The Mandalorian returned to Disney+ this week, and that only meant one thing: more Grogu cuteness for the internet to coo about.
The return of The Mandalorian comes with one guarantee – the internet’s love for Grogu will resurface. The season 3 premiere of the popular Star Wars series didn’t waste much time throwing fans back into Din Djarin’s world. In addition to introducing a new mission for the titular bounty hunter, Chapter 17 of the series also delivered plenty of moments featuring everyone’s favorite little green traveling companion.
Since his first appearance in the opening episode of The Mandalorian, Grogu aka Baby Yoda caught the attention of the public and became a phenomenon that has lost none of its appeal. Though Grogu seemed to follow a path that didn’t follow the way of the Mandalorian in the season 2 finale, thanks to the events of Boba Fett’s bookthe Star Wars dream team kick off the new season together again, taking on pirates and finding their way to the planet Mandalore.
For many fans of the show, Grogu’s increasingly toddler-like actions were the highlight of the season premiere, and it wasn’t long before social media was flooded with fan-favorite moments. Check out some of the love being shown for Grogu on Twitter:
The Mandalorian season 3 premiere falls short
Forward From the Mandalorians season debut, it was reported that the episode would be the shortest of any live-action Star Wars series. While this isn’t a bad thing at times, the amount in the first episode of season 3 seemed to make the action a bit too rushed. This was noted by Movieweb’s Julian Roman, who said of the episode:
“Mando’s return has monsters, blaster-slinging action, a space dogfight, and gurgling Grogu cuteness, but it all felt rushed. The meager running time packs a mountain of exposition into a light-hearted 37 minutes, while a full hour would have done it a world of good… These characters need extra growth after half an hour; from now on it all just feels robotic.
The Mandalorian has a lot going for it with its new season, and while the first episode has kicked off with plenty of action, it clearly needs a little more time spent on character and continuing to deliver the kind of spectacle that the Star Wars franchise has always been able. There’s clearly a long way to go in the final season, and director Rick Famuyiwa previously promised that there will be a lot of expansion in Season 3. He said:
“For me, the foundation has always been that simple relationship between Mando and Grogu. The adventures get bigger and the characters you meet may be as iconic as Luke Skywalker, but it’s always in the service of that simple story. That’s taken us to bigger and bigger places, and this season is definitely the biggest yet.”
The Mandalorian releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.