BONUS: Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026)
The Walking Dead 'CastJune 09, 202601:39:51

BONUS: Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026)

Reposted from Star Wars TV ‘Cast, which you can find at ttps://podcastica.com/podcast/star-wars-tv-cast.

Feels like coming home as Rich, Chris, and Jason are back together to talk over the new Mando movie! We found so much to love (and yes, a few nits to pick) about it, and it was a pleasure to talk about, so hope you guys enjoy.


Star Wars Question of the Week: Which upcoming Star Wars movie, show, or season are you most looking forward to?


Check out Chris’ other podcast, The Talking Dead, where he covers all things The Walking Dead:


Check out Jason’s other podcast, Wax Episodic, where Jason and friends cover favorite current shows, like:

  • Severance, the mysterious, mind-bending, amusingly strange Apple TV workplace thriller about identity, memory, and corporate control. Covered by me and Karen. (!)
  • Fallout, the crazy, funny, retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic series on Amazon Prime Video. Covered by me, Kara, and Kasi.
  • Pluribus, the Twilight-Zoney Apple TV show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, covered by me and Karen.
  • It: Welcome to Derry, the horrific HBO series, prequel to the recent It movies based on the Stephen King book. Covered by me and Shawn of Strange Indeed.
  • Alien: Earth, the heady, gross-out FX/Hulu sci-fi series based on the Alien movies. Covered by me, Randy, and Kara.
  • Available wherever you get podcasts, or at waxepisodic.com


Show support and get ad-free episodes and a bunch of other cool stuff: patreon.com/jasoncabassi 


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, here's a little bonus episode for you. I'm including it in this feed because it's me and Chris of The Talking Dead and I know a lot of you guys know him, probably listen to his podcast and enjoy him. And it's our friend Rich and we just had a lot of fun talking about Mando and Grogu. If you are subscribed to any of the other like three podcasts where I'm also including this, I'm sorry about that. You could just feel free to delete and listen to it wherever or not at all.

[00:00:28] But I think you guys will enjoy it.

[00:01:05] Touch the missile battery switch. That's why there's a safety guard on it. Do you see the fuel readout display? Remember I showed you that one? It's on the other side of the manual control surface calibration. I don't think he knows what he's doing. Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. I'm Jason. I'm Richard. And I'm Chris. And this is Star Wars TV Cast Episode 73.

[00:01:32] This episode, we're covering a new Mando movie. Hold on, I can't see what it's written here. Somebody needs glasses. The Mandalorian and Grogu, starring Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda as Grogu. That's his real name. Right. That's what I always thought, you know? Yeah. Baby Yoda. So, we're back. We're doing another Star Wars podcast.

[00:02:01] If you don't know who the hell we are or why we'd be doing this, it's because the three of us have podcasted on every episode of The Mandalorian. We started, do you, can you guys just off the top of your head, how many years ago did we start doing this? Seven. As a test? I'm going to say. Pretty close. That's a guess. Four, I'm going to say six. Six. It's six and a half, so split the difference. Perfect. Yeah, 2019. Oh my gosh.

[00:02:26] So, I was like, man, you know, when we finished, it was the end of season three. That's how far the show got. And at that point, they had written a season four. And so, we thought it was going to be a season four. It wasn't confirmed. There may have even been some rumors of a movie, but I think we just figured we'd be back for season four. And so, they went this route.

[00:02:50] And I'm just like, oh man, a little bit of OCD made me feel compelled that we need to do this story because we did all the other ones. But also, just a good excuse to podcast with you guys. So, we're back to talk about The Mandalorian. And as per tradition, we will first start with a Star Wars question of the week that has nothing to do. Well, maybe question of the year that has nothing to do with what we're going to be covering.

[00:03:14] So, this question is, what is your favorite Star Wars movie or series since Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas and why? God, why do you do this to us? Was that a hard question? It was because the first thing that pops into my mind are three things. And then you have to go through the process of like pros and cons and eliminating.

[00:03:39] I mean, the first thing that pops into my mind is one that's definitely not. But I didn't want it to be a downer. I want it to be a positive. So, we'll keep it positive. Right. What about you, Chris? Okay. Well, here's the funny thing. Earlier today, Jason, you texted us this question and I misread it. Okay. So, you wrote, what is your favorite post-Disney Star Wars purchase movie or series and why?

