For years, theatrical Star Wars has been haunted by one name. Not Palpatine. Not Snoke. Not “somehow.” Solo. Ever since Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed in 2018, every conversation about Star Wars returning to theaters has carried the same nervous question: can this franchise still work on the big screen without being a billion-dollar Skywalker Saga event? The Mandalorian and Grogu may have finally given Lucasfilm the answer. No, it is not the biggest Star Wars movie ever. No, it is not pulling The Force Awakens numbers. But according to Box Office Mojo, the film has crossed $315 million worldwide and currently sits as the 7th highest-grossing movie of 2026. That matters. This Is Not a Flop Story Anymore The online box office debate around The Mandalorian and Grogu has been weird from the start. Some wanted it to be a disaster. Some wanted it to be a triumphant…
Star Wars movies
The Mandalorian & Grogu’s Box Office Problem Is Bigger Than One Weekend
For years, Star Wars fans asked the same question: when is Star Wars finally coming back to theaters? Now that The Mandalorian & Grogu is here, the more awkward question is starting to creep in: Did everyone actually rush to see it? This is not a clean “Star Wars is dead” story, no matter how much the internet enjoys putting a tiny helmet on bad news. The movie opened well. Grogu is still adorable. Din Djarin is still cool. The Star Wars name still matters. But momentum matters too. And right now, The Mandalorian & Grogu feels less like a victory lap and more like Lucasfilm getting a polite tap on the shoulder. The Mandalorian & Grogu Is Not a Flop, But It Is Fading Fast According to The Numbers, The Mandalorian & Grogu opened domestically with $81.6 million. For most movies, that is great. For Star Wars, it comes…
The Mandalorian and Grogu Is Expected to Hit Disney+ This Year
Din Djarin and Grogu may be heading back to where their modern Star Wars story began: Disney+. After its theatrical run, The Mandalorian and Grogu is now expected to arrive on Disney+ later this year, according to comments from Disney+ EMEA chief Karl Holmes reported by The Hollywood Reporter. There is no exact streaming date yet. No official “mark your calendar” announcement. No cute Grogu countdown button. But the message is clear enough: the movie is part of Disney+’s 2026 film pipeline. From Streaming Hit to Big-Screen Star Wars That is a neat little full-circle moment. The Mandalorian helped define Disney+ when the service launched in 2019. Grogu became a global pop culture gremlin almost overnight, Din Djarin became one of modern Star Wars’ most recognizable leads, and the series proved that Star Wars could work as premium streaming television. Then Lucasfilm did something bigger. Instead of simply making a…
Rogue One: The Imperial Suite Gets the Danish Symphony Treatment
Some Star Wars music announces itself with heroic trumpets and instant nostalgia. Rogue One: The Imperial Suite does something colder. Michael Giacchino’s music for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has always lived in a fascinating space between old Star Wars tradition and something more severe, militaristic, and tragic. Now, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra has given The Imperial Suite the full live concert treatment, and it sounds exactly as it should: grand, ominous, and slightly like the Empire just filed a terrifying amount of paperwork before destroying your planet. The performance appears via DR Koncerthuset’s official YouTube uploads, continuing the orchestra’s strong run of Star Wars and sci-fi music performances. Rogue One Needed a Different Kind of Star Wars Sound Rogue One was never just another Star Wars adventure. It was a war film. A heist story. A tragedy with a countdown. It needed music that could feel connected…
Rogue One Director Gareth Edwards Thinks AI Could Be Bigger Than CGI
