Over the course of the last few decades, there has been a measurable uptick in the number of franchises attempting to mine the model originally successfully pioneered by Marvel Studios in the modern day; that of the interconnected cinematic universe.
Much has been made of the way that even when this model works, it inadvertently leads to projects that feel much more like episodic television than like monolithic cinematic journeys. Nowhere is this weakness more apparent in terms of modern blockbuster than it is in Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu. Because Favreau’s film is the first entirely skippable movie in the Star Wars franchise.
Favreau knows a thing or two about Marvel Studios. The director got a career resurgence in 2008, when after helming the much maligned Zathura a few years earlier, he directed the franchise-starting blockbuster that was Iron Man. That film could have easily been a disaster in any number of ways, but ultimately turned out to be a critical and commercial sensation. The success of Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, both financially and artistically, essentially setting the formulaic template that the franchise would return to time and again over the next several years.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is a must-miss
So when Favreau eventually came over to Star Wars with The Mandalorian in 2019, he brought many of the mantras and ethos of Marvel with him. On the most obvious of surface levels, it isn’t exactly difficult to see what might’ve drawn Favreau to once again telling a story about a man in an indestructible suit of armor with a bunch of gadgets, weapons, and propulsive flight abilities at his disposal. But beyond that, Favreau also brought this interconnected episodic approach with him, resulting in a slew of Disney+ streaming shows set within a galaxy far, far away, many of which were helmed by Favreau himself, including The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
Thus, after years away from theaters and being solely relegated to streaming, when Disney decided they wanted to bring Star Wars back to theaters, they took the path of least resistance and simply asked Favreau to make them a movie instead of a fourth season of The Mandalorian, which resulted in The Mandalorian and Grogu.
However, bringing Favreau’s distinct brand of Star Wars storytelling to theaters makes it stand out all the more. Previously, every Star Wars movie released, regardless of quality, held something essential within it for franchise fans. If you wanted the get the whole Skywalker Saga, you needed to watch all nine of those films. Even earlier spinoffs like Rogue One and Solo added substantial value to various pieces of the franchise as a whole, feeling weighty enough to become essential viewing in one way or another.
But The Mandalorian and Grogu is completely superfluous. It’s set in a time in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and adds nothing essential to any of the storylines therein.
Furthermore, even fans of The Mandalorian could entirely skip this movie and miss absolutely nothing of value. The titular characters enter the film and leave it in the exact same way; nothing has changed about their relationship or their status whatsoever. In this way, the film is just a two-hour-plus detour with nothing of emotional, thematic, or narrative value.
Thus, by embracing Favreau’s worst tendencies, The Mandalorian and Grogu has become the first Star Wars film that is totally, utterly skippable. And by the drop in box office numbers (compared to previous Star Wars movies), we’re not the only ones who think so.
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