Disney’s first new Star Wars movie in years is back on the big screen — and the first wave of reactions to The Mandalorian and Grogu is already drawing a sharp split. Members of the film press who screened the movie called it “a thrilling adventure,” “a perfect summer movie” and “a lot of fun,” while others said it plays closer to a long episode of the Disney+ series than a full theatrical leap.
That divide matters because The Mandalorian and Grogu is not just another spinoff. It returns the franchise to theaters after the 2019 release of The Rise of Skywalker, and it does so with Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin at the center, Sigourney Weaver in the cast and Jeremy Allen White voicing Rotta the Hutt. Jon Favreau, who created the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, directs the film and co-writes it with Noah Kloor and Dave Filoni. It is also the first theatrical release under new bosses Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, after Kathleen Kennedy departed Lucasfilm earlier this year.
Some of the loudest praise focused on the movie’s tone. Fandango’s Erik Davis called it “a fun, freaky romp across the galaxy” and said it is “less about the lore and more a fun, freaky romp across the galaxy,” adding that he especially liked Ludwig Göransson’s score and the way it nods to “80s synth-driven horror and action thrillers.” Scott Mendelson was also upbeat, describing it as “a solid line drive past second base, with lots of ‘Neat… haven’t seen that in a STAR WARS before’ charm.”
Not every reaction leaned that way. Germain Lussier said the film feels like “a longer, bigger episode of the show” and added, “It has one or two stand out scenes but it feels much more interested in developing the story to new locations with new creatures than the characters. Enjoyed some of it, left frustrated but the rest.” Peri Nemiroff flagged Rotta the Hutt’s dialogue, saying, “Live action Hutts are a challenge to pull off, a gladiator Hutt even more so, and it didn’t help that Rotta’s dialogue was often too on the nose.” She added that he “did grow on me, but it feels like there was a more compelling way to convey his place in the world and his mission.”
The harshest review came from Jonathan Sim, who called it “One of the weakest ‘Star Wars’ movies” and said it was “An emotionless, predictable experience that doesn’t push Din Djarin anywhere interesting. Dull, unexciting fight scenes; just CGI monsters. Action figures mashed together. A long, colorless made-for-TV movie.”
That mix of enthusiasm and frustration fits the position The Mandalorian and Grogu now occupies. The franchise’s theatrical absence was filled by streaming series including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Andor and The Acolyte, which kept the universe active while the films stayed away from cinemas. Now the question is no longer whether Star Wars can return to theaters — it already has — but whether this return feels like an event movie or an expanded chapter from streaming.
Based on the first reactions, the answer is both. The movie appears to have enough new creatures, big-screen spectacle and galaxy-hopping energy to satisfy fans who wanted more from Din Djarin’s world. But the same reports suggest it still carries the DNA of television, with some critics seeing that as part of the charm and others as the reason it falls short. For Disney and Lucasfilm, that split is the real test ahead of release: whether audiences will treat this mandalorian movie as the comeback Star Wars needed, or as a series extension that happens to be playing in theaters.
