Amid all the impressive action, The Mandalorian & Grogu maintains a core focus on the bond between Din and his son. The new Star Wars movie fleshes out their relationship, expanding on the themes first seen in the original Mandalorian series, while also giving Grogu more of a leading role than ever before.
By the movie's ending, The Mandalorian & Grogu features more than a few status quo changes, brand-new fates for several characters, and some intriguing potential set-up for future Star Wars projects set in the New Republic Era. Keeping that in mind, here's our full breakdown of The Mandalorian & Grogu’s ending, and what it likely means for the future of the franchise.
How Grogu Saves Din Djarin & Why Didn't His Force Healing Work?
After Din Djarin was captured by the bounty hunter Embo and delivered to Nal Hutta, the Hutt crime lords known as the Twins removed his helmet for refusing to deliver their nephew, Rotta. Subsequently, the Mandalorian was thrown into a watery pit below their throne, evoking their cousin Jabba's own rancor pit, first seen in Return of the Jedi.
After defending himself against multiple Amani warriors, Din Djarin then faces a massive white dragonsnake, which poisons the Mandalorian warrior before Grogu and the Anzellans blow open an escape route with explosives.
Escaping into the swampy forests of Nal Hutta, Din tells Grogu to leave with the Anzellans in their small ship while he buys them time. However, Grogu chooses to stay, protecting his father after Din's body succumbs to the poison, using the brush and even creating a small mud hut to hide the comatose Din from the Twins' patrolling Droid Gotra soldiers and Embo.
Grogu heals Djarin's wound with the Force, a power he's displayed before in The Mandalorian series. However, it seems the poison had already entered the Mandalorian's bloodstream. Protecting and hiding Djarin for what appears to be a few days, Grogu eventually encounters a hermit living deep in the Nal Hutta swamps, who doesn't give the hidden Grogu up when Embo arrives asking questions.
More importantly, the hermit also gives Grogu a mixture of ingredients to counteract the poison. Thankfully, the concoction works and a grateful Djarin is indeed revived, revealing a new tenet of the Mandalorian Creed: "The old protect the young, and the young protect the old. This is the Way."
Overall, it's a truly great moment for Grogu's overall character development near the end of The Mandalorian & Grogu, highlighting his determination to protect his father as Grogu gets older and continues to grow in his abilities.
The Mandalorian & Grogu Defeat The Twins
After recovering his strength, Din Djarin and Grogu choose to fight the Hutts and save Rotta rather than keep running, resulting in one of the movie's biggest action sequences for The Mandalorian and Grogu's final act.
Using a hijacked gunrunner ship, Din crashes the already damaged freighter straight into the Twins' massive fungal pod palace, with Din and Grogu then fighting their way through multiple droid soldiers and two large mechs before reaching the Twins themselves.
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
⤴ ANOTHER GO
While Din goes toe-to-toe with Embo in an impressive rematch, Grogu takes on Embo's anooba named Keibu and uses the Force to calm the canine-like creature. Additionally, Jabba's son Rotta joins the fight once he's freed by Grogu, taking on the Twins in a major brawl with the Hutt siblings, who are ultimately thrown down and eaten by their own dragonsnake. Meanwhile, Embo and Keibu manage to cut and run the moment Embo's employers looked out for the count.
Adelphi's Blue Squadron Comes To The Rescue - Is This The End of the Hutt Syndicate?
Following the Twins' shared demise, New Republic reinforcements finally arrive. Led by Sigourney Weaver’s Col. Ward, Blue Squadron flies in to support Din and Grogu against the remaining Hutt forces, with Djarin instructing the Adelphi Rangers to fire directly on his own position.
As such, Blue Squadron unloads rounds of proton torpedoes into the Twins’ palace, completely obliterating the fungal-like fortress. Before the structure collapses, Din, Grogu, and Rotta avoid the destruction by diving into the waters below, where they were then picked up by Star Wars Rebels' Zeb Orrelios and taken aboard his U-Wing.
Interestingly, this major New Republic strike does suggest that The Mandalorian & Grogu's ending marks the total collapse of the Hutt Syndicate itself, which had existed for thousands of years in the Star Wars galaxy.
After all, Emperor Palpatine canonically ordered Darth Vader to kill the entire Grand Hutt Council between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, leaving Jabba as the sole leader of the Hutt clan before he was murdered by Leia Organa. Considering that the Twins are now dead and Rotta wants nothing to do with his father's criminal empire, it's likely that the Hutt Clan is truly finished as a major galactic power after this new Star Wars movie.
Rotta The Hutt Joins The New Republic
Rather than taking over the remnants of his father’s criminal empire, The Mandalorian & Grogu ends with Rotta the Hutt considering joining the New Republic forces stationed on Adelphi Base. Zeb even offers Rotta a uniform that might fit the muscular Hutt gladiator.
As such, the idea that the son of Jabba the Hutt might become a major ally and member of the New Republic is as surprising as it is exciting. After all, who wouldn't want to see a future reunion between Rotta and Ahsoka Tano, who saved his life when he was just a baby during the Clone Wars?
What's Next For Din Djarin & Grogu? Sequel or New Season?
Finally, the last shot of The Mandalorian & Grogu sees Din Djarin and Grogu jumping to hyperspace aboard their brand-new Razor Crest, with more adventures no doubt in store for the iconic duo. However, the big question is what form those new adventures will actually take.
If The Mandalorian & Grogu performs well enough at the box office, Lucasfilm and Disney will almost certainly consider developing a direct theatrical sequel, continuing the pivot from streaming to the big screen. Conversely, a return to Disney+ could arguably happen just as easily.
Creator and director Jon Favreau previously confirmed he had already written scripts for The Mandalorian season 4 before Lucasfilm pivoted to a theatrical release. According to Favreau, the movie was then largely developed separately from those season 4 scripts (meaning they could theoretically still be used in the future). Regardless of the screen size, it feels pretty clear after The Mandalorian & Grogu's ending that this latest adventure was far from their last.
The Mandalorian & Grogu is now in theaters from Lucasfilm.
Release Date May 22, 2026
Runtime 132 Minutes
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Din Djarin / The Mandalorian
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English (US) ·