Gareth Edwards is not exactly running from the AI conversation. The Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director has spoken positively about generative AI in filmmaking, arguing that the technology could become one of the biggest creative tools in cinema. In a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, Edwards is quoted as saying AI is “going to be better than CGI.” That is a spicy sentence. Especially in Hollywood right now. AI remains one of the most radioactive topics in entertainment, with writers, actors, artists, editors, VFX teams, and studios all arguing over what should be automated, protected, credited, or absolutely kept away from the creative process. But Edwards’ view seems less like “replace everyone” and more like “this tool is too powerful to ignore.” Why Edwards’ Opinion Matters Edwards is not some random tech executive waving a shiny toy at filmmakers. He directed Rogue One, one of the most…
The June 1 Lucasfilm Move That Quietly Started Modern Star Wars
Before Disney bought Lucasfilm, before The Force Awakens, before Grogu, Andor, Ahsoka, the sequel trilogy, the streaming era, and the endless online arguments, there was a quieter announcement. On June 1, 2012, Kathleen Kennedy was named co-chair of Lucasfilm. At the time, it looked like a major leadership move. In hindsight, it looks like one of the first visible steps toward the modern Star Wars era. In a later StarWars.com reflection on the future of Lucasfilm, Pablo Hidalgo described that June 1 announcement as one of the early pieces of news that came before the much bigger October reveal: Disney was acquiring Lucasfilm, and new Star Wars films were coming. That is the strange thing about franchise history. Sometimes the biggest turns do not arrive with a lightsaber ignition. Sometimes they arrive as a press announcement. The Quiet Before the Disney Era Kennedy’s arrival at Lucasfilm came months before the…
Grogu Was Number Two on the Mandalorian Movie Call Sheet
Grogu may be small enough to fit in a floating pram, but on the set of The Mandalorian and Grogu, he was apparently treated like a proper movie star. According to Variety’s feature on how Grogu was brought to life, the character was listed as number two on the film’s call sheet. Yes, right behind the title character territory. Yes, for the tiny green chaos child. And honestly? Fair. At this point, Grogu is not just a cute sidekick. He is one of the central reasons The Mandalorian became a cultural phenomenon in the first place. Grogu Is Not Just a Prop The funny thing about Grogu is that he could easily have been treated like an effect. A puppet. A digital creature. A merchandising miracle with ears. Instead, Lucasfilm has spent years treating him like an actual character, and the call sheet detail says a lot about that approach….
Mando’s Helmet Was Hiding More Emotion Than We Thought
Spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu below. Din Djarin’s helmet has always been the point. It hides the face, flattens the expression, and forces The Mandalorian to do something Star Wars has always loved: make emotion visible through posture, silence, timing, and one extremely expensive suit of armor. But apparently, the helmet was hiding more than we realized. In a new Entertainment Weekly interview, Brendan Wayne, who physically portrays Mando in the armor, said he had “tears coming out of the helmet” while filming one of The Mandalorian and Grogu’s biggest emotional moments. That is not just a nice behind-the-scenes anecdote. It is a reminder that Din Djarin is not only a voice, a suit, or a helmet. He is a performance built from all three. The Body Behind the Beskar Pedro Pascal is the name on the poster, and rightly so. His voice gives Din Djarin that tired, controlled,…
Mando and Grogu Just Made Starfighter’s Job Harder
The Mandalorian and Grogu has done its job. Star Wars is back in theaters, the opening weekend was strong, and Grogu has once again proven that he may be less a character and more a tiny green economic stabilizer with ears. But that success also makes the next Star Wars movie more interesting. Because if The Mandalorian and Grogu was the safe theatrical restart, Star Wars: Starfighter is shaping up to be the real test. The Safe Bet Worked The numbers are good. The Mandalorian and Grogu opened with roughly $165 million worldwide, according to Reuters, giving Lucasfilm exactly what it needed after years away from cinemas: proof that Star Wars can still pull people into theaters. But it did so with a lot of help. Din Djarin and Grogu are familiar. They have years of Disney+ momentum behind them. They are family-friendly, toy-friendly, meme-friendly, and emotionally simple in the…
