The first full trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu has been released, and it has me really excited to see the movie when it hits theaters on May 22.
Part of the reason this trailer builds excitement is because it looks really cool, and seems like a fun adventure tale featuring Din Djarin and Grogu. But we knew all of that already. The trailer also has me excited because of what it teases could happen narratively. Now, we don’t know much of anything about the plot beyond bare bones details – that Mando and Grogu hunt down Imperial warlords for the New Republic. We don’t know who the villain is. We don’t know what the story will be. But there’s a line in the trailer that alludes to some emotional development for these characters that I really hope will happen.
As we see Grogu meditating on a forest world, and taking a swim in the waters, we hear Pedro Pascal’s voice say, “The kid will live centuries beyond me. I won’t always be around to protect him.”
On the one hand, a statement like that seems quite obvious. Yoda’s species has always been a mystery, intentionally kept that way by George Lucas and everyone since him. But we have known two things to be true of this species, with Yoda and Yaddle: they are very strong with the Force, and they live a very long time. Yaddle lived for several hundred years (at least) before meeting an untimely death at the hands of Count Dooku, while Yoda lived for nine hundred years before dying peacefully on Dagobah.
This fact has significant implications for Grogu, and for the future of Star Wars. He is just a kid – fifty years or so – and therefore should be expected to live for hundreds of years longer. He would be expected to far out-live Din Djarin, to far out-live Jedi Master Rey Skywalker, to far out-live any character we’ve known. This could, should the storytellers choose to go this route, give future Jedi long after even Rey’s era a Yoda-like mentor. There is a lot of potential here.
But the fact that the trailer hints at this is significant, because it’s recognition by Djarin that he’s preparing Grogu for this destiny. Grogu is remarkably strong with the Force – so strong that the Imperial remnants wanted him, and Luke Skywalker wanted to train him – and must keep growing that power, learning to grow both as a Jedi and as a Mandalorian foundling. The possibilities are endless, and Djarin acknowledging this reality gives a self-awareness that this series hasn’t always had. It’s always been a fun adventure series, and that is great in its own right. But the series has been quite dismal at any sort of lasting character development, opting instead for an action serial following the “adventure of the week” format.
I’m truly not meaning this as a criticism, as that is an enjoyable and needed storytelling method. But I’ll also be honest and say that a hint of some emotional beats and character development really excites me, as I think that can help the movie soar to greater heights. Will Grogu continue to learn more and more of his power? Will Grogu wind up being a Mandalorian Jedi, like Tarre Vizsla of old? Will Grogu start to find his place in the galaxy, and his grand sense of purpose? How will his relationship with Djarin continue to change, growing from being protected to being a partner? How will Djarin process his own sense of purpose, in training Grogu to far out-last him?
These kind of questions can set the movie up to really explore these characters, and their relationship, on an emotional level that the series has rarely tapped into. I’m hopeful that this is a hint that the movie will be more than just a fun action adventure story – for as good as that is – but will be something more, something deeper, to really drive these characters along to new heights and set up lots of intriguing potential for future stories.
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