This morning Lucasfilm and Disney released the first official trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the long-awaited first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Although the clip kept details about the film’s story very close to its chest, it was packed with Easter eggs and references to Star Wars‘ past… and still gave us a few little hints about what to expect for the titular Mandalorian and his young ward.
The trailer opens with a very familiar ship flying across a coastline: an ST-70 assault ship, better known to viewers as the same class of gunship as the original ride of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), the Razor Crest. Of course, the Crest was destroyed in the climax of The Mandalorian season two, leading to Din piloting a Naboo N-1 Starfighter during the events of season three. It looks like in time for Mandalorian and Grogu, Din’s either gotten a new ST-70 or somehow managed to rebuild the Crest from what was left of its remains on the planet Tython. The three yellow stripes on the top of its hull at least pay a nice homage to his brief Naboo ride.
It’s worth pointing out as well that the gunship is flying towards what looks like Adelphi Base, the New Republic outpost first seen in season three. Built on the planet Adelphi (duh) in the Outer Rim, the station is home to Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and a group of New Republic Rangers, who Din allied with in the climax of season three to let the Mandalorian become an unofficial independent contractor for the New Republic.
We get to immediately see some of that contract work in the next shot, as Grogu and Din spy on a building surrounded by Imperial Stormtroopers. Mandalorian and Grogu is set in approximately 9-ish ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), so we’re still only about four years after the formal end of the Galactic Civil War at the Battle of Jakku in 5 ABY. With Moff Gideon out of the way after his death on Mandalore, we know there are still plenty of other Imperial Warlords in current operation that will likely form a major antagonistic part of this movie (one of them, the returned Grand Admiral Thrawn, will instead be the focus of Ahsoka season two and the eventual Dave Filoni New Republic vs. Imperial Remnant film, first announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2023).
Grogu starts investigating sewers with the help of a little Anzellan friend. We know there is a small cadre of Anzellan engineers (the species introduced in The Rise of Skywalker with Babu Frik) who work on Navarro, the world Din and Grogu retired back to after the events on Mandalore in season three, so this likely takes place there.
Back on Adelphi, Din and Grogu have a tense meeting with a New Republic liaison, played by the iconic Sigourney Weaver. While we don’t know the character’s name yet, we do know she is part of the senior command at Adelphi Base—imagery first shown at Star Wars Celebration Japan earlier this year showed Weaver wearing a New Republic flight suit, so we may see her in action at some point in the movie, instead of just disapprovingly keeping her snacks from Grogu.
Would it be Star Wars without a seedy cantina? Would it be Star Wars without a fight in that cantina? Who can say, but The Mandalorian and Grogu is clearly unwilling to contemplate otherwise.
Our first intriguing creature glimpse of the trailer sees a sinister-looking alien emerge out of waters in an underground cave (is this connected to what Grogu and the Anzellan were investigating earlier?). This is, of course, a classic Star Wars alien: an Amani, a species first seen with the bounty hunter Amanaman in Return of the Jedi. Whether this is Amanaman himself or another Amani remains to be seen. If it is, are there still potentially bounties out on Din or Grogu?
The Razor Crest takes flight, pursued by three fighters. It’s very hard to see what those ships are, but they match the general shape (and speed!) of TIE Interceptors.
After a quick shot of Grogu swimming (which certainly looks like it’s from similar scenes as the Amani footage, further potentially tying those two together), we get a similarly short shot of action starring a very interesting figure: Zeb from Star Wars Rebels (voiced by returning star Steven Blum) engaging in close-quarters combat with stormtroopers with his Lasat honor guard bo-rifle.
... continue reading