• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $98M domestic over the four-day Memorial Day weekend — the lowest opening in Star Wars theatrical history, below Solo‘s $103M in 2018
• Disney had projected $102M; worldwide gross reached $167M, nearly covering the $165M production budget in its first frame
• A24’s Backrooms pushed hard for No. 1, with a $40M+ debut that would rank as the studio’s highest-grossing opening ever
• Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes called it “a perfectly enjoyable low-stakes popcorn movie” — families, not franchise obsessives, drove the turnout
• The film stars Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, with Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver in supporting roles, directed by Jon Favreau

The first Star Wars movie in seven years won the Memorial Day box office. It also posted the lowest opening in Star Wars theatrical history. Both things are true, and depending on who you ask, that’s either a crisis or exactly what Disney expected.

The final numbers for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu came in at $98 million domestic for the four-day holiday weekend — $81 million for the traditional three-day — with a worldwide total of $167 million. Disney had projected a four-day domestic figure of $102 million on Sunday, revised slightly to $100 million by Monday evening. The actuals came in softer still.

The comparison that keeps surfacing is Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened over Memorial Day 2018 to $103 million domestically and is widely remembered as the franchise’s most significant box office stumble. The Mandalorian and Grogu fell short of that. In terms of raw opening weekend numbers, it is now the worst-performing Star Wars film in the franchise’s theatrical history.

The Case for Not Panicking

The production budget was $165 million — modest by current blockbuster standards. The film covered it globally in its opening weekend, before accounting for marketing costs. That’s not a bomb. It’s also not the sequel trilogy, which was chasing different demographics entirely.

IndieWire made the most useful observation: “Families, Not Fanboys, Drove The Mandalorian and Grogu Box Office — and Disney Is Fine with That.” The film was never engineered for the Reddit-and-YouTube corner of the fanbase that dissected The Last Jedi frame by frame. It’s a family adventure about a space dad and his small green son, and families showed up for it.

Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes reinforced that read. The consensus from viewers called it “a perfectly enjoyable low-stakes popcorn movie” that delivered on the relationship between Din Djarin and Grogu and “exciting action set pieces.” Nobody walked out angry. Nobody is writing think-pieces about betrayal.

Comicbook.com pushed back on the broader narrative, arguing that “what everyone is getting wrong about the box office” is the comparison itself — that The Mandalorian and Grogu was never competing against The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi. Those films drew audiences who grew up with the original trilogy and were hungry for a return. This film drew people who watch The Mandalorian on Disney+ and wanted to see it bigger. Those are different audiences with different behavior patterns.

The Backrooms Factor

The weekend’s other major story was A24’s Backrooms, the adaptation of internet horror creator Kane Parsons’ YouTube IP, which opened with an estimated $40 million or more — a figure that would represent the highest opening weekend in A24’s history. That a sub-$10 million horror film from a first-time narrative director effectively challenged a Star Wars movie at the Memorial Day box office is its own kind of story, and one that studios are going to be studying for a while.

Backrooms had the same weekend that The Mandalorian and Grogu was supposed to own. The fact that it didn’t is part of why the post-weekend discourse has been so loud.

What Comes Next

Jon Favreau directed and produced the film, with Pedro Pascal returning as Din Djarin alongside Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver. The film’s global run is just beginning — international markets will matter considerably for how the final numbers look by the time it leaves theaters.

The Ringer framed the weekend with the starkest possible take: “The Mandalorian and Grogu Is the End of Star Wars as We Know It.” Their podcast brought in Star Wars superfan Van Lathan to discuss who the movie was actually made for and whether it marks an end of an era for the franchise at large. It’s a reasonable question, even if the answer isn’t as clean as the headline suggests.

Star Wars last opened a movie in theaters in December 2019. Seven years later, the franchise came back with a family film that opened below expectations and still made its budget back in four days. Whether that’s a failure, a pivot, or just the new reality of a franchise that peaked a decade ago probably depends on how much you loved the sequel trilogy — and whether you have a kid who cried when Grogu showed up on the big screen.

The post The Mandalorian and Grogu Opened to a Series-Low $98M — Here’s Why Disney Isn’t Panicking appeared first on Cream.

• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run launches a full Mandalorian and Grogu-themed overhaul at Disneyland and Disney World on May 22, 2026.
• Riders now choose from three new destinations — Coruscant, Bespin (Cloud City), or the Death Star wreckage near Endor — plus a mandatory stop on Tatooine.
• The engineer role gets a major upgrade, now controlling destination choice and a tractor beam to collect cargo.
• A secret “Grogu Mode” can be unlocked by both gunners pressing a specific button sequence during the ride.
• The attraction runs on a new version of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, delivering sharper, more cinematic visuals throughout.

The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy just got a whole lot more interesting. Starting Friday, May 22, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is getting its biggest overhaul since it opened in 2019 — a full Mandalorian and Grogu-themed mission update timed to coincide with the duo’s theatrical debut on the same date. And based on early rides at a Disneyland media preview, it’s not just a fresh coat of paint. This is a genuinely better ride.

The core setup will feel familiar: up to six guests pile into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers, each with distinct responsibilities. Hondo Ohnaka is still your shady employer. But this time, Din Djarin — the Mandalorian himself — and Grogu are along for the mission, chasing down a trio of bounties: two ex-Imperial officers and one pirate. It’s enough of a story hook to justify the action, and the tone is lighter and faster than the original ride’s glorified errand run.

