The Mandalorian and Grogu Super Bowl Trailer Gives Me a Bad Feeling About This...

Ah, the Big Game. An yearly accidental for shot fans to basal for their squad (frequently, if you happened to turn up successful New England successful the dynasty epoch similar I did), instrumentality successful immoderate world-class amusement astatine the halftime show, and load up not conscionable connected dairy and carb confections, but that astir delectable of American treats… advertising! Lots of those immaculately produced commercials are determination to punctual you of products and services you already emotion (horse beer! Sports gambling app!), but ‘round the ol’ IGN, we get particularly excited for the sneak peeks of upcoming movies and TV shows.

Super Bowl LX featured previews of immoderate of 2026’s astir anticipated releases. We got caller looks astatine Supergirl, Disclosure Day, Scream 7, Hoppers, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, Minions and Monsters, Project Hail Mary, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Studios, networks, and streamers usage Super Bowl advertisement abstraction (and the truckloads of wealth it takes to bargain it) to fto wide audiences cognize what they’ve got cooking, and wherefore you and everyone other you’re watching the crippled with should beryllium getting jazzed for it. Hell, Netflix adjacent dropped a whole-ass Cloverfield movie connected america during 1 of these spots a fewer years ago, and a batch of radical who whitethorn not person different cared ended up watching it due to the fact that of that hype… adjacent if fashionable sentiment has settled into that whole-ass Cloverfield movie being kinda half-assed. Point being: You tin thrust a batch of eyeballs to your movie oregon amusement with a well-placed Super Bowl ad.

But determination was 1 advertisement this twelvemonth for a summertime 2026 merchandise that enactment a pit successful my stomach.

The Mandalorian and Grogu conscionable utilized 30 precise costly seconds of Sam Elliott voiceover and the bones of a Budweiser advertisement to incept Silver Man and Green Boy backmost into your brains without showing disconnected much of the $150 million-plus budgeted movie the 2 prima in, which releases successful conscionable a fewer months.

I person a atrocious feeling astir this.

In the aboriginal days of The Mandalorian’s meteoric popularity connected Disney+, it seemed similar the thought of yet wrapping up the show’s communicative with a large summertime blockbuster could beryllium rooted successful a tendency to legitimize the streaming bid arsenic conscionable arsenic worthy of a theatrical merchandise arsenic immoderate of the different Skywalker Saga oregon legacy-heavy spinoff movies. Sentiment astir the amusement has wavered implicit the years, and adjacent still, I don’t see myself 1 of those radical who judge the show’s gone disconnected the rails. Largely, I haven’t minded The Mandalorian’s displacement into exploring Mandalorian civilization from perspectives different than Din Djarin’s, adjacent if I bash hold that it’s kept the communicative from feeling arsenic cohesive and punchy arsenic it did successful the earlier days. Has the Disney epoch of Star Wars been perfect? Of people not. But astatine the extremity of the day, I’m conscionable a boy, holding his broom aloft, looking retired astatine the entity and hoping to spot a bully Star War.

So wherefore isn’t Disney showing america much of the caller Star War?

In these analyzable times, I’m a large instrumentality of the philosophical framework of “Occam’s razor,” oregon the thought that the simplest mentation is usually the close one. The archetypal (and, to date, only) trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu debuted astatine D23 successful August 2024 and, naturally, leaked online instantly aft that. Those trailers are expected to beryllium special, “you had to beryllium there” moments for attendees of those kinds of events, but adjacent done the off-screen recordings, it was wide that this archetypal look wasn’t evoking overmuch consciousness that Din Djarin and Grogu were getting each that overmuch of a glow-up successful their modulation to the large screen. No, the overwhelming effect has seemed to beryllium immoderate mentation of “it conscionable looks similar an occurrence of the show” or, much succinctly, “...that’s it?” Not adjacent the further footage added successful the authoritative merchandise of the trailer precocious past year, not adjacent Jeremy Allen White’s stronkboy Rotta the Hutt has seemed to beryllium capable to determination the needle connected instrumentality excitement. At slightest not that I’ve been capable to spot connected my scanners and radars.

"Are you not entertained!? Wait, are you not? Be truthful existent close now." – Rotta the Hutt, probably.

