Let's speculate about The Mandalorians: The Movie
The Clan of Two is coming to a theater near you
The Mandalorian & Grogu! Will we see it in 2025, 2026? Who can really say? But its announcement comes with something that Star Wars fans love: not having a clue.
One of my favorite parts of experiencing the prequels in real-time was how long they took to arrive. Anticipation makes things sweeter. It’s one of the few downsides of a Star Wars era where we receive a new movie-like show twice a year (what a thing to complain about, I know), there’s very little time to search online for crumbs or get excited about tiny teases before the thing itself is here and gone. I remember getting excited when Lucasfilm released one picture of Anakin’s face to show off the resolution of their digital cameras before Attack of the Clones. Heck, they even released the picture of am orange door frame and I stared at it for about a half-hour at one of my temp jobs in (probably) 2001.
So, let’s enjoy the opportunity to wildly speculate about M&G before we know a thing about it. Follow me, fellow kids.
THE PLOT
The story of The Mandalorian has emerged from a very different ecosystem than the one those that produced other Star Wars films. It’s a post-war story about characters that are neither mythological (“Luke Skywalker! I thought he was a myth!”) nor influential on a galactic scale. Because we know what came before them, and what comes after, their own actions won’t have much impact on where we’re going on where we’ve been large writ. Instead, The Mandalorian zooms into the fates of just a Clan of Two.
Yes, there are moments where these characters interact with legends. And yes, the third season of the show drew them into the wider conflict between the Imperial Remnant and the Mandalorian diaspora. But those cameos and battles serve as a stage on which the tiny drama of a burgeoning family plays out.
And that family, after three seasons, has been codified and made whole. Grogu takes on his father’s name (Din Grogu) and the two of them settle into a little house on the prairie. The Dins have their happy ending.
So where could we go from here?
My guess is that the conflict between the Imperial Remnant and the Republic will not take center stage in this movie. That’ll be ground covered by Ahsoka Season 2 and Dave Filoni’s Heir to the Empire reclamation project. I also don’t expect we’ll see much more from the Mandalorians themselves, who were given a full season to take center stage.
It seems like film is a place where one adventure can play out on the grandest scale possible, without much other context. So my guess is we’ll see a largely self-contained story with a beginning, middle and end, even some expository scenes to quickly explain to those without Disney Plus who these characters are. Opening action sequence, daring rescue of some sort, saving Greef Carga from pirates? And then Grogu saving his father? I would not be surprised.
One place I would love to see them explore is Grogu’s homeworld. The origins of Yoda, Yaddle and Grogu are a closely guarded secret. Or maybe more acurately, a purposefully undefined part of the story. We know there are more beings like Yoda, but we don’t know where they come from, what their culture is like, what the species is even called. I mean, we know the proper species names for Hammerhead and Walrus Man (look it up kids) but not Yoda himself. Discovering, at last, some inkling of these characters origins would be a suitably majestic and surprising moment, worthy of the big screen. It could even, dare I propose it, dovetail with the Dawn of the Jedi flick James Mangold is making.
It’s also thematically rich ground for the character themselves. Din Djarin ended the second season of The Mandalorian but encouraging Grogu to go and be ‘with his people.’ He thought that meant the Jedi. But Grogu chose his adopted father over that ancient religion and took up the mantle of the Mandalore. Still, imagine how Din will feel when Grogu is among his actual species? If Grogu chooses to remain with his father in that context? Or if he decides to grow up and leave home? Tears would be be shed. The Mandalorian is nothing if not a tear-jerker, at heart.
Does this risk killing some mystery? It does, but Star Wars has shown willingness to trade in its mysteries to tell more of its story.
Finally, if we don’t hear Grogu say “This Is The Way,” I’ll eat my hat.
THE CHARACTERS
Besides our duo, my guess is we’ll see new characters. Lucasfilm tends to see films as a chance to give us characters we haven’t met before. Even when those new characters aren’t strictly necessary (how necessary with General Grievous, but also, how cool?), we’re given a new design, we’re introduced to new actors.
We’ll certainly need a new villain. Thrawn seems best utilized elsewhere and Moff Gideon met his end. So, where to go from here?
We haven’t seen the original Client in quite a while, and Werner Herzog certainly has film-presence. But I’d wonder if we don’t get a character and an actor no one is expecting or has yet to be seen. This is a good opportunity for a foe that isn’t a Sith or lightsaber wielder. Surely, a bounty hunter as prolific as The Mandalorian will have detained someone who could seek revenge. The past coming back to haunt a hero, especially a hero who has tried to reform, is a tried-and-true formula.
Still, unlike the Star Wars films that came before it, Mandalorian has a vast cast of characters from which to draw that have already been seen on the small screen. From Peli Motto, to Greef Carga, to Boba Fett and his new gang/family, to Bo-Katan, to Luke Skywalker himself, there are lots of characters who could be inserted into the narrative for nostalgia or context or just because they work. I’d be surprised, personally, if we don’t see Peli Motto on the big screen. Amy Sedaris is a big reason the tone of the show works, and there’d be something missing without her. I also would put money on a Bill Burr appearance. He’s proven he can hold the screen, and he always knocks it out the park on the show.
Finally, there’s always the question of classic characters. At this point in the narrative, Han, Luke, Leia, Threepio and Artoo, Chewbacca, Lando: they’re all out there, living their lives. Obviously, some are trickier to insert into the film than others, and some digital cameos may be reserved for the big Filoni-Finale, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Chewbacca stopped in for a rawwwr.
THE TIMELINE
Seems as if, barring any time jumps, that we’ll be squarely in the The New Republic era. This era, especially in the last season of The Mandalorian, has complicated the victory over the Empire by implying that, even when it comes to the bad guys, no one’s ever really gone. The galactic picture of post-Imperial rule is a shaky one.
My guess is they’ll put this story parallel to Ahsoka’s first season so they can both end in a similar place in the timeline. I’d imagine they’ll want all the characters stories to line up when it’s time for the Star Wars Avengers to Assemble against Thrawn.
MISCELLANEOUS GUESSES
The movie will get a new title or subtitle.
M&G will have an after-credits scene that leads into the Filoni-Finale.
Ludwig Göransson will come back to score the film on the big screen.
Mando’s armor will get a new look for the movie (and for action figure sales).
No crawl, we’ll dive right in.
I’d bet Favreau leans more into the classic Western mode than the Buck Rogers mode of storytelling for this one. It’s his comfort zone.
Favreau will voice a character.
There will be no Mandalorian Season 4, this is basically the characters graduation from Disney Plus.
We won’t find out for quite a long time, and I am here for it! What do you imagine you’ll see when The Mandalorians: The Movie arrives?
I've been pondering what this movie is going to look like and I agree here. I think it's going to be a mostly self-contained Mando/Grogu story with some pop-ins from the likes of Peli Motto and Greef Carga and some hints at the larger New Republic/Imperial Remnant/Rebuilding Mandalore struggle. I wonder the Pirate King from season 3 is going to be the big bad.
One disagreement, as much as I like Star Wars to explain every little thing, I'd like to leave Yoda/Yaddle/Grogu as a mystery.
I am excited to hopefully learn if Grogu will maintain the speech/language patterns of Yoda and their species or if, like human children, his speech will reflect being raised by Jedi/Mandalorians. This Is The Way or The Way, This Is?