The Mandalorian & Grogu: First 25 Minutes Preview Impressions

So yesterday I attended the May the 4th preview event for The Mandalorian and Grogu. This event was to promote why the movie should be watched in IMAX rather than waiting for it to arrive on Disney+ so they just showed everyone the first 25 minutes of the movie, which really just is designed to set up what the general plot is going to be.

As the trailers suggest, Din and Grogu are now working as bounty hunters for the New Republic who have been tasked with tracking down the remaining Imperial warlords who are still out there in the galaxy trying to reinstate the Empire. After a lengthy opening sequence of the two actually doing this mostly successfully with the help of Rebels' Zeb, they are sent on a circuitous trip for their next mission where they have to help the Hutts by rescuing Jabba's son Rotta. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's not entirely dissimilar from the Clone Wars movie.

There are some cool things in this sequence like seeing the homeworld of the Hutts and the misshapen partially destroyed battle droids from the Clone Wars that have been Frankensteined together to make bigger, more dangerous weapons. The opening feels very Top Gun with opening credits over video footage of the goings on at a New Republic base as they prep to fly off world after two small blocks of text introduce the movie.

The big issue is that I don't think this will necessarily change the minds of anyone who was looking for a reason why this needs to be watched as part of the cinematic experience rather than at home on Disney+. Some of the effects look better and the opening action sequence is definitely a ton of fun, but there is still some spotty CGI that you'd think a larger budget over a shorter period of time would have corrected. There's nothing about the sequence that necessarily feels bombastic enough that it needs to be seen. Then to come off that and spend time setting up what the next mission is makes this feel like a long episode of a television show, which this should have specifically not felt like.

That said, there is definitely some potential for some cool things to happen later in the film. Most of the footage that has been shown off so far comes from the first twenty-five minutes or is directly related to it so we should be through the majority of what's been seen by about the halfway point. That leaves a ton of time for the unexpected to pop up. The little bit we did see also does continue one of my favorite trends of the timeline around The Mandalorian which is taking the time to illustrate exactly what happens that leads to the resurgence of the Empire in the form of the First Order. It is clear (if it wasn't already) that the New Republic hasn't learned the lessons from the fall of the Republic because they're making these deals with crimelords in the same of security, which worked out poorly the first time.

The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters on May 22nd, 2026.