Where Do The Mandalorian And Grogu Go From Here?
Din Djarin and his son just made the galaxy very, very messy.
Those looking for substance in The Mandalorian and Grogu will inevitably leave disappointed. It’s become clearer in hindsight, but the series that kick-started this new Star Wars era only worked because it was so locked in stasis. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) can never evolve beyond his brand of sweet stoicism, and his very-young, very-green son (who, bafflingly, he speaks to more like a pet in Mando/Grogu) is doomed to perpetual infancy. They’re perfect TV characters for this reason, which makes their jump to the big screen — in the first Star Wars film in years, the film that has to work more than any before it — so ironic.
Ahead of the franchise’s return to the big screen, many wondered where The Mandalorian and Grogu would bring its central duo. After all, the Mando-verse did set the stage for the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and a major battle between his Imperial Remnant and the New Republic. Could director Jon Favreau, or co-writer Dave Filoni, find it in their hearts to give this clan of two some true purpose — or better yet, use them to bring the franchise into the future? Sadly, not quite: the adventure Mando and Grogu embark on pays more tribute to the past, leaving this galaxy far away more listless than they found it.
Spoilers ahead for The Mandalorian and Grogu!
The Mandalorian and Grogu’s ending, explained
The stakes couldn’t be lower for Din Djarin and Grogu.
Whatever stakes The Mandalorian once had have been more or less resolved since its Season 3 finale, but The Mandalorian and Grogu exists in some liminal space between seasons anyway. Mando’s primary motivation, at least according to his New Republic contact, Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), is trying to prevent the exact kind of conflict that the Rebellion just ended. Seven-ish years after the fall of the Empire, various Imperials are still running rampant throughout the galaxy; somewhere, Thrawn is probably rounding up what remains of his Imperial assets. Ward’s team is oblivious to that plan, but moving to snatch up as many former Imperials as they can. Mando and Grogu are tasked with capturing the elusive Commander Coin, but their adventure is less about the intel that he has to offer the New Republic and more about the chaos that ensues when this duo improvises.
The New Republic only knows about Commander Coin because of a hard-won relationship with the Hutt Syndicate. The Hutt leaders known as the Twins agree to reveal Coin’s whereabouts if Mando can rescue their nephew, Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), from the arms broker Lord Janu (Johnny Coyne). As the son of the illustrious Jabba, he’s the heir to the Hutt throne — a phrase that’s uttered with total conviction in Mando/Grogu — and a threat to their rule. The Twins really want him under their thumb so they can maintain control of the syndicate. The minute Mando discovers this truth, he crosses them, trekking off with Rotta to capture Commander Coin himself. Conveniently, Coin is actually Lord Janu, which makes that task all the easier.
Did Mando just create a power vacuum?
Only one Hutt is left standing at the end of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
But Mando’s efforts do end up starting a massive galactic conflict, not with the Empire, but with the Hutts. The Twins send a new bounty hunter, Embo, to finish the job and capture Mando for good measure. For a brief moment, it seems like The Mandalorian and Grogu is poised to take a truly gutsy swing: Mando notably sacrifices himself to protect his kid, and nearly perishes in the swamps of Nal Hutta. But Grogu pops up to save him at the literal last second, reaffirming the status quo just in time for the big finale. Ward and a handful of X-wing pilots eventually fly in to rescue our heroes, blowing up the entire Hutt compound in the process.
The Mandalorian and Grogu goes totally scorched earth on the Hutt Empire. The Twins are devoured by the albino dragonsake that they keep below their throne room, and their droid army is entirely destroyed in the explosion that takes the compound. (The only baddie who survives is Embo, so any Clone Wars fans can breathe a sigh of relief.)
Technically, the New Republic has just ripped a huge hole in the criminal underworld, but there’s no telling if any future Star Wars project will address the fallout. By the end of Mando/Grogu, all that really matters is the New Republic’s standing conflict with the Imperial Remnant — but the film also fails to acknowledge anything that happened in Ahsoka, making this timeline all the muddier. There’s no telling where Thrawn is at this stage of the galaxy’s rebuilding, if he’s even returned at all.
Or, to put it another way, it seems oddly unlikely that this ending — specifically the destruction of the Hutt syndicate — will have any real impact on current Star Wars projects set in this era. If Mandalorian Season 4 were coming, we could expect all sorts of plot points spun out of this. Ahsoka Season 2 may touch on some of these events, but with half of those characters literally living in a separate galaxy, it feels unlikely that the destruction of the Hutts will matter much. In the end, this adventure is so self-contained that it almost doesn’t make sense. Mando and Grogu will live to fight another day, but their one chance to make a real mark on the galaxy has seemingly backfired.
