Jon Favreau wasn't always sure that Grogu would be a hit among fans. The little green character, affectionately referred to as Baby Yoda, was introduced in the first scene of the Favreau-directed 2019 Disney TV series, The Mandalorian. Now, Favreau is bringing the character to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu, his latest directorial endeavor which will be released in theaters May 22.
Speaking to CBS News, Favreau, 59, knew that introducing Grogu would be exciting, but remembered the moment he knew Baby Yoda had captured the hearts of fans. "We didn't realize quite what a phenomenon it would be. And then when we saw the balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, that's when it kind of – as a New Yorker – it really hit me. Like, 'Wow! This has really hit another level.' The whole thing's surreal," he recalled.
Favreau felt disappointed that The Mandalorian could not initially be shared on the big screen. The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first new Star Wars film to hit theaters in seven years. Based on the TV series, the movie follows Pedro Pascal's masked bounty hunter as he teams up with Grogu to rescue Jabba the Hutt's estranged son Rotta the Hutt, who will be voiced by The Bear's Jeremy Allen White. The film also stars Sigourney Weaver and Steve Blum, and features an appearance from Martin Scorsese.
The film carries a reported $165 million (£121m) price tag before marketing costs, the lowest in Star Wars movie history, and marks the first Star Wars feature to be directed by Favreau. He previously directed, wrote and produced episodes of The Mandalorian, as well as the limited series The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Current predictions suggest that the new film will open to a historic low, even lower than 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is widely recognized as the franchise's financial nadir. The new film has so far received mixed notices from fans, with a recent trailer leading Star Wars obsessives to claim it looks more like a TV show than a movie. "Looks like Mandalorian and Grogu is aimed squarely at five to 12-year-olds, which is a billion dollar market," tweeted one peeved fan. "It's gen alpha Ewok Adventures."
The lowest opening weekend of the Star Wars series is currently Solo, a prequel film about a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), which was met by mixed reviews and ultimately bombed at the global box office – grossing a total of $393 million (£289m) against a production budget of $365 million (£269m).
