Is ‘Star Wars’ Still Good? An Astrophysicist Nerd Reflects

Pedro Pascal and Disney's "The Mandalorian". Why did the movie bomb? (Photo by Dave Benett/WireImage)Dave Benett/WireImageLast week and friend and I saw Disney’s summer Star Wars blockbuster The Mandalorian &am...

July 31, 2026

Pedro Pascal and Disney's "The Mandalorian". Why did the movie bomb? (Photo by Dave Benett/WireImage)

Dave Benett/WireImage

Last week and friend and I saw Disney’s summer Star Wars blockbuster The Mandalorian & Grogu. We thought it was great. Blaster battles. Zooming space ships. Cute baby Yoda. What’s not to enjoy?

The rest of the world did not agree.

‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ Box Office

The Mandalorian & Grogu has turned out to be the biggest Star Wars bomb in the history of the movie franchise. As of today it’s slated to lose $100 million dollars. That’s a lot of “credits” as they say in the Star Wars Universe and here on Earth it’s the kind of cash loss that will get studio executives fired.

So what’s happening? The Mandalorian & Grogu was a perfectly fine movie. Nothing spectacular but certainly not a disaster on the scale of John Carter (you didn’t see it, you don’t need to, it was terrible). Why did fans reject the Mandalorian movie?

‘Star Wars’ Properties That Failed To Deliver

If you look at the last few Star Wars offerings both in terms of movies and streaming you can see something interesting happening. On the one hand you have the 9 films of Skywalker saga which completely ran out of steam by the end. The big reveal that Rey was really the still-not-dead Emperor’s grand-daughter was incoherent and kind of insulting.

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Series like The Acolyte failed simply because it just wasn’t very compelling as a story. These misses do make it feel like Star Wars has been sucked dry by Disney corporate offices.

And then there is Andor.

What Resonates With ‘Star Wars’ Fans

That series did something no one had attempted before. It took Star Wars seriously. It took the story we all know (the rise of the Empire) and focused on what it meant for ordinary citizens of the dying republic. No Jedi magic powers. just people caught in the rise of a totalitarian state. From the costumes to the real-effects settings, Andor delivered in way that made the whole franchise seem fresh and relevant.

What hits like Andor show is that there is still a lot of life in this grand multi-faceted Universe. The Mandalorian & Grogu was good but it wasn’t good enough. “Serviceable” might be a better word. So what may matter, ultimately, is going beyond serviceable and having the artistic courage to seek out real excellence and real creativity in artists (writers, directors etc.) who can tell us those stories.