Star Wars’ Streaming Detour May Not Have Hurt the Franchise After All
For years, the big worry around Star Wars was simple: had Disney trained audiences to see the galaxy as a streaming franchise? After The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, and several animated series, Star Wars had spent a long time living on Disney+. Good for subscription value. Good for weekly discourse. Good for Grogu GIFs. But maybe risky for theaters. Now The Mandalorian and Grogu has opened with around $165 million worldwide, and the early answer may be less dramatic than expected. Star Wars did not return to cinemas like The Force Awakens. But it also did not come crawling back with a broken hyperdrive and a note from accounting. As box office analyst David A. Gross told Variety: “For Star Wars not to be hurt in any obvious way by its long detour onto streaming is good news for the franchise.” That is the…
May 25 Is the Real Star Wars Day, and the Movies Prove It
May the 4th has the pun. May 25 has the receipts. Long before Star Wars Day became a hashtag, a merch wave, and the annual moment where every brand with a social media intern suddenly discovered lightsabers, May 25 was already the date that changed the galaxy. The original Star Wars arrived in theaters on May 25, 1977. Six years later, Return of the Jedi opened on May 25, 1983. That is not just trivia. That is the franchise’s cinematic birth certificate and the original trilogy’s victory lap landing on the same calendar square. So yes, May the 4th is fun. But May 25 is the day Star Wars actually became Star Wars. The Day the Galaxy Opened When the film now known as A New Hope first opened in 1977, it was not yet a sacred text, a streaming category, a theme park ecosystem, or a multi-generation licensing empire….
Mando and Grogu Opens Big, But Star Wars Still Has Something to Prove
Star Wars is back in theaters, and the opening weekend number is doing exactly what Star Wars numbers usually do: starting an argument. The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to an estimated $165 million worldwide over Memorial Day weekend, with about $102 million coming from the U.S. and Canada, according to Reuters and AP. That is a big number. A very big number, in fact. It is also the lowest domestic opening for a Disney-era Star Wars movie. So yes, welcome back to theatrical Star Wars, where even success has to arrive carrying a small glowing discourse grenade. A Strong Opening, But Not a Supernova For almost any other franchise, a $165 million global launch would be a clear victory lap. For Star Wars, it comes with an asterisk shaped like the Millennium Falcon. The good news is obvious: The Mandalorian and Grogu brought Star Wars back to cinemas after a…
Can Mando and Grogu Make Star Wars Feel Big Again?
Star Wars is back in theaters, but the real question is slightly more uncomfortable: Does it still feel huge? The Mandalorian and Grogu has finally brought the galaxy far, far away back to cinemas after a long theatrical break. It is the first new Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, and Disney is clearly hoping Din Djarin and Grogu can do more than sell popcorn. They need to remind people that Star Wars still belongs on the biggest screen possible. That is a heavier job than it sounds. The Galaxy Returns With Smaller Expectations According to Reuters, The Mandalorian and Grogu has been projected to open somewhere between $75 million and $100 million in the U.S. and Canada. For almost any other franchise, that would be a strong launch. For Star Wars, it is more complicated. Disney-era Star Wars used to open like a cultural emergency….
