It’s an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, particularly if you live in the UK. The new season of The Mandalorian just debuted its first episode on Disney+, revealing (minor spoiler alert!) that Din Djarin and Grogu must journey to the ruined planet of Mandalore in the hope of receiving redemption after the former removed his helmet one too many times and was silly enough to admit it to the Armorer. Moreover, Star Wars Celebration is coming to London next month, and we are promised Disney/Lucasfilm is finally going to start revealing what the plan is for the next phase of Star Wars movies.
So after the incredible disappointment of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker – a movie that managed the remarkable feat of making many Star Wars fans wonder why they should ever bother entering the multiplex again – we’ll soon start to get an idea of how the studio plans to get us thrilled for the prospect of a new ream of far-out, big-screen space battles. Will we discover that Damon Lindelof’s reported writer’s room has spawned the next Star Wars chapter, or find out that Taika Waititi has finally delivered on his own proposed episode? Or will there just be more Disney+ spin-offs based on old characters from the original trilogy that we never quite knew we wanted, but will probably lap up nonetheless just for the prospect of seeing our childhoods gorgeously recycled?
Nobody quite knows, because we live in such a strange time for Star Wars, and indeed Hollywood, as we know it. In 2023, Harrison Ford is a TV star who only makes movies occasionally (the forthcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny being a rare exception), and the biggest, genuine bona fide action movie star on the planet is a guy who was known only for the sound of his voice until recently, and also spends most of his time in small screen ventures.
I’m talking of course about Pedro Pascal, who was this week described by Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau as “having a moment” after a long career playing smaller roles.
“We just hired him because we were fans of his work [in] Narcos and Game of Thrones,” Favreau said. “He’s been at it for a while, and what we really liked about him was that he was a journeyman actor who always did a great part. He really picked great projects to be a part of, he always stood out. We knew that he could ground and add humanity to a character that was otherwise a mask, somebody that we knew you wouldn’t see his face, and if and when you did that, it had to mean something. He had to deliver a lot in a few moments.
Added Favreau, of Pascal’s increasing notoriety thanks to The Mandalorian and zombie saga The Last of Us: “People are starting to associate his name with his performances and his face. Of course, now as he’s doing talkshows, people are getting to know the person, as well as the characters. So, he’s having a moment, and I’m glad that we’re able to be a part of that.”
What’s been notable about Lucasfilm’s pronouncements on the future of Star Wars is that while the prospect of The Mandalorian jumping to the multiplexes has been regularly teased, we still don’t know for sure if it’s going to happen. And the studio is facing a quandary here.
Watching episode one of the third season of Favreau’s show, it feels like Din Djarin and Grogu have only just begun their journey. We know very little about the tiny force-sensitive creature’s past, his home planet and why his race seems to have produced two of the most powerful Jedi (or neo-Jedi) in the known galaxy. And from the look of season three, it doesn’t look like The Mandalorian is particularly keen on delving into these issues anytime soon. This is going to be a very long and intriguing game.
Yet Pascal is clearly ready for movie stardom. His time has come. So Disney needs to find a way to do what has never really been done before and transfer Mando to the big screen without ruining the episodic saga that everyone has come to love him for in the first place.
Could the solution be some kind of spin-off that doesn’t affect the main arc of Favreau’s show, but with our hero front and centre? Perhaps a prequel set in an earlier period of the bounty hunter’s life? But that would rule out the involvement of Grogu, and frankly, nobody would watch it.
The history of movies based on successful TV shows is incredibly chequered. Often the studios involved manage to completely lose the tone of the original small screen saga in the process of trying to make it seem bigger and better for the multiplex. The Mandalorian, on the other hand, already feels grandly, luxuriously cinematic – this is already an epic, widescreen tale: the very definition of space opera. Like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, it feels ready to achieve its destiny. And all that means that if Lucasfilm can’t find a way to pull off a miraculous Jedi mind trick next month and bring Din Djarin to the big screen, it will feel like something of a missed opportunity.