By George & Josh Bate
As moviegoers around the world are experiencing the first new Star Wars movie on the big screen in seven years, we’re taking a look back at The Mandalorian and Grogu and pinpointing our five favorite moments from the film. Here they are….
5. Arriving on Shakari
It may be a rather brief and understated moment of the movie, but everything about Mando and Grogu’s arrival to the moon of Shakari exudes cool.
Much has already been said about Ludwig Göransson’s magnificent score in the film, and yet we can’t help but continue to praise the work the three-time Academy Award winner did on The Mandalorian and Grogu. At times, his score leans into the orchestral feel of John Williams’ iconic Star Wars music, while other times he taps into more techno influences and utilizes a choir. On Shakari though, Göransson brings a sound and music to a Star Wars movie that we’ve never heard before. It’s hip-hop mixed with techno mixed with something indescribably Star Wars-y.
Backed to Göransson’s score, the Shakari arrival represents The Mandalorian and Grogu at its most sleek and badass. A bounty hunter dressed in glistening Mandalorian armor making his way through the seedy streets of a Coruscant-esque city will never cease to give us goosebumps.
4. Din Djarin and Grogu Infilitrate Commander Barro’s Base
If anyone had doubts that The Mandalorian and Grogu would fail to effectively translate two characters introduced on a streaming service to the big screen, these doubts were quickly dispelled with the film’s epic, cinematic prologue.
The changing aspect ratios and use of IMAX cameras gives the film a sense of scale the series never had and brings Star Wars back to the big screen with the scope it deserves.
Again, Göransson’s score plays a huge role in making this prologue as compelling as it is. Making the alarms of the Imperial base a piece of the music is a stroke of genius from the Swedish composer, while Favreau’s staging of Mando as a Batman-like figure taking out enemies from the shadows makes for undeniably cool viewing.
Then, we get a one-take action sequence, uninterrupted by edits, that showcases Lateef Crowder’s superb fight choreography. A Mandalorian taking down snowtrooper after snowtrooper aboard an AT-AT feels like it was something taken straight from our childhood and the ways in which we made Star Wars movies of our own with action figures and our imaginations. The booming drums of Göransson’s score add an intensity to the scene, while the fight choreography is inventive and the camera movement is clever. What a way to start a Star Wars movie.
3. Rotta the Hutt Playing with Grogu
For as badass as The Mandalorian and Grogu is, we found the film to be at its best when it tugged on the heartstrings.
A subtle yet poignant example of the film’s emotional throughline unfolds after Din Djarin and Grogu deliver Janu to Adelphi Base. While waiting to go back to Nevarro, Din Djarin watches from afar as Rotta plays with Grogu on the beach.
No one expected Stinky from the derided The Clone Wars movie from 2008 to be a standout element of a live-action Star Wars movie in 2026, but that was exactly what Jon Favreau and Jeremy Allen White achieved.
This moment on the beach shows just how dissimilar Rotta is from his father, Jabba the Hutt and allows Grogu to add yet another fun uncle/aunt to his collection after the likes of Greef Karga, Peli Motto, Kuiil, and IG-11 have fallen in love with the little guy.
2. Grogu and the Anzellans Embark on a Rescue Mission
Favreau inverts the structure of the series in the film’s third act by having Grogu rescue Din Djarin, rather than the other way around. Everything with Grogu and the Anzellans is adorable and lovely, but their collective efforts to venture off to Nal Hutta and rescue “the big guy” was our favorite.
Grogu and the Anzellans have such funny little interactions and dialogue/sound exchanges. In watching them all on the screen together, The Mandalorian and Grogu feels quintessentially Star Wars. What other big franchise would dedicate prolonged sequences to five puppet characters who don’t speak (at least in the traditional sense)?
The Anzellans hugging after they reunite with their lost comrade, the comedic beat of one of them saying, “Big pipe,” and the joy of Grogu neutralizing a threat and being told, “Good shot, baby” are just some of the great elements of Grogu and the Anzellans’ rescue mission.
1. “The Old Protect the Young. And Then the Young Protect the Old. This is the Way.”
The most emotionally moving moment in The Mandalorian and Grogu came in the form of the latter nursing the former back to health. Again, Göransson’s music plays such a critical role here in elevating the emotions, but so does every filmmaking department – from Favreau’s framing to the extraordinary puppet work and more.
The diminutive Grogu doing what he can to take care of his father, just like how his father has taken care of him countless times, had us tearing up and will likely stir emotions in even the most steadfast and hardened of moviegoers.
When Din Djarin finally wakes up, there’s relief, both for Grogu and the audience. But then he delivers the film’s greatest line, “The old protect the young. And then the young protect the old. This is the way.”
Favreau, alongside co-writers Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, exercised restraint in not throwing in “This is the way” in every other scene of his film. Instead, they wait to the perfect moment – a moment that will resonate with anyone who has seen their parents or guardians grow older and the dynamics of caregiver and care-receiver slowly change.
Out of the 2 hours and 20 minutes of The Mandalorian and Grogu, this single moment best encapuslates everything we love about the film, and Star Wars more generally. For as wonderful as it is to see groundbreaking visual effects and spectacle, Star Wars has always proven most compelling when it uses characters from a galaxy far, far away to provokee emotions most movies and shows don’t come close to.