The Mandalorian & Grogu Didn’t Save Star Wars, But Its Failure Might

Dan GirolamoWed, August 5, 2026 at 5:16 PM UTC

0

(Image Credit: Disney)

The Mandalorian and Grogu did not save Star Wars. However, its failure provides an important lesson for its future.

After a nearly seven-year wait, Star Wars finally returned to theaters this past May with The Mandalorian and Grogu. Instead of introducing audiences to a new theatrical franchise, Lucasfilm decided to make its most popular Disney+ property, The Mandalorian, into a feature film.

Unfortunately for Disney, the gamble didn’t work. The Mandalorian and Grogu significantly underperformed at the global box office — a $345 million haul on a $165 million budget. The movie did not win over critics either, with an underwhelming 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In fairness, The Mandalorian and Grogu’s failure is not in the same ballpark as 2018’s Solo, which bombed at the box office. That being said, The Mandalorian movie did not reignite theatrical interest in Star Wars.

Months after the movie opened in theaters, Disney is finally addressing what happened to The Mandalorian and Grogu. Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro tried to deflect the failure on an earnings call by saying The Mandalorian and Grogu led to growth in other areas, including retail sales and park attractions. However, D’Amaro admitted the movie, along with the live-action Moana, disappointed at the box office.

Advertisement

“While audience scores for both Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and fiscal Q4’s live action Moana have been strong, both films underperformed our box office expectations,” the company’s letter to shareholders read via The Hollywood Reporter.

Disney knows The Mandalorian and Grogu disappointed and it’s time to fix Star Wars

The first step toward change is acceptance. Despite trying to turn a negative into a positive, Disney has finally admitted that The Mandalorian and Grogu were a disappointment theatrically.

Don’t forget, it also was a disappointment with critics and fans. One of the major criticisms was that it felt like a longer episode of The Mandalorian and Grogu. Star Wars movies should feel like cinematic events, not episodes of television.

The good news is that Disney has the chance to learn from their mistakes. Keep the movies in the theaters, and the TV shows on Disney+. Lucasfilm should not go through with Dave Filoni’s New Republic movie that would close the stories from The Mandalorian. Make that movie into a TV show on Disney+ instead.

Next May, Lucasfilm will release Star Wars: Starfighter. It has a proven star in Ryan Gosling and a director who delivers successful blockbusters in Shawn Levy. That feels like the right movie to win back audiences in the theaters.

Star Wars is not a lost cause. It just needs a win. If Starfighter becomes a big hit, it could turn everything around.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”