The next issue of Empire Magazine will put the spotlight on The Mandalorian and Grogu, and a couple of fun new covers take the same meta approach to promoting the movie as that divisive Super Bowl TV spot.
Treating Din Djarin and Grogu as real people, the two covers find them hanging out together on set. Is that Pedro Pascal in the armour? The actor shares the role with Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, and Barry Lowin, so who knows!
New Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni is now confirmed as The Mandalorian and Grogu's co-writer and second-unit director. Talking to the publication, he said, "Episode VII was a completely different entity. I had dreams of Episode VII since I came out of Return Of The Jedi. You were like, 'After VI comes VII! Where’s VII?' We’re in a completely different era of Star Wars now."
Calling this big-screen follow-up to The Mandalorian a "celebration" of the duo, Filoni confirmed that the shift from streaming to theaters will give the franchise a new feel.
"What can’t you do now?" he said, acknowledging that spectacle only goes so far. "It’s a question of, 'Is the audience going to believe it? Are they going to feel it?' That comes through the characters. If the characters are connecting, then the adventure plays, the action plays, the tension plays."
Pascal was also on hand and shared new insights into how The Mandalorian and Grogu picks up with its titular duo after they finally vanquished Moff Gideon in the Season 3 finale.
"It only felt like the ending of a particular chapter," The Fantastic Four: First Steps star mused. "They open up the opportunity for him to continue his best work as a bounty hunter, but just working for the good guys. Combining skill and morality. Whereas when we meet him first, it’s simply skill, and beskar, and [the Mandalorian] Creed."
"Through his relationship to Grogu, there is an expansion of his heart and a disarming of his armour, so to speak, that leads him to fight for what he knows is right."
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, the evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu.
Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie also stars Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White and is produced by Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, and Ian Bryce, with music composed by Ludwig Göransson.
The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters on May 22.