The first trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu has divided the Star Wars fanbase, but for once, there’s a good reason. There’s a delightful moment in Hook in which an elderly Wendy declares, “It’s been 84 years.” It’s not really been that long since we last had a Star Wars movie in theaters, but you can be forgiven for feeling that way.
The first trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu (finally) released online yesterday. This first trailer has divided fans; some are thrilled to see more of Din Djarin and Grogu, while others feel the trailer lacks a punch somehow.
To be fair, there’s nothing new in the idea of Star Wars fans being divided; to quote Buffy, “Must be Tuesday.” This time, though, I think there are good reasons for that division.
The Mandalorian and Grogu’s First Trailer Lacks An Emotional Punch
I have the misfortune of being what I call a “VOP” – a Very Online Person. I’m also heavily involved with the Star Wars fanbase, which meant the trailer wasn’t really much of a surprise to me; it’s pretty much the same footage seen at Star Wars Celebration (including by ScreenRant‘s own Molly Brizzell).
At first, I thought this over-familiarity was the reason the trailer didn’t land for me. I slept on it, though, and gradually began to understand; the core problem is that something is missing. The trailer lacks any sense of emotion, of feeling. It’s basically just a montage of cool (and, to be fair, sometimes explosive) meme-able moments thrown together.
But what is there in this trailer to make you care about the characters, to get you invested in their journeys? Din Djarin is training Grogu as his apprentice, and Grogu makes some cute noises and uses the Force a little, but how’s that apprenticeship going? What are the internal, character-driven struggles the duo face?
We don’t know. Fundamentally, The Mandalorian and Grogu trailer doesn’t treat either of its stars as characters; rather, they are set-pieces and silhouettes. There are only four spoken words in the trailer, probably indicating Pedro Pascal hasn’t recorded his lines yet. And we only once linger on an expressive human face (Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward).
I’m not expecting a first trailer to give away the plot; that’s not what a first glimpse should do. Rather, it should give you a reason to become invested on a visceral, emotional level. Sadly, The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s trailer fails to do so. If you’re already invested, you’ll love it; if you’re just curious, it looks fun, but that’s about it.
The Mandalorian and Grogu Feels Like More Of The Same
It doesn’t help that The Mandalorian and Grogu feels like something we’ve seen before. There’s good reason for that; Jon Favreau had completed the scripts for The Mandalorian season 4 by February 2023, but he seems to have reverse-engineered them to turn that season into a movie.
I can’t help but be amused by this; no less than three Star Wars movies were turned into Disney+ TV shows, and now the opposite has happened (it’s probably for similar reasons, due to corporate priorities rather than creative decisions). Unfortunately, The Mandalorian and Grogu trailer looks pretty much indistinguishable from the show.
That’s not really a surprise. Not only was it made by the same team, it’s believed to have had the same kind of budget, and it even used the same technology. The Mandalorian season 1 debuted the Volume; a replacement for greenscreen, which allows actors to perform in front of a mᴀssive, curved LED screen showing pH๏τorealistic backdrops.
The Volume lends itself to scenes with a very specific kind of layout; main characters are in the foreground, often bunched together, while things in the background just “happen” without any sense of interaction. The Volume is back in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but the result lacks the kind of scale and spectacle you need in a movie.
Star Wars’ Return To The Big Screen Needs To Feel Like An Event
The Mandalorian and Grogu will be the first movie set in this beloved galaxy since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The problem, though, is that this first trailer sells the film as a boilerplate adventure, a good time at the cinema rather than the cinematic event it needed to be.
I can still remember the electrifying feeling of watching the first trailer for The Phantom Menace back in 1998. And I’ll never forget the sheer joy of watching the trailer for The Force Awakens in 2014. This? It’s just more of the same, the continuation of something I’ve seen before, with no emotional stakes.
I’m not going to pretend I think Lucasfilm was mistaken to turn The Mandalorian season 4 into The Mandalorian and Grogu, and I’m certainly not going to lie and say I’ve decided not to be there on the opening night. But my expectations and excitement are nowhere near as high as they should be, and that’s because this trailer just hasn’t quite worked.
