial Remnant is as important as Disney and Lucasfilm have made out — and a big enough deal to tantalize all those investors back in 2020 — it surely deserves a conclusion in the not-too-distant future. “Avengers: Endgame” delivered on the promise of a decade of movies, but crucially, it rarely lost momentum en route to that final showdown with Thanos.

If “Star Wars” doesn’t resolve its Imperial Remnant issues soon, inertia and apathy might just unravel this intriguing period in the “Star Wars” timeline.

‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ is in theaters now. All three seasons of “The Mandalorian” are on Disney+.