By the time The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters, it will be the first live-action Star Wars movie in seven years. Back in 2019, as The Rise of Skywalker came into theaters, The Mandalorian was wrapping up its first season, and even debuted Rey’s Force-healing power via Baby Yoda, one day before Episode IX was released. But now, the landscape of the Force feels very different, with Star Wars’s cinematic comeback relying not on old-school nostalgia, but very recent memories of a beloved TV series.
That said, with the inclusion of one character in both the trailer and the poster, The Mandalorian and Grogu isn’t so much a straightforward adaptation of The Mandalorian for the big screen, but more generally, the first big screen movie to embrace the entire world of TV Star Wars. And, arguably, the Star Wars TV franchise rebooted in 2014 with Star Wars Rebels.
In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-moment in the first full trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, Zeb, a massive, purple-skinned Lasat alien is seen fighting with a double-sided electrostaff. This isn’t the first appearance of Zeb in live-action; he also appeared in the Mando episode “The Pirate” back in 2023. But, as fans of Rebels know, Zeb was a regular on that animated series for four seasons and was voiced by Steve Blum. Counting the appearances of Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), and Ezra (Eman Esfandi) in Star Wars: Ahsoka, this means that pretty much the entire animated Rebels gang is now in heavy rotation in the live-action universe begun by Mando.
Now, while some fans might see all of this as writer-producer Dave Filoni merely playing with his favorite action figures (which he largely created), there’s actually a slicker, more subtle promise being delivered here with Zeb showing up in the Mando movie. And that promise is: Can a truly alien-looking alien hero be a cool and permanent part of the Star Wars pantheon of heroes?
What folks tend to forget is that Zeb’s basic design comes from abandoned Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Chewbacca. And so, what we’re looking at isn’t just more Rebels retcon in live action, but rather, a long journey of a certain kind of cool, massive alien, into the visual canon of the faraway galaxy.
To put it another way, having Zeb kick ass in The Mandalorian and Grogu will be the realization of an unanswered question: What if an entirely motion-capture Star Wars alien could also be awesome? Jar Jar Binks certainly won a few battles, but it’s hard to say with a straight face that Jar Jar Binks is awesome. Zeb certainly is. Whether longtime fans care about the dynamic or warmth that newer fans have about Rebels is sort of irrelevant. Zeb’s inclusion as a major player in The Mandalorian and Grogu is awesome because it is a tribute to the promise of Star Wars more generally; we should be able to see amazing creatures, not just humanoids, doing incredible things. And it’s a bonus when those creatures aren’t the enemy or presented as monsters.
Yes, for some, Zeb is yet another “Glup Shitto,” a random Star Wars character that you have to explain to your parents or uninterested friends. But, he’s more than that. This is the kind of character Lucas would have wanted on screen back in 1977 if they could have pulled it off, and a nice connection to the meta world that Filoni has been building out for more than a decade.
Other members of Rebels can certainly appear in The Mandalorian and Grogu. But, for now, it’s nice that Zeb finally has his time to shine, kick ass, and hopefully, drop the Star Wars swear word “Karabast!” at least a few times.