Four Locations, Endless Combinations

Every ride begins with a hyperspace jump to Tatooine, where your crew intercepts a shady deal going sideways. Grogu — naturally — blows your cover, the bounties scatter, and then something genuinely new happens: one of the engineers gets five seconds to choose where you go next. Three options, three completely different adventures.

Those destinations are Coruscant, Bespin’s Cloud City, and the wreckage of the second Death Star orbiting Endor. The choice wasn’t made casually. Matt Martin, a senior creative executive at Lucasfilm, told io9 he built an elaborate spreadsheet weighing every major Star Wars location before landing on these three. “When you’re looking at something like a ride, especially when you’re in control, you need verticality and scale, and it needs to look and feel different,” Martin explained. Mandalorian and Grogu director Jon Favreau pushed hard for Coruscant, and Cloud City made the cut because, as Martin put it, “we hadn’t seen that in this sort of experience before.”

But the variability goes even deeper than just picking a planet. Within each location, pilots can choose different paths — cut left or right through a canyon on Tatooine, fly above or below Cloud City, navigate different corridors through the Death Star debris field. “I haven’t done the math on how many total combinations there are,” Imagineering creative executive Asa Kalama told io9, “but within each planetary destination, there are multiple branching paths. If you start to chain together all of those various branching paths with all of the different planetary destinations, there’s a ton of variability and re-rideability.”

Each destination also has its own emotional texture. Endor is dark, smokey, and a little ominous — the kind of spooky that makes sense when you’re picking through the wreckage of a superweapon. Coruscant is neon-lit and chaotic, a full-throttle chase through civilian traffic and illuminated tunnels that plays like the Zam Wesell speeder chase from Attack of the Clones. Bespin catches you during golden hour, with the Falcon careening around the outside of Cloud City itself — including a view from below that echoes Luke Skywalker dangling from that antenna in The Empire Strikes Back, complete with city trash raining down past you.

“The goal was not only are you going to a different location from a geographic perspective,” Kalama said, “but to feel emotionally like you’re going on a different adventure.”

The Engineers Finally Have Something to Do

One of the longest-standing complaints about the original Smugglers Run was that the engineer seats were a bit of a dead end — not much to do beyond occasionally pressing a button. That’s been completely flipped. Engineers now control the destination choice, fire tracking beacons at bounty ships, and operate a new tractor beam to snag up to six cargo crates during the mission. One reviewer who rode the updated attraction multiple times put it bluntly: everybody’s going to want to be an engineer now.

The cargo system feeds into the scoring. Depending on how many crates you collect and what’s inside — galactic credits, Kyber Crystals, or even a baby Rancor — your crew earns different point totals and rankings. Think Privateer, Pirate, Smuggler, all the way up to the elusive Employee of the Month for the highest scorers. “There’s a lot of variation to the point system,” Martin said. “There’s definitely more crates that you can get, and at the end, when it brings the crates out, you will see how many you’ve got.”

The pilots and gunners aren’t left out either. Pilots will notice the flight controls have been tuned — still responsive, but with an invisible guided hand that keeps even inexperienced riders feeling like they’re pulling off something cinematic. “We’ve tuned it in such a special way that no matter how skilled or unskilled you might be, you’re always guaranteed to have a flight that feels really cinematic,” Kalama said. The original ride’s tendency to have Hondo berate bad fliers for the entire five minutes has also been dialed way back. Gunners, meanwhile, now choose between automatic and manual targeting modes and have more targets and environments to interact with, especially on Coruscant, where an ion cannon replaces the standard weapon — and yes, you can shoot the advertising signs.

The Tech Upgrade Makes a Real Difference

Under the hood, the ride has been rebuilt on the latest version of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. The visual jump is noticeable — backgrounds are sharper and more detailed, and the environments feel closer to film-quality than theme park game. One caveat: some of the enemy TIE fighters and starfighters in the dogfight sequences reportedly look slightly less polished than the stunning background scenery, a small inconsistency in an otherwise significant visual upgrade.

The software improvements also make the controls more responsive across all positions, which feeds directly into that more cinematic feel Kalama describes. The ride is the same length — around five minutes — but it moves faster and with more intention.

Easter Eggs, Grogu Mode, and Hidden Surprises

Veteran riders will remember the old “Wookiee Mode” that turned all cockpit communications into Chewbacca speak. That’s been replaced with a “Grogu Mode” — unlock it by having both gunners press a specific button sequence, and Grogu sounds and extra Grogu appearances will pop up throughout the mission. Fans have already cracked it.

The Easter eggs go much further than that. Martin teased several: a downed pod racer visible on Tatooine if you look carefully, a sign in Coruscant referencing the Halcyon (the Star Wars hotel that was part of Galaxy’s Edge), and — if you hit a certain score or take a specific path at the end — the chance to hear Han Solo yelling at Hondo. “That is so satisfying when you get it,” Martin said. Kalama added one more: fans who’ve noticed that the Millennium Falcon outside the attraction already sports the Force Awakens-era circular satellite dish will find an in-ride explanation for why.

There’s also a baby Rancor hiding in one of the cargo crates, though you’ll need to collect enough of them to find it.

The new Mandalorian and Grogu mission is a legitimate upgrade — more replayable, more visually impressive, and more fun for every seat in the cockpit. Whether you’re fighting over the engineer chairs or letting someone else navigate while you shoot ion cannons at neon signs over Coruscant, the ride finally feels like the centerpiece Galaxy’s Edge always needed it to be. The full mission details are available on the Disney Experiences site, and Disney Parks has a breakdown of tips for every role if you want to go in prepared.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run opens with the new mission on May 22 at both Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters the same day.

