Disney and Lucasfilm gave exhibitors a first full look at The Mandalorian and Grogu at CinemaCon, unveiling the film’s entire opening sequence and a new trailer as the first Star Wars movie to reach theaters since 2019 moved closer to release. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, and the film is slated to open May 22.
Jon Favreau was on hand for the presentation, which showed a story that picks up with Din Djarin, Pedro Pascal’s armored bounty hunter from Disney+’s flagship series, tracking imperial fugitives in the Lawless Outer Rim after a message frames the galactic empire as fallen and the New Republic as still trying to hold itself together.
That opening also sets the tone for what comes next: an imperious figure at a council declares, “Now for the bad news,” before adding, “I am raising your tribute,” while another council member warns that “trade routes are plagued with pirates and thieves ready to attack.” The leader responds by shooting that council member dead, a blunt reminder that the new order Favreau and Lucasfilm are selling is still built on fear as much as law.
The footage then shifts to action, with the Mandalorian cutting down white armored soldiers and moving through snowy mountains with Baby Yoda on a robotic creature. He later meets Colonel Ward, played by Sigourney Weaver, who says she is focused on “preventing another war and protecting everything the Rebellion fought for.” Ward wants to send him on a new mission and offers a restored spacecraft as an advance, setting him on a path that involves finding Commander Coin, who most people believe is dead, and meeting the Hutts to reach him.
Rotta the Hutt, played by Jeremy Allen White, is described as the only surviving heir of Jabba the Hutt, and the Hutts have agreed to lead the Mandalorian straight to the missing commander. The preview makes the film look less like a side trip from the Disney+ series than a direct bridge to the big-screen return Disney has been building toward since the movie was first announced in January 2024.
Favreau said Star Wars made him fall in love with movies and that he wanted his “joy and love of Star Wars translates to a new generation.” He also said the film includes “over 49 minutes of expanded aspect ratio sequences created specifically for Imax and other large-format theaters,” along with practical sets, stop-motion animation for creature work and motion control miniatures. Taken together, the footage suggests Disney and Lucasfilm are betting that nostalgia, scale and handcrafted effects can make the franchise’s first theatrical chapter since The Rise of Skywalker matter all over again.