Mando and Grogu’s 88% Audience Score Splits the Room
Star Wars is back in theaters, and yes, the galaxy is arguing again. The Mandalorian and Grogu currently has an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on more than 1,000 verified ratings. That is a strong early sign that regular moviegoers are responding much more warmly to Din Djarin and Grogu’s big-screen adventure than many critics did. Because naturally, Star Wars could not simply return to cinemas quietly. It had to bring a scoreboard. Audiences Are Much Kinder Than Critics At the time of writing, Rotten Tomatoes lists the film at 64% on the Tomatometer and 88% on the Popcornmeter. That gap is the story. Critics have been more cautious, with several reviews describing the film as fun but familiar, charming but light, or closer to a supersized Disney+ adventure than a major cinematic reinvention. Audiences, apparently, are less bothered by that. For many viewers, “Mando and Grogu go…
Pedro Pascal Still Wants More Mando and Grogu
Pedro Pascal is not talking like someone ready to put the helmet away for good. With The Mandalorian and Grogu bringing Din Djarin and his tiny green chaos apprentice to the big screen, Pascal has made it clear that he still sees more road ahead for Star Wars’ most famous clan of two. Speaking in a new CBR interview clip, Pascal said he sees “a next chapter” for the pair, whether that happens on the big screen or the small screen. That is not an official announcement, obviously. Lucasfilm has not suddenly dropped a secret trilogy, a Disney+ season, and a Grogu holiday special into our laps. But it is still the kind of quote that tells you something important: the actor at the center of this whole beskar-covered machine does not sound finished. The Clan of Two Still Has Mileage The appeal of Mando and Grogu has always been…
The Mandalorian and Grogu Reviews Are Already Split
The Mandalorian and Grogu was supposed to be Star Wars’ cleanest route back to theaters. Early reviews suggest the landing may be bumpier than Lucasfilm hoped. As reviews began rolling in, the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score hovered around the danger zone — initially circulating around 58%, then moving into the low 60s as more critics were added. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the movie was sitting around 64% positive, just above the “Fresh” cutoff, while Radio Times reported 63% based on 68 reviews at the time of writing. So no, this is not a critical disaster. But it is definitely not the triumphant, everyone-agrees Star Wars comeback either. A Movie Sitting on the Fence The interesting part is not the exact percentage. Rotten Tomatoes scores move, especially on review day. The story is the split. Some critics seem to appreciate The Mandalorian and Grogu as a fun, straightforward Star Wars…
The Mandalorian and Grogu Team Is Already Hoping for a Sequel
The first Mandalorian and Grogu movie is not even safely through the airlock yet, and Sigourney Weaver is already talking like someone who would happily book another trip to the Outer Rim. In a new Total Film interview, reported by GamesRadar, Weaver says she would love to do more work with Pedro Pascal and Grogu after The Mandalorian and Grogu. She also suggests the team is “secretly” hoping the movie could lead to another adventure, potentially pushing the story deeper into the Outer Rim. That is not an official sequel announcement. But it is absolutely the kind of comment Lucasfilm watchers will put under glass and examine with tiny tweezers. The Outer Rim Is the Right Playground The Outer Rim has always been where The Mandalorian feels most comfortable. Dusty settlements, broken Imperial leftovers, desperate locals, criminals pretending they have a code, and one armored dad trying to solve problems…
Jon Favreau Has Big Plans for Grogu After The Mandalorian and Grogu
Grogu is not just getting a movie. He may be getting a future. Jon Favreau has revealed that he has “a lot of plans” for Grogu creatively after The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the reason is very simple: this little green chaos child is not built for a one-movie arc. His species lives for centuries. His training is weird. His identity is split between two of Star Wars’ most myth-heavy traditions. In a new GamesRadar / Total Film interview, Favreau said Grogu is “on a path to be both a Jedi and a Mandalorian,” while also making choices and growing under a strong teacher. That is a very small sentence carrying a very large amount of future merchandise. And story. Mostly story. Grogu Is Built for the Long Game The most interesting part of Favreau’s comments is not just that he wants more Grogu stories. Of course he does. Lucasfilm…
Dave Filoni Says Star Wars Has a Plan — Just Not a Spreadsheet
Dave Filoni is not promising a Star Wars assembly line. Good. We have enough factories in this galaxy already. In a new Collider interview, Filoni was asked about the future of Star Wars under his creative leadership, and his answer was less “here are 14 release dates and a logo wall” and more “there is an architecture, but the stories come first.” That may sound vague if you are looking for a Marvel-style phase chart. But for Star Wars, it is probably the healthier answer. The Future Is Being Architected Filoni said he is currently “looking at the stories and the potential” while planning what he would like to do. He also said he believes in having “an overarching idea” before figuring out how many projects fit into that shape. The key part is not just that Star Wars has a broader plan. It is that Filoni is trying to…
