The Mandalorian and Grogu should have been a season of TV

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Entertainment EntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Entertainment Streaming StreamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Streaming Disney DisneyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All DisneyThe Mandalorian and Grogu should have been a season of TVThe new Star Wars most isn’t strong enough to get the franchise back on track. by Charles Pulliam-Moore Charles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreMay 19, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC Image: Disney / Lucasfilm Entertainment EntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

FollowSee All Entertainment Streaming StreamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Streaming Disney DisneyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All DisneyThe Mandalorian and Grogu should have been a season of TVThe new Star Wars most isn’t strong enough to get the franchise back on track.

by Charles Pulliam-Moore Charles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreMay 19, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC Charles Pulliam-Moore Charles Pulliam-MoorePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture.

Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. When The Mandalorian first debuted on Disney Plus, it was a refreshing reminder of how fascinating Star Wars stories can be when they aren’t focused on the same handful of well-established characters. Especially in its first season, the series felt like a sign that Disney was shifting gears after disappointing fans with its last trilogy of big budget features.

Industry Implications

But as The Mandalorian went on, it became overstuffed with supporting characters and haphazardly-introduced lore that did little to make the show feel like must-see TV. The relative weakness of The Mandalorian’s most recent season is part of what made it so surprising when Lucasfilm announced plans to bring the beskar-clad warrior and his infant ward to the big screen. It wasn’t clear whether The Mandalorian and Grogu was meant to be a straightforward extension of the series or launchpad designed to elevate its titular characters to new levels of prominence within the franchise.

And while there was little question about whether the film would make money at the box office, it seemed very possible that audiences might come away disappointed and unsure about Star Wars’ future.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.