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• The Mandalorian and Grogu is projected to earn $80–100M domestically over Memorial Day weekend — in line with the disastrous Solo opening
• Critics have largely panned the film, with outlets calling it “drab,” “lifeless,” and asking someone to “put Star Wars out of its misery”
• Industry analysts say Star Wars is failing to connect with younger moviegoers the way it did with older generations
• The film’s $165M budget is the leanest Star Wars production since Revenge of the Sith, lowering the bar for profitability
• Eyes are already turning to 2027’s Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, as the franchise’s real reset

The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters on May 22 carrying the full weight of a franchise in crisis — and the reviews aren’t helping.

When the critic embargo lifted Tuesday morning, the headlines were brutal. The Independent’s piece was headlined “Stick a fork in Star Wars. It’s done.” The Times of London asked, “Would someone please put Star Wars out of its misery?” Vulture called it “drab and stone-faced to a fault” with “lifeless performances that seem determined to lull us to sleep.” Even the more charitable takes weren’t exactly rallying cries — the New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski called it “an elongated and beefed-up episode of television” that’s “likable enough,” while Variety’s Owen Gleiberman settled on “nothing more (or less) than a couple of likable, diverting, semi-forgettable episodes jammed together.” IGN gave it a 5/10, writing that if you’re “looking for a Star Wars movie that thrills, surprises, challenges, or demonstrates a vested interest in seeing its characters grow and change… The Mandalorian and Grogu is not the way.”

That’s not what Disney needed to hear.

Box office tracking puts the film at $80–100 million domestically over the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. For almost any other franchise, that’s a respectable number. For Star Wars — one of Hollywood’s most mythologized properties — it’s a stress test. Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian put it plainly: “It will be a stress test for the ‘Star Wars’ brand.”

The uncomfortable comparison is 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $84 million over the same holiday weekend and ultimately became the first Star Wars film to lose money in theaters, finishing with $392 million globally against a nearly $300 million budget. The Mandalorian and Grogu has a far leaner $165 million production budget — the cheapest Star Wars film since Revenge of the Sith in 2005 — which meaningfully lowers the break-even point. But the optics of matching Solo’s opening number are hard to spin.

A Generation That Grew Up Without Star Wars in Theaters

The film is the first Star Wars theatrical release in six and a half years, since The Rise of Skywalker divided audiences and critics alike in December 2019. That gap means there’s a whole cohort of young kids who have never experienced a Star Wars movie opening weekend — which director Jon Favreau has said is very much on his mind. “I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time,” he told the Associated Press.

It’s a noble goal. But industry analysts aren’t sure the current moment is the one that delivers it.

“There’s clearly interest in the brand,” said Eric Handler, senior media analyst at Roth Capital Partners. “But revenues for each film have gotten progressively lower. Star Wars isn’t resonating with younger moviegoers like it did for [older] generations.”

The numbers back him up. The Force Awakens, which relaunched the franchise in 2015, earned over $2 billion globally and remains the highest-grossing domestic release of all time at $936 million. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker were both billion-dollar films — but each earned roughly half of what their predecessor did. The only post-Disney spinoff that truly worked was Rogue One, which crossed $1 billion in 2016. Since then, it’s been a slow bleed.

The challenge Favreau and Lucasfilm co-CEO Dave Filoni face with this film is a specific one: convincing the show’s streaming audience to actually get off the couch and buy a movie ticket. The Mandalorian was a genuine phenomenon when it launched on Disney+ in 2019 — Baby Yoda broke the internet, became a meme ecosystem unto itself, and turned Grogu into one of the most recognizable characters in pop culture. But streaming audiences and theatrical audiences don’t always overlap. Marvel has run into the same wall: last year’s Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, both preceded by Disney+ series, underperformed at the box office despite built-in fan bases.

“The biggest challenge is whether the streaming audience converts into a theatrical audience,” said Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics and founder of Box Office Theory. “If word of mouth is good, that’ll be the big X factor.”

There’s also the small matter of the show’s declining quality in its later seasons — ratings and reviews dipped noticeably by Season 3 of The Mandalorian, giving casual fans less incentive to stay invested heading into a theatrical continuation.

Grogu Merch Is Everywhere. Ticket Sales Are the Question.

What’s not in doubt is Grogu’s commercial appeal off-screen. The little green guy’s face is currently stamped on Bath & Body Works soaps, Nilla Wafers’ “Grogu Nilla Nummies,” Pop Mart blind boxes, and a line of green Schick razors, among other collaborations. As Robbins put it: “Grogu is going to be a merchandising monster.”

That’s the broader Star Wars reality — the franchise is a sprawling ecosystem of theme park attractions, toys, and licensing deals that generates enormous revenue regardless of whether any individual film hits. Analysts are quick to point out that box office performance, while important for optics, is only one corner of that universe.

Still, the marketing campaign for the film reportedly raised some internal eyebrows. One source told Page Six that a member of the marketing team expressed concern they hadn’t had enough time to screen the film and properly build a campaign around it. Promotion, the source noted, basically boiled down to: “Look how adorable Grogu is!” — which may explain why, in a recent Fandango survey asking thousands of moviegoers to name their top 10 most anticipated films of the summer, The Mandalorian and Grogu didn’t make the list.

All Eyes on Starfighter

Inside Lucasfilm and among box office watchers, there’s a growing sense that the franchise’s real shot at revival isn’t this movie — it’s next summer’s Star Wars: Starfighter.

