The Mandalorian & Grogu Trailer

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

After Andor, I don't know if I can go back to nonsense Star Wars.

I would love to be a fly on the wall inside of Disney and hear how they talk about Andor versus everything else they do. Is there any desire for similar works, or are they comfortable with just leaning into the rest of the D+ output?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, "just main character's name" is more in line with old serials than I think you're giving it credit for.

Maybe, but usually the actual serials -- and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies that emulated them -- didn't just say "Indiana Jones" and have that be the full name of the movie. The very first Indy movie didn't even use his name initially, but went with the much more exciting "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Even if you didn't know what the ark in question was, there was raiding and something lost.

In contrast, Disney is counting on the broad movie-going audience -- a much broader audience than the Star Wars TV shows have -- to both know and be excited by the names "Mandalorian and Grogu." (And "Grogu" is just a terrible name generally.)

Obviously they want "Mandalorian" in the title so people casually familiar with the show know this is a movie for it, but want it different enough that it doesn't cause confusion about what people are talking about. Personally, having not seen it of course, I'd have probably gone with "Star Wars: The Mandalorians", since there will definitely be more than one Mandalorian in it (and the last season of the show really became as much the story of a Mandalorian tribe as of the Mandalorian), and since whether or not Grogu becomes a Mandalorian will definitely be a major character point. Alternatively I'd go with "Way of the Mandalorian" as that both alludes to their catch phrase and makes it sound like an old martial arts movie, it's own form of pulpy goodness.

"Way of the Mandalorian" is vastly better, although "way" is still pretty passive. "The Mandalorian: The Way of Vengeance" or "Star Wars: The Way of Honor" or "Bravery's Way" or something would be more exciting.

An audience that hasn't already shelled out money to see Grogu on D+ (because most potential audience members probably know Grogu exists, since he's omnipresent) aren't likely to do so just because he's now interacting with Sigourney Weaver. (Although Weaver's presence is generally a good sign, since her films are generally at least decent, even if they're not all winners.)

 

[MarkB]

Seems like more of the same, which I'm sure people will eat up, but that banner looks straight out of a 1939 Buck Rogers serial.

That's a selling point for me. Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon are in Star Wars's DNA, and if they go for that kind of cheesy high adventure and manage to pull it off, I'm all for it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

“GROGU’S ALIVE!!!”

That is not dead which can eternally sell merchandise.

 

[Umbran]

I wonder how much the ratings will suffer with people cancelling their D+ subscriptions.

Let's not get into the politics of it, hey, what?

Plus, sounds like they've moved to end that particular problem. Go check your favorite national news source for details.

 

[beta-ray]

I think it looks fun. I'm sorry to those who don't think that Star Wars should be fun.

It's a first trailer. I just hope that by trailer 3 not everything is spoiled for the movie.

 

[Morrus]

(And "Grogu" is just a terrible name generally.)

Most Star Wars names are terrible. Grogu is no worse than Yoda or Greedo or Jabba or Boba or Kit Fisto or ... ugh ... Salacious Crumb.

 

[Morrus]

A bunch of people making six figures should have been able to come up with something better than "ugh, fine, just make it be their names and be done with it."

I'm sure they can come up with names other than "ugh, fine, just make it be their names and be done with it" ... they just disagree with you on the name. I'm sure they did a crap ton of market research and panels and stuff. Ascribing this stuff to incompetence rather than simply a different perspective to your own is becoming all too common these days.

Personally, I like it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I wonder how much the ratings will suffer with people cancelling their D+ subscriptions. I mean, the demographic of people who would support Disney for capitulating to an FCC threat have for years been saying how they won't watch "woke" Star Wars, and now the demographic who would prefer the more inclusive Star Wars is cancelling because of Disney's capitulation to the FCC.

Hopefully Disney+ tanks so hard it dies as a platform.

ETA: not even because of anything political.

 

[Reynard]

I think it looks fun. I'm sorry to those who don't think that Star Wars should be fun.

It's a first trailer. I just hope that by trailer 3 not everything is spoiled for the movie.

One of the struggles Star Wars has is that it increasingly lacks a strong identity. Potential audiences don't actually know what to expect for any given entry, and often it turns out to be so much of a compromise between different tones that it satisfies no one. If M&G has a strong identity GREAT. But I am under no obligation to like that flavor of Star Wars, just as (general) you are under no obligation to like The Acolyte (which was some of the strongest Jedi related storytelling in ages but, oh no, black queer people!).