Almost 20,000 fans at a California stadium have been given the first glimpse of the new Star Wars film, The Mandalorian & Grogu , in a star-packed presentation staged by the Hollywood studio Disney. The “entertainment showcase” was the opening night blockbuster at Disney’s biannual D23 fan convention. Similar to Comic-Con, but wholly focused on Disney-owned assets such as Star Wars, Marvel and Frozen, D23 draws a crowd of almost 90,000 people over three days.
Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian. Credit: Lucasfilm In between announcements from the comic book studio Marvel and confirmation of two Frozen sequels, one of the most anticipated reveals at the convention was a glimpse at the new Star Wars movie, which began filming three weeks ago. The convention screened the first footage from the film, which included scenes featuring Mando (Pedro Pascal), the Force-sensitive child Grogu, Imperial “snowtroopers” and giant “AT-AT Walkers”, which were both made iconic in the original trilogy Star Wars film, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back .
The reaction from the crowd was massive. Unlike Comic-Con, which releases much of its preview and trailer material online straight after screening at the convention, D23 enforces a no-cameras policy and often keeps material screened at the showcase offline for as long as possible. Lucasfilm also gave fans in-person previews of upcoming Star Wars television projects, the new series Skeleton Crew , starring Jude Law, and the second season of Andor .
Fans get the inside track on new Disney activity at the D23 convention. Credit: Getty Images for Disney The Andor preview also confirmed, with on-set footage, that Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn will reprise his Rogue One character, Director Orson Krennic, in the second season. If you needed a measure of the popularity of Star Wars in the company of the studio’s other assets, the appearance of Grogu – known in pop culture as “Baby Yoda” – elicited a massive cheer from the almost 18,000 fans who packed into the Honda Centre stadium.
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