Directed by Shawn Levy, who brought enormous energy to Deadpool & Wolverine, and starring Ryan Gosling fresh off the success of Project Hail Mary, Starfighter is a standalone film set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker in a time period the franchise hasn’t explored yet. Levy has been emphatic that it’s a clean break. “It’s a new adventure,” he said at Star Wars Celebration 2025. “It’s set in a period of time that we haven’t seen explored yet.” No legacy characters, no Skywalker baggage, no sequel obligations.

Handler sees it clearly: “Disney needs something new and exciting to bring energy to the franchise. Ryan Gosling is as hot as can be right now. ‘Starfighter’ could be the way to go.”

For now, though, the focus is on this weekend. Dergarabedian is watching the second-week drop closely — a 55% decline would signal genuine audience engagement; a 70% freefall would tell a different story entirely. “There’s been just this feeling of disappointment and almost… not anger. But just very critical of the creative direction that Star Wars has taken over the past few years,” he said.

This is also, notably, the first major theatrical release in the post-Kathleen Kennedy era. Kennedy, who ran Lucasfilm for over two decades, stepped down earlier this year, with Filoni and Lynwen Brennan now at the helm. They have yet to reveal a broader roadmap for the franchise, though that could change at D23 in August or at next April’s Star Wars Celebration.

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens May 22. Star Wars: Starfighter is currently set for May 28, 2027.

The post Star Wars Is Losing Younger Fans — Can It Survive? appeared first on Cream.

• Pedro Pascal showed up in full Mandalorian armor to surprise about 15 guests boarding the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
• He removed his helmet mid-surprise, joking “Now you all have to die because you’ve seen my face”
• Director Jon Favreau, Sigourney Weaver, and Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni were also at the park for the visit
• The stunt ties into the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, hitting theaters May 22
• The film picks up after Season 3 of the Disney+ series and also stars Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White

A small group of Star Wars fans visiting Disneyland this weekend had no idea they were about to meet the man behind the helmet. Pedro Pascal suited up in full Mandalorian armor — head-to-toe black, helmet and all — and walked straight into the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction to greet unsuspecting guests before they boarded the ride.

About 15 visitors were invited aboard the iconic ship’s loading area as part of the surprise, which was captured on video and shared by the official Star Wars and Disneyland Instagram accounts. In behind-the-scenes footage shot before Pascal stepped into the attraction, the actor can be seen putting on the Mandalorian helmet and cracking himself up in the process.

“Don’t make it too obvious it’s me,” he jokes. Then, adjusting his voice: “I don’t think they’re gonna hear my welcome” — before adding, with a casual wave — “I’ll just be like, what’s up?”

The guests walked into the main hold of the Falcon to find the Mandalorian quietly waiting alongside them. A Cast Member greeted them with a cheerful “Bright suns, travelers!” before prompting the helmeted figure — asking if he had anything to say before sending them on their journey.

Pascal slowly lifted the helmet off his face. The room erupted.

“Now you all have to die because you’ve seen my face,” he deadpanned, nodding to the Mandalorian warrior code around never removing their helmets. The guests — visibly stunned, screaming, laughing — then got to pose for photos with him.

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A Full Galaxy’s Edge Takeover

Pascal wasn’t alone for the Disneyland visit. Director and co-writer Jon Favreau, Mandalorian & Grogu co-star Sigourney Weaver, and Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni were all in attendance at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The group was spotted on the walkway overlooking the Millennium Falcon, taking in “The Curious Child” — a limited-time nighttime show running at the park to build buzz for the film’s May 22 release.

Disney Parks also confirmed that both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World will be rolling out Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu-inspired food and drinks to mark the occasion, along with new souvenir novelties at both locations.

What the Movie Is Actually About

After three seasons on Disney+, Din Djarin and Grogu are heading to the big screen. The film is set shortly after the events of The Mandalorian Season 3 — which ended with Mando officially adopting Grogu — and follows the pair as they take on a mission to rescue Rotta the Hutt, played by Jeremy Allen White, in exchange for critical information. All of this while the fledgling New Republic tries to hold the galaxy together in the Empire’s wake.

Sigourney Weaver, who joins the franchise for the first time in the film, told E! News at the Los Angeles premiere on May 14 that fans should expect Grogu to surprise them. “He looks like a little creature-eating, happy-go-lucky guy,” she said, “but I think he’s got much more of a warrior in him than we think.”

That premiere was no small affair. The red carpet stretched across Hollywood Boulevard — shutting down the street entirely, Oscars-style — outside the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX. Pascal, Weaver, and Favreau were all there, and Pascal got a surprise visit from The Last of Us co-star Gabriel Luna on the carpet.

Pascal has spoken openly about how much the role means to him personally. “I can’t tell you how important it is to me to be a part of something that could be the kind of memory that it was, to see Star Wars on the big screen as a kid with my family, with my friends, repeat watches and to just have that be part of my childhood,” he told Access Hollywood at the premiere.

He’s also been candid about the collaborative nature of playing a character who spends most of his screen time behind a helmet. Pascal has credited fellow suit and stunt performers Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder as essential to bringing Din Djarin to life across the series — a partnership that carries over into the film.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters May 22. If the Disneyland moment is any indication, Pascal is going to enjoy every second of it.

