The Mandalorian and Grogu
BY ISABELLA RODRIGUES


On May 22nd, Star Wars made its big return to the silver screen after seven years, with The Mandalorian and Grogu. The last Star Wars movie in theatres was Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker, which released in December of 2019. After that, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down theatres, and Star Wars went exclusively for streaming on Disney+. In the years since then, more than 15 unique Star Wars TV series have dropped from the movie theatres production for streaming, making this release a very big occasion. After viewing The Mandalorian and Grogu, the following is a summary of the plot of the newest addition to a galaxy far, far away.

Background Plot
Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and Jeremy Allen White, this two-hour film picks up after the third season of streaming. It follows Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his Force-sensitive child, Din Grogu, as they hunt down Imperial warlords and Rotta the Hutt, son of the notorious gangster Jabba the Hutt.

*This section contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian and Grogu as well as other Star Wars projects.*

Review
The opening scenes on the ice planet (believed to be Hoth) we see Mando and Grogu take down Commander Barro and his trio of AT-AT’s (At Terrain Armored Transport). This was an excellent way to ease the audience back into the tone of The Mandalorian with action and wit that you would expect.

After finishing that mission, Din returns to the planet of Adelphi to meet with Sigourney Weaver’s new character Colonel Ward. The makeup on Ward was very impressive since Weaver is actually 76 years old at the time of filming. For payment on termination of Barro, she gives Mando a new and pristine ST-70 assault ship (Razorcrest). This variant of the ship is in better condition, with yellow accents having been seized from an imperial collector. Fans of the television show will like seeing this ship return after seeing it be destroyed in season two.

For his new mission Din Djarin is tasked with tracking down the mysterious Commander Coin, but to do so he will need to go to the planet of Nal Hutta to meet with the Hutt twins. In exchange for information on Coin, they want the Mandalorian to bring back their nephew Rotta. Many people liked that Jon Favreau brought the twins back from the TV series The Book of Boba Fett.

When Din is looking for the Hutt on Shakari, the audience is introduced to an adorable Ardennian fry cook played by Martin Scorsese. This was really cool to see because George Lucas, the writer for the original six movies and Scorsese, are friends in real life.

After 18 years, we get to see the son of Jabba, Rotta the Hutt, or “stinky” again. He was last seen in the animated Clone Wars Movie. Only now, instead of the small, rotund huttlet, Rotta is now a large and athletic alien, working in the fighting pits of Shakari. It was very admirable that he was trying to distance himself from the gangster roots of his family and be his own man. After a little scuffle, Mando and Zeb capture him, but all is not as it seems. Rotta warns that the twins actually want him back so that they can kill him. In addition, he tells Mando that Commander Coin is his former employer, Lord Janu, a prominent leader of Shakari and member of Moff Gideon’s Shadow Council. It was a bit nonsensical that this big untraceable villain could be found so easily, when he was being hyped up to be the main villain of this film.

With that information, Din, Grogu, Rotta, and Zeb go to a coastal planet to capture Janu Coin. Some shenanigans ensue, but at the end of it Lord Janu is apprehended. After giving him over to the New Republic, Din chose to let Rotta the Hutt escape to the outer rim so he would not be killed by the Twins. Despite placing a target on his back, this was a good choice.

After the tragic passing of actor Carl Weathers many fans were curious about how this movie would handle what this means for his character Greef Karga, who was last seen at the end of the third season. While Mando does take a visit to his homestead on Nevarro, where Karga resides as Magistrate, there is no mention of him.

Rarely do we get to see Din Djarin be outwitted, but in this movie, we get to see him have some real competition from another bounty hunter named Embo and his animal companion Keibu. On Nevarro, they defeat Mando and separate him from Grogu, taking him back to Nal Hutta. This was something new for audiences, because we rarely get to see that this one-man army can be bested.

On the planet of Nal Hutta, Embo hands over Din to the Hutt Twins, who steal his helmet and toss him into a watery pit beneath their lair. He then fights a number of Amani soldiers and a big dragonsnake. Fortunately, Grogu and the Anzellans arrive in time to break Mando out of there, but it's too late; he’s been bitten by the poisonous reptile!

As all of them run away from the castle, the Mandalorian begins to lag behind as the toxin takes over his body until he collapses. At this point, Mando had been knocked out 3 times, and what had felt like something unique began to feel a bit overdone. On a more positive note, this meant that the movie was able to slow down and take some time on character development.

We see Grogu learning to survive on his own in the dangerous swamps of Nal Hutta, while also tending to his father, who is now in a coma. The way he lives will feel nostalgic to many fans, because it will remind them of how Master Yoda lived alone on Dagobah in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

After Din is given the antidote by an alien fisherman named Gatori, all seems to be back to normal, and the pair suit up to take down the Hutts. To see the final outcome, The Mandalorian and Grogu can be seen in theatres now.