[00:04:09] And I read that as, what is your favorite post-Disney Star Wars purchase, movie, series? Okay. So, I do have an answer for you, but it's not exactly what you were going for. That's interesting too.

[00:04:27] Speaking about movies and TV series, I think my answer would most likely be and probably should be the Andor TV show. Right. However, I have not watched the Andor TV show. That is one important factor. But I have heard so many good things about it and how brilliant it is. So, I feel really bad for having not watched it and I need to rectify that as soon as possible.

[00:04:57] So, I can't choose that, which is sad. And then, since I thought you were talking about purchases as well, it probably, honestly, is my Razor Crest Lego set, which is on the shelf behind me. And which is now relevant again. And which is relevant again. We may talk about that more later on. I don't know. But because I was thinking about it and I went and I looked at the Razor Crest and then I went to the Lego website and I was like, you know, this is the smaller Razor Crest released years ago.

[00:05:27] They have a bigger one now. And I'm like, but it's $800. And I'm like, I cannot justify an $800 Lego set, even though I would love to have it. So, when is it getting there? Yeah, right. Yeah, it's on the way now. No. I go to the Lego site today. You're actually not far off. And I look it up and sure enough, Lego.com officially has it on sale for 30% off. So, it's like $500 instead of $8. Really? A steal.

[00:05:55] It's still a lot of damn money, but it's so tempting. I don't know, man. Like, I did not pull the trigger, but oh my God, $500 is still a lot of money for Lego. I mean, back when, so I have my Luke Skywalker lightsaber here that I got from just some random person that crafted it. Now you can get ones like this for a couple hundred dollars, but this costs more than what that is on sale for. Really? To put that out there.

[00:06:25] Okay, just for some perspective. All right. Someday I want, I think I may have asked you this before, Jason, but I want you to tell me where to get the best replica lightsabers. Because that's another thing I'd think about buying. Yeah, man. I'm glad to have this. I almost got the Ray one when it was on sale at Disneyland because I think it looks cool, but I just couldn't because I just hate that movie so much. And it was only in that one movie.

[00:06:53] I'm like, I'm not buying a prop from that movie. Maybe she'll be using that in another movie and I'll regret not having gotten it. Anyway. Maybe, maybe. Okay. Well, I really hope that the next time we podcast on Star Wars, we'll see that up on your shelf. Yeah. Okay. Rich, what were the three?

[00:07:14] So the movie was Rogue One and then the TV series were Obi-Wan and The Mandalorian. And like literally all three of those, if it's possible, popped into my head at the same time. So I'm like, crap, which one? So I'm going to do what most people do and just go with the one that I think about the most and revisit the most. Sometimes I'll look up, you know, a specific scene on YouTube or something.

[00:07:42] Just, you know, satisfy something I'm thinking about. Reminiscing. Yeah, go ahead. I think it's Obi-Wan. No, you're so close. It's The Mandalorian. Yeah. Oh, nice. Yeah. So I... Could you answer, Chris? Yeah. Well, I mean, my... I was going with my Lego set, but I will give you an answer. I liked the Obi-Wan show a lot as well. So more than I think many people did, but Rich, you and I are on the same page. I liked that show too. Yeah, it was awesome.

[00:08:11] I watched the fights between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader all the time. But that scene in Mandalorian where Luke Skywalker shows up? Takes the cake for up. I think that's the best scene in Star Wars since it was sold to Disney. I mean, I literally like jumped off my couch and cheered. Ah, I don't think I've ever done that since, you know? Yeah, it was a lot. It was so good. So well done. I...

[00:08:40] My answer is similar to yours. I did see Andor. It was fantastic. It... You have to... It's like takes a bit to get hooked in. The first few episodes are... It feels a bit like you're in a class, a Star Wars class or something. But once you get hooked in, it's really, really good. And I loved it.

[00:09:03] And I think, you know, if there's any such thing as objectivity around all this, it's objectively the best. But I picked The Mandalorian because it, for me, is just... It's got such... So many great moments. Cool, badass moments. Cute and funny. Heartwarming. It made me feel a lot. And especially seasons one and two were focused and pure and fun.