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• Dave Filoni, newly named Lucasfilm president, is prioritizing story quality over release quotas for Star Wars
• The Mandalorian and Grogu opens May 22 — the franchise’s first theatrical film since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker
• Star Wars: Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling follows in May 2027, with Ahsoka Season 2 also due that year
• A Simon Kinberg trilogy rumored to become Episodes X, XI, and XII is among the projects believed to still be in motion
• Filoni says fans have known him for 20 years and should have a good sense of what to expect under his leadership

Dave Filoni has been telling Star Wars stories for two decades. Now he’s in charge of them. And with The Mandalorian and Grogu arriving in theaters on May 22 — the franchise’s first big-screen outing since The Rise of Skywalker landed to mixed reviews back in 2019 — the newly minted Lucasfilm president is finally starting to sketch out what the galaxy far, far away looks like under his watch.

In a new interview with Collider, Filoni was asked directly about how many films and shows he envisions putting out each year. His answer was characteristically measured — but there was real substance underneath it.

“For me right now, rather than dealing with hard numbers like that, I’m just looking at the stories and the potential and planning what I’d like to do,” Filoni said. “I believe in having an overarching idea and then saying, ‘Okay, it’s this many of that, and then we can have that.’ There are certain things that have been in motion already that, obviously, I want to continue. Jon [Favreau] and I have had a great partnership for many years now, telling stories. So, I look at the stories that I’m kind of planning and architecting, and I look at other creative talents that bring us, also, great stories, and I just try to find a way to make them all work.”

It’s a pointed contrast to how things operated during the Disney era’s most chaotic stretch, when Star Wars films were hitting theaters annually from 2015 through 2019 — a pace that ultimately burned out audiences and left a trail of cancelled projects in its wake. For every film that made it to screens, several more quietly died in development. Filoni’s philosophy seems to be: fewer promises, better stories.

What’s Actually Coming — and When

The Mandalorian and Grogu, which Filoni co-wrote and produced alongside director Jon Favreau, is the first piece of that puzzle. After that, Ahsoka Season 2 is set for early 2027 on Disney+, followed in May 2027 by Star Wars: Starfighter — a standalone film directed by Shawn Levy with a stacked ensemble that includes Ryan Gosling, Aaron Pierre, Amy Adams, Mia Goth, and Matt Smith. Filoni was effusive about that one: “Shawn Levy did a great job with Starfighter. So there’s a lot.”

On the animation side, Maul – Shadow Lord — which Filoni wrote and created — just wrapped its first season on Disney+ and has already been renewed for Season 2. Voice actor Sam Witwer has confirmed the team had been working on that second season for some time. “There’s a lot on my plate which is exciting, not just in live-action but animation, like Maul, which has been very fun, and they’re driving forward,” Filoni said.

He also teased a re-release of Episode IV: A New Hope as part of the broader celebration ahead. “And the re-release of Episode IV. There’s so much exciting stuff coming for Star Wars fans.”

The Bigger Picture: Sequels, Trilogies, and Loose Threads

When Filoni says “there are certain things that have been in motion already that I want to continue,” the fan community has plenty of material to read into. A trilogy conceived by Simon Kinberg is widely rumored to become Episodes X, XI, and XII, and may incorporate the Rey Skywalker sequel that director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy had been developing. James Mangold’s “Dawn of the Jedi” origin film, Taika Waititi’s long-gestating project, and a Lando Calrissian spin-off from Donald Glover are all still technically on the table — though their statuses remain genuinely unclear.

What reads loudest in Filoni’s quote, though, is the Favreau partnership. The two have built the modern era of Star Wars storytelling together — from The Mandalorian‘s breakout debut through The Book of Boba Fett and beyond. The suggestion that their collaborative work will continue strongly implies the Mando and Grogu story isn’t ending with this film.

Filoni himself was previously announced as the director of an untitled film that would tie together the events of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and The Book of Boba Fett — essentially a theatrical culmination of the interconnected Mandalorian-verse saga he’s been building for years. With Ahsoka Season 2 still in production, the timeline for that project remains open.

Filoni Isn’t Going Anywhere Creatively

One thing he was unambiguous about: taking the president title doesn’t mean stepping back from the actual work. Between Maul – Shadow Lord, Ahsoka Season 2, and overseeing productions like Starfighter, Filoni is still very much in the trenches as a creator.

“Fans have known me now for 20 years and that I’ve worked with and told Star Wars stories, so I think they have a good idea of what to expect,” he said. “I’ve so far really enjoyed collaborating with everybody, and we are well on our way. The future’s in motion now, so it’s exciting.”

The man who gave the world Ahsoka Tano — now one of the most beloved characters in the entire franchise — is now the one holding the keys to all of it. The clearest next signal of where things are headed will likely come at D23 Expo in August, or at Star Wars Celebration in April 2027. But for now, the galaxy has a new architect. And he sounds like he knows exactly what he wants to build.

The post Dave Filoni Lays Out His Vision for Star Wars’ Future appeared first on Cream.

• Jon Favreau says he’s not entirely sure why The Mandalorian and Grogu was chosen as the first Star Wars film in seven years
• He believes Grogu’s massive cultural footprint — “Baby Yoda was everywhere” — is a major factor
• Favreau sees the film as an opportunity to bring Star Wars to a whole new audience
• Co-star Jonny Coyne reveals Grogu’s puppeteers stay in character even between takes, channeling the Muppets tradition
• The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters May 22

Seven years is a long time to wait for Star Wars on the big screen. And of all the projects that Lucasfilm has teased, announced, and quietly shelved over that stretch, the one that actually made it to theaters turned out to be something nobody quite saw coming — a movie built around a TV bounty hunter and a tiny green creature that broke the internet in 2019. Jon Favreau, the man directing The Mandalorian and Grogu, is still a little surprised himself.

