Sat, October 3, 2026 at 11:52 PM UTC
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Bigger isn’t always better, and The Mandalorian is proof, on the heels of a rather disappointing box office run at the movies with The Mandalorian and Grogu. To its credit, the movie does try to recapture some of the magic the main series had early on, when it revitalized Star Wars and ushered in a new age of streaming TV, but The Mandalorian has expanded so much, and become so integrated with every other corner of the galaxy far, far away, that the mere mention of its name is enough to get some people exhausted. When it started, however,The Mandaloriankept things as small and self-contained as possible, focusing on narrative instead of connections to other Star Wars properties.
‘The Mandalorian’ Started as a Small, Intimate Story in the Star Wars Galaxy
When The Mandalorian premiered a month before Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, nobody expected a Disney+ series — the first ever, by the way — would outshine the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga, but that’s exactly what happened. Its success came from drawing on Star Wars’ original influences, while Episode IXshot in every direction to try and appease a broken fandom.
The series was marketed as the tale of a lone Mandalorian gunslinger (Pedro Pascal) wandering the fringes of the galaxy in search of work as a bounty hunter. In the first episode, he takes a job from a high-paying Imperial warlord (Werner Herzog) to make himself proper armor and provide for his clan, only to find out that his target is actually a mysterious Force-sensitive alien child. The Mandalorian and the Child instantly develop aLone Wolf and Cub-like bond, changing their fates forever.
The relationship between those two main characters is the beating heart of Season 1, with Mando torn between protecting the Child and delivering him to the Client. There are countless Star Wars Easter eggs and lore drops, too, but always in the background. Where Mando travels is always determined by traditional stories, like the Hero’s Journey and old Japanese samurai films. So, instead of drawing from Star Wars itself, The Mandalorianfollows what Star Wars once drew from.
Being Star Wars’ Flagship Series Did More Harm Than Good to ‘The Mandalorian’
In hindsight, The Mandalorian‘s early success was inevitable, and not only because it featured the Child. Everything about the series felt tailor-made to emulate the old television experience on streaming. In typical Star Wars fashion, many quirky characters often had their own catchphrases and eccentricities, like Kuiil (Nick Nolte) and his iconic “I have spoken” line. Mando and the Child had a new weird adventure every week, and watching them become an unlikely duo in this context made Season 1 simply irresistible.
From Season 2 onward, though, The Mandalorianbecame more concerned about connecting itself to the larger Star Wars galaxy, which, at first, felt natural and exciting. Seeing characters like Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) again was incredible, but it’s now clear that this pushed the series into an inevitable contradiction. Before that, The Mandalorian felt self-contained, and this expansion made it feel small, bordering on insignificant.
In a way, this integration with larger Star Wars canon was inevitable, since Mando’s task in Season 2 is to deliver the Child to the Jedi, but this parade of cameos meant that the story wasn’t about the main duo anymore. In Season 1, the characters stuck together because it was the best decision for them and the right thing to do; after that, they suddenly became a generic father-and-son pair with the weight of serving as narrative glue for the franchise, even having their own episode in another series.
Before Its Box Office Flop, ‘The Mandalorian’ Innovated Behind the Scenes
Among all the novelties surrounding The Mandalorian when it came out was the technical and behind-the-scenes achievements. In Season 1, it’s clear that creator Jon Favreau wanted the series to feel like Star Wars while also being its own thing, and in many ways, this resulted inThe Mandalorianbecoming a sort of “training ground” for artists to play in the franchise sandbox. Ludwig Göransson‘s soundtrack is unique, for example, and is the first to distance itself from the more traditional John Williams orchestral arrangements.
The visual language ofThe MandalorianSeason 1 is also unique within Star Wars, thanks to filmmakers like Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow (who went on to direct Obi-Wan Kenobi), Taika Waititi (who has an unmade Star Wars project), and Dave Filoni, George Lucas‘ “heir-apparent,” who was transitioning from animation to live-action directing at the time. Other names joined in throughout the seasons, but as the series grew, this more authorial directing gave way to more generic visual language.
The image of the Mandalorian reaching out to the Child at the end of the first episode captures everything the show was originally about, but lost over time: an intimate and self-contained story, which is why The Mandalorian Season 1 remains one of the best Star Wars projects. As grand as Seasons 2 and 3 and The Mandalorian and Grogu try to be, watching these two learn about themselves on a lost planet somewhere will always be more interesting. This is the way.