[00:09:30] And even season three, I still think, had a lot of great moments. So, you know, that's just the closest to my heart. I don't know if the fact that we podcasted on it, that might have something to do with it too. But I put it just a little higher than Andor. Andor impresses me more, but Mandalorian is my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. It's so much classic Star Wars too. Yeah. For sure. It's hard to separate yourself from it when you podcast about a show. Like I've learned that about all the shows I've podcasted about.

[00:09:58] So I get that, but you're right. Mando is great. But I'm going to officially choose the book of Boba Fett instead because we all know that was the best one. The two Mandalorian episodes are pretty good. Just the right. But they are. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's get into the movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu.

[00:10:19] First, we'll give you some spoiler light thoughts just so we can tell you whether we'd recommend that you go and watch it if you're for some odd reason listening to us and you haven't seen it yet. So with that in mind, what would you guys say?

[00:10:37] Well, I went into this movie, guys, with pretty low expectations and not because I thought it was going to be bad, but like I did watch all the trailers and I didn't think the trailers were very good, to be honest with you.

[00:10:54] So I'm like, oh, this is just going to be a big CGI monster wank fest and it's not going to have any of the more Mandalorian type stuff that I really liked. It just seemed like it was going to be one giant monster fight after another. And I think I was not really looking forward to that. And I got to admit, it was a bit of that. I mean, there was definitely that here. There's a lot of fighting, yeah.

[00:11:21] But overall, I didn't find that part of it as kind of annoying as I thought I would. So I came out thinking that this is an okay movie. It had enough good stuff for me to at least enjoy it. I don't think it was fantastic, but it was okay. It was entertaining. And I would say if you are a 10, 12, 13-year-old kid, you're going to have a really good time watching this movie.

[00:11:48] I did have a good time too, but there were kids in my theater that just seemed like this was the greatest thing they'd ever seen. So I can recommend it for that reason. And, you know, if you're a fan of The Mandalorian and you're willing to have some fun, I think you will in this movie. But it didn't blow me away. That's where I sit on it. Yeah.

[00:12:11] To build on what Chris just said, if you like creatures and monsters and creatures and monsters fighting guys with flamethrowers and blasters, this is the movie for you, really, honestly. You can't go wrong if that's what you're looking for. Yeah, that kind of stuff in my book is an automatic thumbs up. I love that kind of stuff. I thought about you during those fights. Oh, yeah. I bet you're Richard's loving this. I was like, yeah, yeah.

[00:12:37] But then, you know, if that's not your thing, then maybe, I don't know, maybe wait until it comes out on video. But I definitely think if you're a Star Wars fan, you should watch it. You're not going to get a whole lot of new stuff, but just, you know, kind of rehashing the old stuff in different ways is fine. Fine by me. I enjoyed it. Yeah, and there was plenty of Star Wars stuff that felt Star Wars in this movie, you know, for better or worse.

[00:13:04] And, like, there were a lot of scenes where I thought, well, we've seen that before, and this is kind of exactly the same as when they were in a place like this in another movie, you know what I mean? But I'm a sucker for nostalgia, which is why I did like a lot of the Rey movies, Jason. But, so, like, that works on me. I know that. This didn't feel like nostalgia mining quite as much, though.

[00:13:32] It just felt like, let's, you know, let's do some similar things or do some things that people will really recognize as Star Wars tropes in a way. And I'm okay with that, generally. And let's, like, Mando look like a badass. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the Mandalorian has its own feel to a degree.

[00:13:58] And, you know, it's in the world of Star Wars and there are Star Wars tropes, but it had three seasons to be its own thing. And, you know, it's this cool bounty hunter with his little, it's like Lone Wolf and Cub, his little cute sidekick. That's not anything in any other Star Wars thing. That's the Mandalorian. And I think it did feel like they were going over some of the same ground that we've seen in the series already. Not in other Star Wars, in the Mandalorian.

[00:14:27] But I wonder if they did that because they thought new people would be coming in and they wanted to. Like Grogu messing with the buttons. You know, we've seen him do that exact thing. But I think Jon Favreau is probably like, well, we got to put that one in there in case there's somebody who hasn't seen the series that will catch him with that kind of a thing. And then at the end when Mando has him sit on his lap and actually starts to teach him to fly, it'll feel like a development in their relationship. Which it was for us. Like he'd never done that before.