“I’m not sure what, exactly, why we were asked to do this,” Favreau told GamesRadar in London. “I suspect it was because these are characters that people, even who hadn’t seen Star Wars, may be aware of, especially Grogu. Baby Yoda was everywhere.”

He’s not wrong. When The Mandalorian launched Disney+ back in November 2019, it was Grogu — then nicknamed Baby Yoda by a delighted internet — who became the show’s breakout star almost overnight. The memes, the merch, the cultural saturation: it was one of those rare pop culture moments where something genuinely transcended its fandom. And Favreau clearly believes that crossover power is exactly what Star Wars needs right now to recapture casual audiences.

“These are two characters that were used to launch Disney Plus, and we made no assumptions when the Mandalorian TV show came on that anybody had seen any Star Wars before,” he explained. “But we also wanted to make it feel authentic to Star Wars, and so the world that we created as the backdrop and the way the characters present themselves were embraced by Star Wars fans, which I really appreciate. But it also was an inroad for people who may not have ever watched Star Wars on television, and here we are now, seven years after the last film. I think there’s an opportunity to present Star Wars to a new audience using these characters as well.”

The Weight of Bringing Star Wars Back to Theaters

This isn’t Favreau’s first time carrying the weight of a beloved franchise. He kicked off the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008’s Iron Man, a film that nobody was entirely sure would work and that changed Hollywood permanently. Now he’s in a roughly analogous position with Star Wars, and the pressure isn’t lost on him.

“I felt definitely responsibility, but more so to tell as good of a story as I could,” he said. “I find that, as a Star Wars fan myself, and across multiple genres that have strong fan bases, they really are invested in the story being good, and they want a great experience. And if you could deliver that to them, they reward you, but they want to make sure that you care as much as they do.”

That care, he says, shows up in the details — including some genuinely old-school filmmaking choices. Favreau mentioned bringing in Phil Tippett for stop-motion animation and John Goodson for miniature work, the kind of practical craft callbacks that Star Wars fans tend to go wild for. “We’re doing that because we’re excited by it, it’s fun for us,” he said, “and I think the story that surrounds the making of it is as much a part of the story as what you see on the screen.”

He also spoke to how deliberately the film is structured to work on two levels — accessible to first-timers, rewarding for diehards. “Star Wars fans are very perceptive, and so you can be very subtle in the messages that you send,” he said. “Part of the Star Wars community is that they communicate among one another. There’s a lot of speculation. There’s a lot of filling in the blanks for one another. So, you don’t have to lay everything out deliberately in a way that’s overly obvious.”

On Set, Grogu Never Really Clocks Out

One of the film’s co-stars, Jonny Coyne — who plays the mysterious Lord Janu and is known for his work on The Blacklist — stayed tight-lipped about plot details when speaking to CinemaBlend, but he had plenty to say about what it’s actually like sharing a set with Grogu. And it turns out the puppeteers behind the character bring a level of commitment that would impress even the most dedicated Muppets performer.

Coyne described how the team operating Grogu stays in character between takes — keeping the little guy “alive” even when the cameras aren’t rolling. It’s a philosophy straight out of the Jim Henson playbook, and it’s not entirely a coincidence. Yoda, Grogu’s species-mate and spiritual predecessor, was originally voiced and co-performed by Frank Oz, the legend behind Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal. The Henson Company’s DNA runs deep in this corner of the galaxy.

Coyne also noted that unlike actual babies (unpredictable, often uncooperative) or animals (famously difficult on set), Grogu manages to be the best of both — small, cute, and always ready for his close-up. “Babies can be whiny, fussy, hungry,” the logic goes, but a 50-year-old creature who looks like an infant? Apparently that’s the sweet spot.

It’s a small behind-the-scenes detail, but it says something about the care being put into this production — the same care Favreau keeps coming back to when he talks about what makes Star Wars fans tick.

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters May 22.

The post Jon Favreau on Why Baby Yoda Is Bringing Star Wars Back appeared first on Cream.

• Pedro Pascal says he wants to keep playing Din Djarin “for as long as my body can take it”
• Death rumors are swirling around The Mandalorian and Grogu after trailers teased Djarin preparing Grogu for life without him
• Pascal revealed he had no idea he was being cast as the lead when Jon Favreau first showed him the show
• The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters May 22 — the first Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker
• The cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White, and a Martin Scorsese voice cameo

Seven years into playing Din Djarin, Pedro Pascal isn’t ready to hang up the beskar armor anytime soon — death rumors be damned.

At a UK fan event Q&A ahead of The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s May 22 theatrical release, Pascal got candid about his history with the role and what he’s hoping comes next. “I’m completely grateful. It’s the longest creative relationship I’ve had, it’s the character that I’ve played the longest,” he said. “Hopefully, I get to continue playing him for as long as my body, or as many bodies as we put into the suit, can take it.”

It’s a quote that’s equal parts heartfelt and knowing — because right now, fans are genuinely worried that Din Djarin might not make it out of his first big-screen adventure alive.

Why Fans Think Din Djarin Might Die in the New Film

The trailers for The Mandalorian and Grogu have been leaning hard into one particular emotional thread: Mando preparing Grogu for a future without him. It makes sense within the mythology — Grogu is a Force-sensitive being who will outlive Din Djarin by centuries — but the way Lucasfilm has made it a centerpiece of the marketing has set off alarm bells for fans who’ve seen this kind of setup before.

Pascal addressed it directly, if carefully, at the Q&A. “They are real partners, at this point,” he said of the duo. “Grogu is on every mission, on every adventure, they are side by side. And it’s sentimental, because Din Djarin knows that this creature will outlive him, and I think that, existentially, he’s very, very focused on making sure that he can survive in a world without him.”

