After the failure of ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’, ‘Star Wars’ must follow the advice of ‘Andor’
Memorial Day weekend 2026 should have been Dave Filoni’s and, by extension, ‘Star Wars‘. The first film in the franchise in seven years was released, starring the characters that he and Jon Favreau had turned into a global phenomenon, perhaps the only one that has transcended beyond fans of the series since Disney bought the saga. Instead, ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ has been the worst premiere in the history of the franchise under the aegis of Disney. And Filoni, who In January he took the reins of Lucasfilmnow has to decide what to do with the franchise. The figures. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu opened on May 22 with $81 million at the domestic box office over the three-day weekend, below Disney’s previous franchise low of $84 million.Han Solo: A Star Wars Story‘ grossed on the same holiday weekend in 2018. If we add the fourth day of this weekend, including Memorial Day Monday, very important for the box office, the film reached 100 million domestic and 163–167 million worldwide. It is not a catastrophic figure, but in the second weekend the film fell 70%, dropping to third place. In the third he had already left the top 5. Unlike ‘Han Solo’, which came with a production bill of over $300 million and grossed $392 million worldwide (becoming the first film in ‘Star Wars’ history to lose money in theaters), ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ was the franchise’s cheapest production in the Disney era: about $165 million. With that cost, and looking at the numbers in the rest of the world, around 315 million for the moment, the balance is not that of a financial catastrophe. But it says a lot about the public’s current perception of the franchise. Terror arrives. Although it apparently doesn’t have much to do with it, it’s worth looking at who did sweep the box office that weekend: two horror films from very young directors trained on YouTube. ‘Backrooms‘, practically matching the opening of the ‘Star Wars’ movie, and ‘Obsession’, with three weeks in theaters with great numbers. But the important thing is the ages: 86% of the ‘Backrooms’ audience was under 35 years old, and 44% under 21. In ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ the percentage of the 25-year-old audience was 27%. It is not just any detail: it is that audience that ensures that the films do not collapse at the box office in the second weekend, because they recommend the premieres to their friends and on networks. Dave Filoni: perfect imperfect. When Dave Filoni arrived at Lucasfilm, his first project was to direct the animated film ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ in 2008, kicking off the series. There he found a vein: rescuing second-rate characters from the expanded universe and giving them new depth. He did it, for example, with his most beloved recreation: the Jedi Ahsoka Tano. In the company of Jon Favreau, he applied that same method to live action with ‘The Mandalorian’, still today the most successful ‘Star Wars’ series on Disney+. However, the series worked because it hit the nostalgia of Generation Alpha and Baby Boomers, but that is not enough to sustain the film. What is now on the table. It is clear that Disney has to bet all its cards on revitalizing the franchise with ‘Star Wars: Starfighter‘, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, and scheduled for release in 2027. It is an original idea, approved by Kennedy before his departure, and is not linked to the MandoVerso. It will be the first real chance to see if ‘Star Wars’ can work with new faces, new history and without the burden of continuity. It was said that Filoni would direct a new MandoVerso film, featuring Ahsoka and Grand Admiral Thrawn, but obviously, with the box office disappointment of this first feature, those plans may have been foiled. Before leaving, Kennedy planned a new trilogy led by Simon Kinberg (‘Rebels’, ‘Logan’, ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’), and with clear guidelines: new characters and story, finally abandoning the burden of the Skywalker saga. Where is the solution. It is worth paying attention to an observation made by Tom Bissell, screenwriter of the acclaimed second season of ‘Andor’, on the Backstory Magazine podcast. There, Bissell remembered the advice of showrunner Tony Gilroy on joining the team: resist the urge to open the toy box and take them all out, and instead try to leave more toys than there were when you arrived, thinking as a storyteller instead of a child. ‘Andor’ followed the beginning to the letter, without cameos or characters rescued from oblivion. ‘Andor‘ used the ‘Star Wars’ perch to propose a vibrant story of fascism, surveillance and resistance that could have been filmed without ships or ray guns. Result: 22 Emmy nominations between the two seasons and 5 wins in 2025, including Best Writing in a Drama. According to The WrapFiloni would have privately expressed his disagreement with ‘Andor’ (something that was later denied), but given the failure of this last film, perhaps Bissell was closer to the key to the future of the franchise than Filoni himself. Maybe it’s time to put aside the toy box and create new toys. In Xataka | Before selling ‘Star Wars’, George Lucas imagined a megalomaniacal series: 10 times more expensive than a movie in the saga
