You’ll be happy to know that a huge chunk of what’s been in the trailers for The Mandalorian and Grogu comes in the opening 18 minutes of the movie. The footage, which included a large-scale action scene, opening credits (!), and the first hints of the plot, played during Disney’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week. But io9 was lucky enough to see it last week, in IMAX, in Los Angeles, and talk to director Jon Favreau himself about it on the set of the film.
We’ll have more on that soon. For now, let’s dive into what happens in the film’s opening, much of which you’ve already seen if you’ve seen the trailers.
The Mandalorian and Grogu opens with two paragraphs of text explaining when this takes place and who the main characters are. Mostly, it’s for people who haven’t watched three seasons of TV and might be confused as to how this relates to the other Star Wars movies. As most of us know, it’s after the fall of the Empire (Return of the Jedi) but before the rule of the First Order (The Force Awakens).
Things open at the secret meeting we see in the trailers. An Imperial officer, who says “Long live the Empire” a lot, tells a group of local leaders that he’s making his protection more expensive. One of them, who looks like he had his nose smashed in, complains that he can’t pay more because the trade routes are already overrun by pirates. The officer shoots this man for speaking up. Everyone is scared, and then the alarms start going off.
We watch as Snowtroopers all over the base get taken out from the shadows. A silhouette of the Mandalorian walks around, dispatching them one by one. The Imperial officer sends the polar mouse droid out to find out what’s happening, and the base finds itself under a Code Red. He gives guns to all of his underlings and asks them to defend him. This is when the doors open, and the shot from the trailer of Mando spraying fire and taking care of the troopers happens. Meanwhile, the officer is able to escape in an elevator as everyone else surrenders. Mando peeks in the elevator shaft and throws a few charges down, blowing it up.
The mouse droid is zipping around another corridor when, out from behind some crates, steps Grogu, who Force lifts it up and destroys it, as seen in the trailers. At this point, the footage opens to full 1:4:3 IMAX as a Snowtrooper arrives in one of the small, AT-RT walkers we see in the trailer. He’s looking for Grogu, who hides, before Mando comes in, knocks out the trooper, and talks over the walker. He tells Grogu to hop on, and he does. This is the image at the top of the article.
AT-ATs in The Mandalorian and Grogu – Lucasfilm
They approach a large, snow-covered cliff and look down. “Hold on,” Mando says as he takes the walker down the steep hill at full speed. At the bottom, three AT-ATs are waiting, with the Imperial officer on the bridge of the lead one. The AT-ATs keep shooting, but Mando and Grogu are too fast on their walker and make it past all three. Mando then rockets onto one of the AT-AT’s legs, blows it up, and it crumbles to the ground. One down, two to go.
For the first time, we then see inside the main cargo area of an AT-AT as probably 20 or 30 troopers are arming themselves. The door opens, and in comes the Mandalorian. Then, in a long take semi-reminiscent of Darth Vader in Rogue One, he dispatches all of them. The captain of this walker watches on a monitor in shock and fear when he hears something on the roof. The Imperial officer in the first AT-AT tells the pilots to go up on the roof to attack, just as Mando finishes walker number two. Two down, one to go.
Mando makes his way to the first AT-AT, but the Imperial is gone. He jettisoned the vehicle in an escape pod, which kind of looks like a mini AT-AT head. In his place, though, he left a ton of thermal detonators that are slowly counting down. Mando goes on the bridge and uses the AT-AT’s front guns to attempt to shoot down the escaping Imperial. It’s taking time to get a lock, though, and the charges are beeping faster and faster. Grogu keeps hitting Mando on the helmet, telling him that they have to go, but he needs to get this shot off. Finally, he does; the charges go off, and Mando and Grogu fly into the sky.
They’re picked up in a U-wing by Zeb, who tells Mando he was supposed to bring the Imperial in alive so they could get information from him. Mando explains that it wasn’t possible. As they fly into space, the Mandalorian theme music begins, and we get the title card.
© Lucasfilm
The cast and crew names pop up on screen (a first for a Star Wars movie, right?) as we get beautiful shots of X-Wings in sunsets and general activity at a New Republic base. The same New Republic base we saw in The Mandalorian season three, which means this is Adelphi. There are lots of shots of ships and droids and, eventually, Mandalorian, Zeb, and Grogu walking into the bar.
“Messy,” says Sigourney Weaver’s character, Colonel Ward, who apparently runs this particular base. Mando explains it’s the best he could do under the circumstances. Ward explains they aren’t targeting these people for revenge; they’re doing it to prevent another war and protect what the Rebellion fought for. They need information. He understands but just wants to make sure he’ll be paid anyway, to which Ward says he will.
They walk outside and reveal a brand-new Razor Crest. Ward explains she got it from a vintage vehicle collector and had it rebuilt. Mando admits this is way more payment than he’s owed for the previous job, and Ward tells him she wants it to be an advance on his next gig. She hands him a bounty with no face on it and says they need to find a crucial figure in all of this Imperial activity whose name sounds like “Coyne.” The problem is they don’t know anything about him. The Hutts do, though, and Mando is to go to them to get the information in person.
Mando doesn’t want to work for or with gangsters anymore and asks why the Hutts are helping at all. What are they getting out of it? Well, in exchange for the information, the Hutts will want Mando to help rescue the last remaining heir of Jabba the Hutt, Rotta, who has been captured. Mando is hesitant to do something like this because he was hoping to do honest work for the New Republic, but Ward explains that this is what she needs from him.
Zeb, Grogu, and Mando board the Razor Crest, which Mando likes quite a lot. Grogu presses a bunch of buttons, gets in trouble, and finally, the trio sets off. The footage ended there.
Favreau told the press last week that the film is just over two hours with credits, so there’s plenty more left. And we think there’s another big hint in there, too. In the credits, Pedro Pascal is listed first, of course, but Jeremy Allen White, the voice of Rotta, is listed second. Does Rotta play a bigger role? Maybe.
We’ll have much more on The Mandalorian and Grogu soon.
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