He went even deeper on the emotional core of their bond. “The power that Grogu has surpasses Mando’s by a lot. And yet none of us wants to let go of our child, and none of us wants to keep that child from growing into everything that they can do. So that’s really, I think, the very, very textured relationship and story that they’re able to tell on a thrill ride that you cannot believe.”

It’s a beautifully articulated answer — and also one that reveals absolutely nothing about whether Djarin actually survives. Pascal knows exactly what he can and can’t say with weeks to go before release. Lucasfilm’s secrecy is legendary, and he’s been in this world long enough to play the game perfectly.

The Accidental Casting Story That Makes It All Better

While the death speculation gives this press tour a layer of dramatic tension, the real gem from the Q&A was Pascal’s story about how he got the role in the first place — and the fact that he had absolutely no idea it was his.

“The very first thing that happened was a call from my agent that said, ‘Jon Favreau wants to talk to you about something Star Wars,'” Pascal recalled. “Because everything Star Wars was so secret. And I was like, ‘Okay.’ And I got there early, and so I sat on my phone for a bit, because I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to interrupt the writers’ room or anything like that. Jon comes out into the parking lot. He’s like, ‘Hey, come out of your car.'”

“And I got out of the car, they take me in,” he continued. “They show me this magical, magical, wall to wall, first season story illustration, this entire world of Star Wars. I see Grogu. And I asked, I said, ‘Okay, so, what am I? Like, who — am I a droid? What voice do you want?’ Then they were like, blinking back at me like they were confused. And then they were like, ‘You’re the Mandalorian.'”

The man thought he might be voicing a robot. Now, seven years later, he’s the face of the franchise.

What the Movie Actually Looks Like

The Mandalorian and Grogu marks the first Star Wars film to hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019, and it’s bringing a stacked cast along for the ride. Sigourney Weaver plays New Republic Colonel Ward, Jeremy Allen White takes on the role of Rotta the Hutt — son of Jabba — and Martin Scorsese shows up in a voice cameo as an Ardennian who owns a food truck.

Director Jon Favreau clearly had a blast with that last one. “He’s great, he’s hilarious — and the type of character, we gave him room to do his thing,” Favreau said of Scorsese’s cameo. “It really plays into his performance style and the animators and creature designers really leaned into it so it’s one of the highlights of the film for me.”

The plot centers on Din Djarin and Grogu being enlisted by the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt in exchange for information from the Hutt clan on a mysterious target. For fans who’ve been waiting since The Mandalorian Season 3 wrapped in 2023, this is the reunion they’ve been counting down to — and a prequel comic is also on the way to fill in what the duo’s been up to in the interim.

Box office projections have been modest by Star Wars standards, but the film’s efficient production budget means success is well within reach. And if it performs, the appetite for more is obvious — Mandalorian Season 4 isn’t happening anytime soon, which makes this film the only game in town for Mando fans.

Whatever happens to Din Djarin on May 22, Pedro Pascal has made one thing clear: he’s not done with this character. Whether the galaxy far, far away is done with him is the question the film will have to answer.

The post Pedro Pascal Wants to Keep Playing The Mandalorian Forever appeared first on Cream.

• Fans and influencers screened the first 25 minutes of The Mandalorian and Grogu in IMAX on May the 4th
• Reactions were largely positive, with particular praise for the action sequences and Ludwig Göransson’s score
• The most common critique: the film feels more like elevated TV than a true big-screen Star Wars epic
• Most footage shown in trailers and clips comes from these opening minutes, suggesting big surprises still lie ahead
• The film — the first Star Wars theatrical release in seven years — opens May 22, 2026

Star Wars is back in theaters for the first time since 2019, and on May the 4th, a select group of fans got to see what that actually looks like. The Mandalorian and Grogu screened its first 25-plus minutes at IMAX theaters around the world Monday night, and the early word from those lucky enough to be in those seats is — cautiously, enthusiastically — good.

The fan events, held at 7 p.m. local time with poster giveaways included, were sold out in major markets like New York, Texas, and California almost immediately. Those who couldn’t score tickets could catch a three-and-a-half-minute special look on Disney+, but the people inside those IMAX houses had something much more substantial to chew on.

And they’ve been talking ever since.

What Fans Actually Saw

The footage covers the film’s opening sequence — a snow-bound action scene that’s been teased across trailers, press screenings, and CinemaCon — but now seen in full, at scale, the way director Jon Favreau intended it to be experienced. Din Djarin and Grogu mount an AT-RT and careen downhill past a barrage of AT-ATs controlled by an unnamed Imperial warlord. It’s chaotic, kinetic, and — in IMAX — enormous.

The 25 minutes also introduce the Hutts as major players and give audiences their first real look at Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward, a New Republic leader and former Rebel Alliance pilot. Jeremy Allen White voices Rotta the Hutt — son of the late Jabba — and the mission structure is now clearer: Din and Grogu have been enlisted by the New Republic to rescue Rotta in exchange for information on a mystery target.

Also confirmed in the cast: Matthew Willig as Hogsbreth, and — in a genuinely unexpected piece of trivia — Martin Scorsese as an Ardennian shopkeeper named Hugo.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1bNF7SHtzVI%3Fsi%3DhJ248sMAJXUIELlF

The Reactions: Mostly Thrilled, With One Big Caveat

The consensus from fans and influencers who attended? The opening is a blast — particularly in IMAX, where the aspect ratio expands to the full 1.43 and Ludwig Göransson’s score fills the room. Multiple attendees specifically called out the sound design and music as highlights.

