The Mandalorian & Grogu Broke A Star Wars Tradition After 49 Years, But The Next Movie Officially Restores It

Image via Lucasfilm Published Sep 6, 2026, 1:04 PM EDT James Hunt is a writer and editor based in Newcastle, UK. A Sports Journalism graduate from the University of Sunderland, he quickly realized that supporting his local football (or "soccer") team, Sunderland AFC, was painful enough without having to write about it, so decided to write a load of nonsense about movies and TV instead. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Mandalorian and Grogu is a tradition-breaking Star Wars movie in several ways. It's the first installment in the franchise to focus on characters who debuted on TV, and it's also the first without any characters from the Original Trilogy (except for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by an astromech droid who may or may not be R2-D2). It is also, unfortunately, the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie of all time, discounting 2008's Star Wars: The Clone Wars (since it's basically a glorified TV pilot), with its haul of $345 million even less than Solo: A Star Wars Story's $393m back in 2018. Despite that, a lot of the movie feels familiar. The Mandalorian & Grogu is packed with Easter eggs that reference the wider lore, and it has a lot of elements that are central to the franchise. From its father-son dynamic to the appearance of several Hutts, bounty hunters, X-wings, and the onus being on creating a fun adventure movie across a galaxy far, far away, it still feels like a Star Wars movie. But aside from the Original Trilogy characters, there's one other thing missing for the first time ever. The Mandalorian & Grogu Is The First Star Wars Movie Without Lightsabers Star Wars has no shortage of iconic weapons, including Din Djarin's pulse rifle, which returns in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but none more so than the lightsaber. It's one of the most recognizable weapons in cinema history, and it's been featured across every single movie before now. Of course, it's most prevalent in the Skywalker saga films, which each feature at least one memorable duel, but it's even included in the anthology movies Solo and Rogue One. In the latter, it's via Darth Vader's horrifying hallway scene, and in the former, it's with Darth Maul's cameo at the very end. The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn't have any Jedi (unless you include Grogu, who doesn't possess a lightsaber) or Sith, and no other Force users who wield one either. A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.” 🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians ⚡The SithRule of two ⚙️The RebellionA new hope 🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way 👑The EmpireOrder 66 PUNCH IT! → 01 The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere? A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980 ✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977. NEXT → 02 A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him. ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner ✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s. NEXT → 03 In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm? AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father ✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist. ✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth. NEXT → 04 Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him. AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson ✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s. NEXT → 05 In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition? A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014 ✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012. NEXT → 06 The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name? ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze ✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin. NEXT → 07 Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film? AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One ✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III. NEXT → 08 Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him. ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni ✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007). ✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s. REVEAL MY RATING → The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing 🗡️ / 8 Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine? ⤴ ANOTHER GO This wasn't necessarily a given. Lightsabers have a habit of finding their way into the movies, and Star Wars has struggled to leave behind the Jedi/Sith dichotomy. Plus, the Mandalorians as a people - and The Mandalorian as a TV show - have a lightsaber at the center of their history in the Darksaber. That was destroyed in The Mandalorian season 3, but, given how nothing stays gone forever in Star Wars, it wouldn't have been a total shock to see it return in some way, or for the movie to introduce another reason for lightsaber combat. Star Wars' Next Movie Is Officially Bringing Lightsabers Back If you missed lightsabers in The Mandalorian and Grogu, there's some good news (and if you're glad to see the franchise letting them take a break and want that to continue, I'm sorry), because they are confirmed to return in Star Wars: Starfighter. The movie, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, takes the saga forward into a post-sequels timeline, with it set five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It may be uncharted territory, but clearly some things will still be the same. We know that Starfighter features at least one lightsaber duel, which none other than Tom Cruise actually helped work on while visiting the movie's set. There's a sense that Starfighter is shaping up as Star Wars' "real" return to theaters, with it being positioned as a much bigger event release than The Mandalorian and Grogu was, and one that demands people go out and see it. With that, then it's entirely logical the movie would feature at least one lightsaber duel. Few things in cinema can look as exciting in a trailer, and it's the kind of thing that can help the movie's marketing and guarantee some extra bums in seats when the movie releases on May 27, 2027, and that'll also play well for tying into the saga's 50th anniversary celebrations. What's less clear is the narrative reason as to why lightsabers will feature in Star Wars: Starfighter. It's believed that the young boy (played by Flynn Gray) Gosling's Kade Auberon is helping is Force-sensitive, and is being hunted by other Force users, most likely the characters played by Matt Smith and Mia Goth (who are set as the lead villains). These may not be Sith, but could easily be other dark side followers who happen to have found lightsabers to use, and it'll be fascinating to see exactly how that plays out, and whether the people they go up against are Jedi or not. There are even theories that Gosling's character is a Jedi himself, and that could be how the lightsaber duel happens, but regardless, we're getting at least one in Star Wars: Starfighter, after having none in The Mandalorian and Grogu. Release Date May 20, 2026 Runtime 132 minutes Director Jon Favreau Din Djarin and Grogu take their clan of two routine to the big screen, with the New Republic hiring the legendary bounty hunter and his young apprentice to handle threats left behind after the Empire's fall.