[00:14:57] Yeah. You know, so you had to have that other part first that we've already seen before. But anyway, I just think like watching it for the first half or so, I was digging it, but wasn't sure I loved it. By the end, I loved it. And on second watch, I watched it again today. I loved the whole thing and I would recommend it. But like you said, Chris, I would have your expectations set right. Because I think if you like the Mandalorian series, you are going to like this.

[00:15:23] I think still you have to have your expectations set because even people who saw the Mandalorian, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them go into a Star Wars movie expecting a big saga where the fate of the galaxy is at stake. Right. And that is not this. This is a Mandalorian story. He's a bounty hunter with a cute little sidekick that go on missions together. And it was just another, I thought, excellent version of that. And so I love that.

[00:15:52] You know, I'm ready for that. Like, I don't need it to be some kind of a different Mandalorian story where he fights the emperor or something, you know? Yeah. And I also thought it was beautiful. And like, if anyone doesn't appreciate the beauty of this movie, I feel like you're spoiled. Like we are spoiled. We get so much of this stuff all the time. But if you just like, it was so gorgeous and well done. And I think worth seeing on the big screen rather than just waiting for it to come to Disney Plus. But it'll be great on Disney Plus too. I agree.

[00:16:22] There's so many poster shots from this movie. Yeah. It is a beautiful movie. There's a lot of great locations and incredible cinematography and stuff like that. And I do think it is a good, as you said, Jason, like a good Mandalorian story of him doing his thing. Right? Yeah.

[00:16:44] I also think, though, they really put the Mandalorian lore to the backseat a lot. Right. And it was really just about this particular mission. Yeah. And that's probably because it was a movie and they didn't want to bog down in that too much for people that were new and stuff like that. But I do think that's really important to him and the character. And I think maybe a little bit more of that would have been okay for people like us that were really into the show and expect some of that, you know?

[00:17:14] Yeah. I mean, when The Mandalorian started, it felt like an old throwback to like an old Western, like Gunsmoke or something where you get a story of the week. And it was just about the coolness of it. And I think over time in any series, you're going to have backstory build up and you're going to learn the lore. But I think another thing happened with The Mandalorian, which is the higher ups said, oh, look, this is successful.

[00:17:41] Let's exploit it by throwing in a bunch of other shit, especially in season three, that we can then expand out into other series. And then they were like, we can make a movie out of it. And I really think The Mandalorian is best. I've said this about Jon Favreau a lot of times, but he knows what's cool and how to do cool moments and emotional moments. And when it's just focused on that and doesn't have to bring in so much of this other stuff, for me, that's when it's best. So I hear what you're saying and I agree that some of that is cool.

[00:18:10] But I also just think that for me, this movie kind of brought it back to what I loved about The Mandalorian in the first place, which is just a simple story with this character being really cool and this other character being really adorable. The opening of this movie. I can appreciate that. Totally. The opening of this movie was kick ass. I was like, whoa, they're setting the bar pretty high when Mando took out three AT-ATs. What the hell? That's like Jedi level fighting, man.

[00:18:40] I think that was stop motion, too. They did it old school style. Yeah, don't get me started on special effects. That was awesome. I think I read that. I didn't double check. But Empire Strikes Back style. Yeah. Wow. Setting the bar so high, I was like, wow, I hope they can follow this up. And I feel that they did. Yeah. I think the rest of it was just as well with the action.

[00:19:07] And then a lot of it was, too, about, what was his name? Radha? Radha the Hut. Radha the Hut. Yeah. A lot of it was about the Hutts, which I didn't know a whole lot about. So I found that pretty interesting, too. Yeah. I knew there were a lot of Hutts in this movie. I didn't know the relationship to other Hutts we've seen in the past. Right. And I did not know that that was all part of it. That leads me.

[00:19:32] I was planning on starting with some sort of catch-up slash lore slash backstory to get everybody caught up to where some things were just briefly before we talk about the real details of the movie. So if you haven't seen the movie and you're wondering if you should go see it, we think you probably should and that you should stop listening to us and come back and listen to us after. Definitely come back. Great. Pause. Pause for break.

