Recently Disney released a trailer for The Mandalorean and Grogu. It looks fun, like good-humored family fare—a return to the 1940s serial aesthetic of The New Hope. It feels like they’ve crammed as much fan service as they could into a two-minute ad. From the opening shots that could have been lifted whole-cloth from previous Skywalker Saga films, to cameo appearances of Jabba or Zeb, to the revived rebel base on Yavvin, every frame is made to appease the cantankerous fandom.
Will I go to see this in the theater? Probably. With Star Trek no longer a viable science fiction delivery mechanism in the age of American Enshittification, the Star Wars IP continues to be held, for the moment, by corporate masters who aren’t actively supporting fascism. I’m running low on choices. Is this outing of the Mandalorean made for me? Absolutely not. Do I agree with the direction of Star Wars at the moment?
No, I do not.
If you were a kid who grew up loving The Clone Wars and Rebels and all of Dave Filoni’s work with animated Star Wars, this is your era. Filoni has clawed, or schmoozed, or outlasted his way to the top. And if you love Filoni, it’s a new golden era. But if you’re like me, a lover of Rogue One and Andor, it feels like the Ice Planet of our Discontent. Compare these two images.
On the left is a frame from Andor. On the right, a frame from The Mandalorean and Grogu. The shot from Andor could have come from a top-notch thriller. This is no accident, as Tony Gilroy is a director known for top-notch thrillers. The shot from The Mandalorean and Grogu could have come from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animation. In fact, tell me it doesn’t harken back to a nearly identical shot from Thor: Ragnarok?
My point is, one is adult fare. The other is adolescent confection. It’s as obvious as the differences between Dave Filoni and Tony Gilroy. One has made a career creating cartoons for kids. One has made a living making adult action dramas. I don’t think I’m hiding the choice I would have made were I deciding the direction of Star Wars as an intellectual property.
But I don’t. That’s not how fandoms work.
Disney is wealthy enough to make both, but placing Filoni at the top of the decision heap means we’ll get less Andor and more Grogu. If that makes you happy, I’m glad for you. But if you were a fan of the more mature direction of Andor, I think we’ll need to look elsewhere for that brand of science fiction.
hi ho.