“Cinematic, epic scale that demands to be seen on the big screen,” one attendee wrote on social media. “Ludwig Göransson’s music gave us goosebumps. Had smiles on our faces the entire time.”

Critic Zach Pope called it “very entertaining,” saying it “reminds me a lot of the 1st season + the OG Star Wars trilogy in terms of story structure & feel. Action is MASSIVE, the Hutts have a huge part, & I can’t wait to see the rest!”

Star Wars podcaster William Devereux was equally enthusiastic about the two leads. “Din Djarin is arguably the coolest he’s ever been, and Grogu is as adorable as always,” he wrote. “While the movie’s stakes aren’t the highest, a lot of what the trailers show is from early in the film. So hopefully we’ll get some fun surprises. I love this duo and can’t wait for May 22nd!”

One fan summed up the Pedro Pascal energy perfectly: “Mando is still basically Star Wars John Wick and isn’t aiming for the leg when taking out bad guys.”

But the most consistent note — the one that keeps appearing in reaction after reaction — is that the film, at least in its opening stretch, feels like very good television rather than a proper cinematic event. Film reviewer Tyler Disney put it plainly: “The opening scene deserves credit, it’s genuinely cool. The CGI still needs some polish, but if the film keeps that momentum, it could easily turn into a hit. I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it, but something felt off when the opening credits rolled — it didn’t quite feel like a Star Wars movie. It came across more like a streaming TV film than a big-screen experience.”

Another attendee echoed that ambivalence but landed in a warmer place: “So, in many ways, these 25 minutes feel like an exciting premiere of a big streaming TV series, one that provides some big setpieces and tees up an exciting season of adventures. The Mandalorian and Grogu is on the big screen — on IMAX, no less, the biggest screens. That gives everything an extra sense of importance, scale, and excitement. This might not be a return to a Star Wars movie from the old days, but the scale is certainly there.”

Given that the movie literally grew out of a TV show — Favreau has confirmed it was originally conceived as Season 4 of The Mandalorian before the 2023 writers’ strike pushed him to rethink it as a feature — that critique is probably unavoidable. What matters is whether the second and third acts deliver something the show never could.

What’s Being Hidden — and Why That’s Actually Exciting

Here’s the thing that has fans most intrigued: nearly everything Disney has shown publicly — trailers, TV spots, the clips that ran at CinemaCon and on Good Morning America, the footage screened Monday night — appears to come from the film’s first 25 minutes or so. That’s a very deliberate choice.

It’s also very on-brand for Favreau. When The Mandalorian first premiered on Disney+ in 2019, he convinced the studio to keep Baby Yoda entirely out of the marketing until after the first episode dropped. That gamble paid off in a way few pop culture moments have in recent memory. The theory circulating now is that he’s pulling the same move at feature scale — with the Mando-Grogu-Rotta the Hutt trio at the center of an adventure that nobody outside the production has actually seen.

“A large piece of the movie is being hidden,” one analysis noted. “And we think it centers on Mando and Grogu teaming up with Rotta the Hutt for an adventure — all three of them together — and the filmmakers simply don’t want any of that to get out.”

For spoiler-averse fans, that’s genuinely exciting. There are reportedly around 110 minutes of film that the public has seen essentially nothing of.

The Bigger Picture: Star Wars Needs This to Work

The enthusiasm from Monday’s screenings matters more than usual because the box office tracking for The Mandalorian and Grogu hasn’t been spectacular. Current projections have the film opening to around $80–85 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend — a decent number in isolation, but one that draws uncomfortable comparisons to Solo: A Star Wars Story, whose 2018 underperformance effectively shut down Lucasfilm’s standalone movie ambitions for years.

On the critical side, prediction markets currently have the film landing around a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes — solidly Fresh, just shy of the 75% needed for Certified Fresh. That would put it above Solo‘s 69% but well below Rogue One‘s 84%, which remains the gold standard for non-Skywalker Saga Star Wars films.

Nielsen data released this week offered some context for the franchise’s current cultural footprint: U.S. viewers consumed 33 billion minutes — 550 million hours — of Star Wars content in 2025. A New Hope led all titles, followed by The Phantom Menace and Rogue One. On the TV side, Andor topped the list, followed by Skeleton Crew and The Mandalorian. The appetite is clearly there. The question is whether audiences who’ve been burned by recent Star Wars entries will show up opening weekend.

Favreau, for his part, has been direct about what he’s trying to do. “Even though in our hearts we are Star Wars fans, we make it for Star Wars fans, and we know that there’s a certain set of expectations around what Star Wars should be,” he told the Associated Press. “There is the responsibility to invite a whole new generation of people into Star Wars. That means that if a Star Wars fan brings somebody who’s not, they’ve got to have as good of a time as the fans do. I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time.”

Sigourney Weaver, who saw the original Star Wars just before her own career took off, put it in personal terms during a recent interview. “I was looking at three lucky actors who’d made it to the big time and were in this glorious thing,” she recalled. “I hope I get that lucky someday to be in a movie that has people crowded into a theater all cheering for it.”

Based on Monday night’s reactions, at least, there’s reason to think she might get her wish. One fan summed up the feeling as simply as anyone: “I got some of the old Star Wars feelings back. For me, it’s nice to be back in a galaxy far, far away with characters I enjoy.”

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters — and IMAX — on May 22.

The post Mando & Grogu’s First 25 Minutes Win Over Star Wars Fans appeared first on Cream.