[00:20:02] So lore and backstory, the status of Mando and Grogu. When the movie starts, Mando, a.k.a. Din Djarin and Grogu are living on Navarro after helping save the town at the end of season three. I felt like a big presence missing was, what's the guy's name? Darn it. Carl Weathers. Oh, right. He passed away since they, he was like the mayor of the planet or something.

[00:20:26] Um, and Grogu had chosen Mando over continuing his Jedi training with Luke Skywalker and Mando officially adopted him as a foundling. Under the name, Din Grogu. So he was sort of on a path to becoming a Mandalorian himself. And then since then, they both have been taking missions for the new Republic, hunting down Imperial remnants across the galaxy for people who don't.

[00:20:51] I mean, everyone probably knows, but this is about five years after Return of the Jedi when the Empire has fallen, but hasn't completely disappeared. So that's what they're doing. Um, the first guy that Mando has to deal with in the opening sequence that we're going to talk about soon is Commander Barrow. He's the mob boss style Imperial warlord here. He's like extracting tribute from the township leaders for quote protection. Uh, I don't know if you guys remembered him in the series.

[00:21:20] Did you? No, I don't. It was brief. The, the, the bad guy in the first sequence. Oh. That Mando was there to get. No, I don't. That guy. No, I didn't. He, he was the, he, in, um, season three when Moff Gideon was having a meeting with other ex-Imperial warlords and they were all holograms. He was one of those. Oh, okay. And that's, that's the Shadow Council. They're a group of Imperial leaders secretly working to rebuild the Empire. Yeah.

[00:21:50] And they were discussing whether or not Thrall was going to come back, right? That's right. Thrawn. Thrawn. Yeah. Uh, the pilot guy that keeps like extracting Mando out of situations, Zeb Aurelios, he's one of the main characters from the show Star Wars Rebels, which is a pretty good show. And he, they had a ship called Ghost and he was, was he the pilot? He served on the ship with Hera, Kanan, Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper. And he lost most of his people to the Empire.

[00:22:20] So he became a rebel fighter and later joined the New Republic. It's fun to see him more in live action. We'd seen him only once before in live action in the Mandalorian, but just briefly, because he's expensive. Mm-hmm. Uh, Road of the Hutt, that's Jabba the Hutt's son. I think I said it wrong. I think it's Radha. He first appeared as a baby in the awful 2008 Clone Wars movie. That's a little editorial.

[00:22:45] Where he was kidnapped as a part of a separatist plot to turn the Hutts against the Republic. And Anakin and Ahsoka rescued him and returned him to Jabba. And Ahsoka spent the whole movie calling him stinky. And they show an image of him as a young or baby Hutt in this too. Yeah. Cause I think that was the last time we saw him. He looked like that. Okay. Yeah. All right. Uh, Mando gets another Razorcrest ship, which I was glad to see too. Yeah.

[00:23:15] Totally. That's awesome. Love ships. Because, so that ship got blown up by Moff Gideon, I think in season two. And then he got the little Naboo starfighter, which is cool. And it's like a little hot rod, but it's not really, um, practical for a bounty hunter. No. Who needs to bring people in. Yeah. I think it was in the background. I never actually saw it, but I read that, that it was, he still has it. So they're like a two car family now. It was. Yeah. It was at his place. Yeah. It was there. It was sitting there.

[00:23:45] It was there. I saw it. I seen it. He can just, he can take it when he needs just to run out for quick groceries or something and then take the Razorcrest to do real work. Yeah. It's his middle-aged, you know. It's his like little hot rod and like the SUV for, you know. Yeah. It just depends on, on the task at hand. Right. Midlife crisis ship. And him like modifying it to remove safety restrictors so it can go faster. It reminds me of Han Solo always modifying the Millennium Falcon. And I think George Lucas modifying cars in Modesto to raise his friends.

[00:24:14] It all comes, goes back to that. I feel like. Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. I don't know. Paradise Road. I just did that to my e-bike, by the way. So that was on point. Nice. Two more. The Hutts who hired Mando, the twins. We, I totally had forgotten this, but we met them in the book of Boba Fett where they briefly challenged Boba Fett for control of Jabba's old criminal empire before deciding it wasn't worth the fight and leaving Tatooine. Right on. Okay.

