A New Hope? Star Wars Might Finally Be Fixing Its Biggest Mando Mistake
The new Mandalorian and Grogu trailer is good, actually.
There hasn’t been a Star Wars movie in theaters since 2019, and when that movie — The Rise of Skywalker — was out, it felt like the new direction of the faraway galaxy franchise wasn’t about the Jedi and the Sith at all. In fact, as Rey used the Force to heal Ben Solo, Baby Yoda had wielded the same power on the then-new TV series The Mandalorian, which was airing at the same time. Six years ago, people were certainly ready for a Mando movie. But are we now?
The latest trailer for the new film, The Mandalorian and Grogu, should restore some faith in the hearts of cynical Star Wars fans. In fact, the trailer’s tone and content might indicate that Star Wars has learned its lesson from the mess that was Mando Season 3.
After the baffling Mando trailer at the 2026 Super Bowl, this new full-length trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu starts off with a firm reminder that this is a Star Wars-y movie for old-school fans. We’ve got X-wings and Y-wings landing somewhere, and it looks like R2-D2 is rolling around, too. This isn’t the gritty, sad world of Andor, the deep pre-Phantom Menace era of The Acolyte, or that new galaxy glimpsed in Ahsoka.
This feels like the expanded universe Star Wars world of the New Republic, which The Mandalorian Season 2 explored in detail; one in which we could run into Luke Skywalker or Lando Calrissian at any time. We’ve got Hutts, Imperial warlords, and even some deep-cut characters from The Clone Wars. If there were a way to get fans pumped about exploring this rich part of the Star Wars timeline again, this is the way!
But beyond the timeline-specific aesthetics (we’re still about five or six years after Return of the Jedi, technically), the trailer also jettisons the one choice that made aspects of The Mandalorian Season 3 so frustrating: there’s not a huge emphasis on Mandalorian culture in this trailer, and finally (finally!), for the first time since the end of Season 2 (in 2020!), we get to see Din Djarin’s face again!
Instead of making Pedro Pascal hide his face from all the new movie’s promotional material, this trailer gets it out of the way. Yes, we’ll see Din Djarin’s face again, and yes, it won’t be for just one scene.
That’s our boy!
Honestly, thank the Force. While it made a certain amount of in-universe sense that Mando went back to his orthodox ways of hiding his face, the in-the-weeds nature of which Mandalorians were helmeted made Mando Season 3, and Mando himself, seem, well, less special. One of the most appealing things about the concept of The Mandalorian, at least at first, was that he was one of a kind. Yes, the idea and silhouette of the character comes from Boba Fett, but even really old-school fans would have to admit that the visage of Mando has eclipsed Boba at this point. (The Book of Boba Fett even needed Mando to guest star to make everything cool again.)
The larger point is this: The Mandalorian and Grogu’s latest trailer doesn’t seem to have a bunch of hefty Mandalorian lore, nor does it seem angsty, depressing, or confusing. This is a fun, fast-paced Star Wars adventure that feels closer to the spirit of the older films, combined with the facets that people loved about the TV series when it first hit Disney+. This may not be the greatest Star Wars movie ever made, or even the most original. But by not hiding its star character, and by embracing a bigger, more crowd-pleasing vibe, it seems possible that the Force may very well be with Star Wars’ next cinematic gamble.