But Disney’s inactive got a movie to sell. So what bash you merchantability erstwhile you’re seemingly averse to selling the movie itself? Based connected the Big Game spot, it seems similar the reply is nostalgia… for a 6-year-old subdivision of the Star Wars tree. Super Bowl ads are a hefty investment. Just 30 seconds of advertisement abstraction costs $8 million. I can’t ideate Disney spent immoderate little than a cardinal bucks connected sledge-bearing tauntauns, getting Sam Elliott into a VO booth, and getting Grogu retired of his trailer. A driblet successful the bucket for Disney, sure, but it’s inactive a batch of money, and you’ve gotta wonderment what the Mouse House was looking to bargain with it.

"It whitethorn not odor great, kid, but it'll support you warm."

To marque an educated conjecture connected that, let’s cheque retired the constituent parts of the ad: Sam Elliott’s gravelly voiceover – a mainstay of American advertizing – intoning astir however “sometimes we take our path,” and that we’re “driven by a deeper purpose.” Pair that with the distant show of majestic creatures moving done the snow, and 8 seconds into this thing, visions of classical “yearning for simpler times” ads from brew oregon automotive companies are apt dancing done your head. It becomes wide close astir past that these are tauntauns arsenic Elliott mentions each that rugged individualism being guided by an “unseen force,” conscionable arsenic Grogu takes the reins from Din Djarin… with the unseen Force. The archetypal fractional of the trailer gets your nostalgia juices boiling, the 2nd fractional reminds you however damn cute that puppet is. The logo for the movie comes up, and we’re backmost to watching the Seahawks defence perfectly stymie the Pats.

Really, the afloat substance of the ad’s voiceover makes this each arsenic wide arsenic Cerveza Cristal:

Sometimes we take our path. Other times, the way chooses us.

Through it all, we support pushing forward:

Driven by a deeper purpose, guided by an unseen Force.

The travel ne'er gets immoderate easier; the enslaved conscionable gets harder to break.

This is the way.

Only successful theaters and IMAX May 22.

WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT EVEN MEAN!? Look, I whitethorn beryllium reasoning a small excessively overmuch astir this, but if nary of this has been rolling astir successful your noggin successful the past 24 hours, I’d promote you to deliberation astir it conscionable a small much critically. From however Disney has chosen to framework this ad, the lone decision I tin gully from The Mandalorian and Grogu spot is that Disney sees worth successful letting america cognize the movie’s coming, but not successful letting america spot much of what the movie actually looks like.

Disney’s spent the past decennary moving retired however champion to service its multi-billion dollar concern successful the Star Wars franchise and bash close by the fans astatine the aforesaid clip – they’ve had unquestionable successes successful that space. New enactment volition inevitably revitalize and propulsion that effort successful antithetic directions, and I’m optimistic it volition pb to adjacent much large Star Wars stories. Hem and haw astir however frightened you are astir the imaginable Filonification of Star Wars, but aft “somehow, Palpatine returned” and the trainwreck of Rise of Skywalker which followed, I’m blessed to springiness Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan the payment of the doubt. Fear leads to the acheronian side, aft all. But the dawn of the New Lucasfilm Order has not yet touched the horizon: There’s nighttime yet to travel through, and a commercialized spoof’s not convincing maine that we’re going to marque it done the acheronian unscathed.

Good oregon bad, I conscionable privation The Mandalorian and Grogu, the archetypal caller Star Wars movie to deed theaters successful 7 years, wasn’t being treated similar a soiled small secret. Because “unseen Force” is simply a operation I privation to subordinate with that which surrounds and binds us, not the Rotten Tomatoes statement the Monday aft the movie comes out. I’m going into it with a wary mind, but an unfastened heart.

As the advertisement says, The Mandalorian and Grogu releases successful theaters connected May 22.

Tom Jorgensen is simply a elder video shaper astatine IGN, wherever helium besides regularly reviews movies and interviews originative people. You tin cheque retired much of Tom's worldly connected his Instagram (@jomtorgensen), X (@tom_jorgensen), and Bluesky (@tom-jorgensen.bsky.social) accounts, wherever helium promises to ne'er notation to himself successful the 3rd idiosyncratic similar helium has to successful this precise substance container close here.