[00:24:39] And the little mechanics that help Grogu save Mando are Anzelans. They're a species of tiny but highly skilled droid smiths and engineers. And of course we saw one of them, Babu Frick in The Rise of Skywalker, where he helped unlock the Sith message hidden in C3PO's memory. I liked the Anzelans in The Rise of Skywalker or it was just Babu Frick, but that was like one of the good things that I liked in that movie. The only thing you liked about that one, right? The only thing.

[00:25:09] And Jon Favreau had J.J. Abrams come to set to help make sure they were doing them right. I forgot, but those Anzelans were actually also in season three of The Mandalorian where they rebuilt IG-11 into IG-12. And one of them kept saying to Grogu, no squeezy. That's right. Yeah. Because he was trying to hug him. Yeah. So there's just a couple. I mean, you could go on and on and on with all this stuff, but those are a few things

[00:25:37] that I thought were important to remind myself of to appreciate the movie a little bit more. Yeah. Would you call these Easter eggs or would you call them just lore, canon? Because there was a lot. Yeah. I mean, one thing that's cool about Star Wars that Jon Favreau really takes advantage of and I think it helps to have Dave Filoni by his side is if he's building a story and he needs a certain kind of something or other, instead he can either create something new, like I think this fucking amazing dragon, what was it called?

[00:26:07] Dragon snake. Yeah. Or he can pull something from something else. Yeah. You know, which he does a lot. And I think that's cool to reuse things if they fit whatever the story is. Yeah. A lot of stuff to draw from. Totally. Totally. So with all that out of the way, where should we start? Chris, you want to go first? Yeah.

[00:26:32] Well, I mean, I've got notes about the opening scene and more about the Razorcrest and stuff like that. But what I really liked about the opening scene is kind of what you mentioned, Rich. I mean, we're dropped right into this awesome scene of Mando being amazing. And, you know, he breaks up that meeting. He takes out the Adats. And then, of course, right at the end, he shoots down the guy trying to escape just before

[00:27:01] the cockpit explodes and jetpacks out of there. Like, there's blaster shots out of the dark, which always looks cool. And he uses the flamethrower kind of just as he's coming through the door. I mean, it's so cool. And it was like the Mandalorian in his prime. He was just amazing doing what he's doing. And I always love watching that kind of thing, right? You want to see your heroes like being- He does it with style. He does it with style. Amazing. And he does it with style. That's right.

[00:27:29] And I think, like, he's even using all of his tools and his weapons at his disposal really well, right? Like, that's just- he's got his groove on. And I think that was generally true for most of the films. So, I just love this opening scene. And I was watching that. And then it goes into kind of like the opening credits type montage. And I enjoyed that. And I'm like, oh, man, this movie is going to be amazing. If the whole thing is as good as this, I'm going to really, really like this. So, you know, it was cool.

[00:27:57] The only bit about that opening scene that I kind of didn't like is when he got on that ride-along, like, AT-ST sort of smaller version where he rides it. Sort of like a mechanical tauntaun in a way is what I was thinking. But then, that's cool. I kind of like the idea of that. But then, that way he just rides it and jumps it down a mountain. I'm like, it would never work like that. So, that's a nitpick. A little suspension of disbelief there.

[00:28:27] Yeah. But overall, I thought the movie just got off with a bang and started so good. So, I was really pumped at that point going into it. I like that it really, for new viewers, shown a lot of things. Like, okay, that guy looks like Boba Fett, who is a bounty hunter that we always thought was cool, but he's kind of a bad guy. Wait, no, this one's a good guy. Because he's hunting this Imperial who's, like, clearly terrorizing these people. And he's a freaking badass.

[00:28:56] And he has this little cute baby Yoda-looking character at his side. So, even if you haven't seen the series, you know right away, Mando is a good guy and a badass. And he has a cute sidekick that he cares about. That's, like, all you need to know. That's all you need to know. And they do a good job, too, even with the Imperials, like, in the AT-ATs and stuff. Right? The one guy's, like, you know, he gives them an order or something. Go get them. And they're just like, we're pilots. You know?

