Disney’s Investor Day in December 2020 was a monumental occasion for the future of the company’s film and television content, in particular the Star Wars franchise, with several live-action shows and movies announced. On the virtual live stream, Kathleen Kennedy revealed Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic as new shows to join a Mandalorian mini-universe, as well as teasing a series yet to be announced, along with plans for all the shows to come together in a culmination event. The Book of Boba Fett was officially announced a few weeks later, too. With the mini-world beginning to take shape, signs are appearing that The Mandalorian could be the next big cinematic universe.
The Mandalorian has proven to be a hit with audiences ever since it premiered in November 2019. Star Wars fans have developed a reputation in recent years for being particularly hard to please, but the Disney+ series has released two seasons thus far without as much controversy or debate as other projects, such as the Sequel Trilogy. Given the early success of the corner of the Star Wars galaxy created by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, it seems logical to go full steam ahead and push forward with a cinematic universe.
Highlighting the reception of the series, Seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian have a 93 and 94% critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience ratings in the same range. In fact, a study conducted and released in 2020 revealed The Mandalorian to be the most popular franchise of all, even beating out Avengers, Spider-Man, and other popular movies and shows. Even as the show only premiered a little over two years ago, the popularity and demand are certainly there. It has even propelled lead actor Pedro Pascal to be one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, as he has now appeared in various other popular franchises in the years since. The arrival of other interconnected series, such as the currently airing The Book of Boba Fett, could make the acclaim and demand for the universe grow even more.
Story-wise, the series are already coming together in an approach similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett, for example, the title character was nowhere to be seen, with the near-hour-long episode used to catch up with the Mandalorian and push that character’s journey forward. The bounty hunter, also known as Din Djarin, looked to rejoin his Children of the Watch sect of Mandalorians in the episode, as well as planning a meeting with Grogu, who he last saw being carried away by Luke Skywalker as he began his journey as a Jedi Padawan.
A reunion between the father and son duo seemed likely, given that he asked the Armorer to craft armor for Grogu, but Chapter 6 put a hold on that, for now at least. The episode later featured Djarin as he got a new ship, after his Razorcrest was destroyed by the Empire. It was only in the final moments of the episode that Fennec Shand, Boba Fett’s partner in his crime lord escapades, appeared to proposition Mando to join his team for an incoming battle with the Pykes, bringing the episode back to the plot of the show.
Although this is just the second Star Wars Disney+ series, the interconnectivity is on full display, perhaps even more overtly than MCU projects at this stage of the universe. Much like a Marvel movie, characters like The Armorer and Paz Vizla, along with Din Djarin himself, from other projects have already appeared in The Book of Boba Fett, making the first two seasons of The Mandalorian almost necessary viewing in order to understand the full story and scope of the new 2022 series so far.
Chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett ramped up the connective tissue between shows even more in a way fans are bound to enjoy. Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth, for example, who wore the Boba Fett armor in the season premiere of The Mandalorian Season 2, joined the series as honorable and formidable warriors based on Tatooine are desperately needed to defeat the Pykes. Cad Bane also entered the frey, after previously appearing only in animation in the prequel era. Of course, there was also Luke Skywalker, Grogu, and Ahsoka as well, meaning there are now several characters from The Mandalorian to have already appeared in The Book of Boba Fett. Cameos are often the most common topic of conversation among fans, highlighting how much audiences enjoy a surprise appearance. With The Mandalorian-world shows already full of them, it's all the more evidence that this could be the next big cinematic universe.
More broadly, Luke Skywalker’s cameo in Chapter 16 of The Mandalorian was such a surprising event that it now seems as if any character could appear in a Mandalorian-universe show. Luke and Grogu could appear again in the season 1 finale of The Book of Boba Fett, or show up to visit his father’s former apprentice in Ahsoka. Han Solo could even appear in the Fett-centered show, particularly as the two have a long history together in canon. All of this points to every character from all corners of the Mandalorian universe as fair game to appear at any moment, in a similarly unpredictable way as the MCU.
In recent years, audiences seem to love characters coming together to team up against a common enemy. For example, Avengers: Infinity War and its follow up, Avengers: Endgame, were two of the biggest movies ever made. Endgame currently sits #1 on the list of highest-grossing films of all time, unadjusted for inflation, with a box office total surpassing $2.7 billion. More recently, Spider-Man: No Way Home saw the coming together of three generations of web-crawlers as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield joined Tom Holland to battle a group of multiverse villains. That film currently sits at above $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office, an especially impressive total given the pandemic and the uncertainty in the world more broadly. These three films are some of the best-reviewed in the MCU's history, too. All of this suggests that as the Mandalorian universe speeds towards the planned culmination event, the popularity could grow even more.
The seeds are already being planted for the team-up event. The Mandalorian Season 2 teased a possible Snoke and/or Palpatine connection as the heroes found an Empire-ran lab with clone bodies, along with similar music to the famous Sith villains. Moreover, Grand Admiral Thrawn was directly named by Ahsoka a few episodes later, and a reunion with the blue-skinned, red-eyed Chiss seems only a matter of time. Given what audiences have been teased so far, it’s possible that the culmination event could be an adaptation of Heir to the Empire, the popular Legends novel by Timothy Zahn.
Like The Mandalorian and the rest of the shows in the mini-universe, Heir to the Empire is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, with Luke in pole position to restart the Jedi Order, just like when he rescues Grogu. The New Republic is a new and fragile organization, often struggling to keep a grip on the galaxy, just as it is in The Mandalorian, where X-Wing pilot Carson Teva details how hard it is for the new government to control the Outer Rim and other territories. An old fleet of dangerous Palpatine loyalists with the remnants of his Imperial Fleet lurk in the shadows, though, something that is entirely plausible in The Mandalorian, particularly as the Emperor’s Sith Fleet and Final Order were introduced as the final part of the Sith Lord's years-long plan in The Rise of Skywalker.
If Heir to the Empire is adapted into live-action, it would be a fitting story and event for the characters to come together for. Even if creator Jon Favreau opts to go a different route with the story for the culmination event, it’s clear that the coming together of Mandalorian-era characters will make the broader mini-universe explode in popularity even more, just as Infinity War and Endgame did for the MCU, and No Way Home for the Spider-Man films.With Marvel’s next Infinity War-level movie years away, it might now be Star Wars’ turn to have the most popular cinematic universe.