With The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni helped Star Wars out of a tight spot. In the wake of the disastrous The Rise of Skywalker, the franchise wasn’t looking too healthy. That terrible ending retroactively tainted the Sequel Trilogy and that, coupled with the shock box office flop of Solo in 2018, left the galaxy far, far away in a somewhat precarious position.
But The Mandalorian was a smash hit. Its first season was a major factor in Disney+ exceeding subscriber expectations and the show has gone on to be a springboard for a whole slate of lucrative spinoffs, with upcoming shows including Ahsoka Tano, The Book of Boba Fett, and Rangers of the New Republic.
All of which makes it something of a surprise that the traditional Star Wars Day poster completely snubs the series. Instead, Disney and Lucasfilm have focused primarily on the Original Trilogy, with classic pictures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Darth Vader in their 1977 A New Hope looks. There are some nods to more recent characters, too, with a Clone Wars-era Ahsoka Tano, Asajj Ventress and the Bad Batch popping up, but for the most part, this is a firmly retro poster.
It’s a head-scratcher as well, as Lucasfilm had seemed to be moving beyond the Skywalker Saga and were looking towards a more expansive future. Of the characters on display, we’re soon to see more from Obi-Wan Kenobi, C3-P0, R2-D2 and Ahsoka Tano (and possibly Darth Maul), but the ‘classic names’ have had their stories completed already.
Maybe it’s best not to read too much into this and pay closer attention to what’s announced on May the 4th. I’m hoping for a smattering of teasers for those new Disney+ shows, some hints about release dates for the next movies and, of course, I’ll be tuning in for the feature-length premiere episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Let’s hope they show some love for The Mandalorian, though.