[00:29:22] It's like, all we do is push these levers and make this thing go. I don't know how to do anything else. Remember your training. Yeah, it was. They showed a lot of things in this movie that were from Star Wars, but a little different. So, we see the AT-ATs in snowy weather, but it's a mountainside. And instead of the Rebels having a base there, it's kind of like these Imperial remnants that have the base. So, it's like the Titans have turned in there, like, on their back foot, you know? Yeah. And also, the Snow Troopers.

[00:29:52] The Snow Troopers usually have that, I don't know if it's cloth or whatever, hanging in front, like windscreen, sort of. But most of them weren't wearing it at first in this. And then I didn't realize those were Snow Troopers without that piece. And then some of them put it on. I'm like, oh, that's cool. That's a new thing. I like that, you know? There you go. Casual Fridays. Casual Fridays for Storm Troopers. Snow Troopers. Yeah, that opening sequence was freaking awesome.

[00:30:20] So, first of all, AT-ATs are like one of my all-time favorite vehicles that has ever appeared in Star Wars. In fact, like yourself, Chris, with the Razor Crist, I got, you guys can't see it, but I got a full-size Lego AT-AT up here on my shelf. Amazing. Love that thing. Love the sequence in, I forget which movie it is, where Luke Skywalker takes out an AT-AT too. But this one here, where Mando taking out three. It's like, uh-huh. Freaking awesome. Right off the bat.

[00:30:49] Your Lego AT-AT is full-size? Oh, yeah. That's impressive. It starts here. He can get right in the cockpit and drive it around. It starts here at the top of the second store, yeah, and it kind of goes out into the street a little bit, you know? Over to your neighbors. Yeah, right. I meant full-size Lego AT-AT there. Oh, I'm sorry. You moved into this house and the neighbor's like, oh my God, what's that guy brought? Just using it as a den, the inside of it, yeah. Sorry. No, no. That was awesome.

[00:31:19] There's all kinds. That's one of my things about this movie too, is that revisiting all the different vehicles. I'm kind of a vehicle nut, and there's so many vehicles in here from old and new and cartoons and novels. I mean, they just put them all in here. Not only did they just put them all in here where you could identify them, but they put them against backgrounds, which are like what we said earlier about poster shots, you know? Just got these X-wings going up against the setting sun in the background.

[00:31:49] You got, oh, one of my favorite things too in this movie, which they showed it two or three times, was when they were flying out of the atmosphere of a planet into space, that transition of going from atmosphere into space through the windshield, or whatever you want to call it cockpit, you know? I love that kind of shit. That stuff is, I was just like, yeah, give me more of that. Yeah, it's so good. Can I talk about the Razor Crest for a second? Speaking of ships. Yeah, please.

[00:32:18] I am so happy to have it back. It is, I was super bummed when it got destroyed, and because it had become one of my favorite Star Wars ships. And there are a lot of cool Star Wars ships, you know, as you were saying. So, you know, I thought the N1 that he got after was fun, but I've always preferred the Razor Crest. And I was wondering, like, I wonder if there was some fan backlash or anything to blowing it up.

[00:32:47] And so they decided they had to find a way to bring it back, right? Because they sort of made a big deal out of it, but not really. And I liked that, actually. I thought it was great how Sigourney Weaver shows up and she introduces it. She gives it a really quick backstory of it being recovered from, like, the Star Wars equivalent of a car collector, almost, she said. You know, he had all these outdated vehicles and ships, and they recovered it and it had been

[00:33:16] restored and it was perfect, right? And then Mando just gets in, it starts flying it, and it's his ship again. And they sort of didn't worry about it after that. Except, I mean, I loved how it was, like, annoying that it was stock. And he just was, like, modifying it on the fly. And then as soon as he got home, he, like, hired some mechanics, like, this will not do. That's pretty realistic. That's what you do when you get a new car. You're right, I guess. But no, you're right. That was awesome, for sure.

