The Star Wars universe is returning to the big screen with our first look at The Mandalorian and Grogu, next summer’s big bet from Disney.
The film follows the hit Disney+ show The Mandalorian and was born out of the delay insisted on the fourth season by the Hollywood strikes of 2023. In that time, the strategy for the franchise was re-evaluated and a film was prioritised over the fourth season.
It marks the first Star Wars film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, which received mixed reviews but made over $1bn at the global box office.
The film follows Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, a bounty hunter and his ward Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). It will also star Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba the Hutt.
Jon Favreau, who shepherded the series to the small screen, will also direct. It marks his first film as a director since 2019’s The Lion King. His credits also include Iron Man, Elf and Chef.
He has recently spoken about the film’s theme of parenting and how he hopes it will resonate with fans. “As Star Wars fans who are my age, who grew up with the original films, grow up and have kids of their own, I think it’s nice that there’s a hero that is going through what they’re going through,” he said. “Just like when they were young they [could] relate to Luke Skywalker, now they can relate to Mando.”
The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to be released in May 2026, a summer which will also see the release of Supergirl, Toy Story 5, Scary Movie 6, Minions 3 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The release of the trailer follows the unveiling of the first image from Star Wars: Starfighter, another new movie currently in production. That film stars Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams, Mia Goth and Aaron Pierre and will be released in summer 2027.
Longtime Star Wars producer and president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, recently spoke about the new strategy for film.
“It’s a very generational brand, and we want to sustain that, and we work hard to sustain that,” she said. “So George [Lucas] gave us the gift of storytelling being across lots of different genres, and that gives us a lot of opportunity to try things. What we’ve really enjoyed about the streaming space is we’ve been able to experiment. It’s harder to do that in the movie space. And now I think that that’s why it feels so good to be able to move into a Mandalorian movie as we’re coming off of three seasons of a very successful show. We’ve actually built an audience for that, and we gave the young audience an opportunity to enter Star Wars at a different place and not feel like you have to have seen everything. It can become their Star Wars. And that, I think, is the fun storytelling challenge.”