Pedro Pascal Just Joined a Very Small Star Wars Movie Club
Pedro Pascal has worn the helmet, carried the show, protected the galaxy’s most powerful toddler, and somehow made “this is the Way” sound both cool and emotionally exhausted. Now he appears to have joined a much smaller Star Wars club: actors who receive top billing in a theatrical Star Wars movie. With The Mandalorian and Grogu heading to theaters, current promotional and cast listings place Pascal front and center as Din Djarin, alongside Grogu, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White, and the rest of the film’s new big-screen lineup. That may sound like a tiny credit-order detail, but in Star Wars history, top billing is not exactly handed out like blue milk at a cantina. A Short List With Big Names The list of actors most commonly associated with top billing in theatrical Star Wars films is small and very heavy: Mark Hamill, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Harrison Ford, Felicity Jones,…
The Mandalorian and Grogu Premiere Makes Star Wars Feel Like a Movie Again
For the last several years, live-action Star Wars has mostly felt like something you watched at home while wondering if you still had time to squeeze in one more episode before bed. Now the red carpet is back. The Mandalorian and Grogu has held its Los Angeles premiere, with Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Ming-Na Wen, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and more turning up for the kind of glossy Hollywood rollout Star Wars has not had in a very long time. Page Six and Just Jared both covered the L.A. event, which turned the film’s final marketing stretch into something that looked less like another Disney+ chapter and more like a proper theatrical moment. And honestly, that matters. Star Wars Has Been Living on the Couch Since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, live-action Star Wars has mostly belonged to Disney+. That era gave us plenty: The Mandalorian, Andor, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan…
Grogu’s Jedi Path Is Getting Weirder, and That’s Good
Grogu is not becoming a normal Jedi. Thank the Force for that. The little green chaos goblin at the heart of The Mandalorian and Grogu may still meditate, use the Force, and make everyone in a ten-mile radius emotionally vulnerable. But Jon Favreau is making it increasingly clear that Grogu’s future is not simply “tiny Luke Skywalker, but with better ears.” In a new Total Film interview, reported by GamesRadar, Favreau says Grogu is “not on the typical Jedi path of a youngling,” even though he has trained with some remarkable teachers. That includes Luke Skywalker, his time at the Jedi Temple, and possibly Yoda before everything in the galaxy became Order 66-shaped misery. That matters because The Mandalorian and Grogu is not just about a kid with powers anymore. It is about what happens when a Force-sensitive child is raised outside the usual Jedi system — by a Mandalorian…
The Mandalorian and Grogu Is Trying Not to Be Homework
Star Wars is heading back to theaters, and Jon Favreau seems very aware of one dangerous trap: making the audience feel like they need to revise for an exam first. The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in cinemas on May 22, 2026, marking the franchise’s first big-screen release since The Rise of Skywalker. But while the movie grew out of plans for The Mandalorian Season 4, Favreau is now framing it as something more self-contained — a film that still fits the wider Mando-era story, but does not require every viewer to arrive carrying a Disney+ viewing spreadsheet. In a new Total Film interview, reported by GamesRadar, Favreau says Dave Filoni remains “closely in step” with the movie, even though the shift from streaming season to theatrical release changed the shape of the story. That distinction matters. A Movie Cannot Feel Like Episode 25 Television can be dense. It can reward…
The Mandalorian & Grogu Had to Stop Being Season 4
Jon Favreau may have just explained the most important creative choice behind The Mandalorian and Grogu. The upcoming Star Wars movie did not simply become “Season 4, but longer.” According to Favreau, the story originally tied more directly into what had come before — and what was still coming next — but the film had to become more self-contained so new viewers could actually walk into a theater without needing a Disney+ homework binder. Speaking with GamesRadar, Favreau said the movie still connects to the larger Mando-era story, but in a way that is more approachable for audiences who may not have followed every thread from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. That is not just smart. It is probably necessary. Star Wars Cannot Return to Theaters With Homework The Mandalorian and Grogu is not a normal Star Wars release. It is the franchise’s big theatrical return…