[00:33:43] But again, like, similar to how he was so competent at what he was doing in the opening scene, right, I also have realized that I love watching Star Wars pilots do cool stuff with their ships. And that happens pretty often, too. I mean, the first dogfight that he's in in this thing didn't let me down. What does he, he tells Zeb to, like, pull some panel out that would release some other thing and give him more power. And, like, they just do it, and then he pulls off this incredible move to spin around and

[00:34:12] take people out. Rey did something similar when she first flew the Millennium Falcon, and I loved that. So, I was just, again, so happy to have it back. And I hope it doesn't get destroyed again. That would really suck. That's Han Solo's entire career right there, is fixing his ship in battle. Yeah, that's right. And being surprised when something doesn't work, like the hyperdrive. Yeah, that's an interesting point, Chris.

[00:34:41] You know, for myself, and I'm sure a lot of other vehicle people out there, nothing can replace the original, though. You're just like, it's got a place in your heart forever. You know, you can get an exact copy of something you had before, but that original vehicle, you're forever trying to recapture that with whatever vehicle you purchased afterwards, you know? Yeah. I must need a spaceship of some kind because I'm not a car guy in real life.

[00:35:09] I work with some guys that are car guys and stuff, but I've never really, for me, a car has always been like four wheels get me from point A to point B. I don't care about it any other way. But spaceships? All on board. Totally. Yeah. All right. Should we move on to the next part of the plot? Yeah. Sure. So mission to rescue Rod of the hut. Mando goes to the moon of Shakara to rescue Radha, who he thinks is being held by a criminal

[00:35:39] syndicate. In exchange, the hut twins are going to tell him where another one of his targets is Imperial Commander Coyne. He sees Radha as this buff fighter. He meets him in his cell. Well, he says, Deewonawonga, which is what Bib Fortuna, I think, said to visitors of Jabba's palace. It sounded so familiar when he said that, right? Deewonawonga. Yeah. It means, I think it means, well, I read two different things. Hello or what do you want?

[00:36:08] And then Radha said, are you here to kill me? Which then Mando said, I'm here to rescue you, which we all know what that's a callback from. Aren't you a little short for a Mandalorian? Yeah. Right. For him to say next. Yeah. That's Jeremy Allen White. I wonder if most people know that from the bear playing the voice of Radha. And he's, I mean, we get a lot of plot here. He says he's fighting to pay off the debt to Lord Janu, who runs the crime syndicate

[00:36:38] on all the moons of Shikari by fighting. And then he'll be a free agent and he'll get rich fighting. And that being Jabba's son has been hard, Jabba the Hutt, because everyone hates him. But now he's respected as a fighter, so he doesn't want to be rescued. And then Mando goes to Lord Janu to buy his freedom. And this part, I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit because Janu says, oh, his final fight is going to be rigged. But why don't you fight for me?

[00:37:05] I'm like, why would he want to fight for me when you just said you were about ready to screw over one of your other fighters? Oh, you want me to die too? Sure. Sign me up. So then Mando tells Radha all this. Radha doesn't believe him. It doesn't want to go back to the twin hut saying that they're his aunt and uncle and they want him dead because he's heir to the throne. And I was sort of wondering if that was true, why would they send Mando after Radha to bring him back so they can kill him?

[00:37:35] But then why not send an assassin to just kill him? You know, I guess it's just plot reasons unless I missed something. Well, the hot twins were double crossing, right? They were working for both sides, feeding money to the remnants of the Imperials. Yeah. Playing both sides. Yeah. I think basically Radha was right. They just wanted him out of the picture because he's the heir. Right.

[00:38:02] And so they made up a story to the, what do you call it? New Republic. To get them to go get him for them. Yeah. Well, didn't Radha just leave of his own volition? I mean, he wasn't kidnapped. Wait, was he kidnapped or did he just leave and end up on this planet like Planet Hulk? Yeah. Yeah. He, yeah. He just went off on his own and got himself in this situation where he's fighting, you know, and he, he, he thinks it's a good situation anyway.

[00:38:30] So he calls, he's like, wants Mando to get out of there because Mando's just disrupting his plan to become a rich fighter and calls for security. Mando, I think get gassed and winds up in an arena to fight Radha with Grogu up in a cage. Mm-hmm. I kind of just wanted to quickly get to that point so we could talk about this fight. Awesome. So when you guys saw the, the creatures come out, did you, did you see what was happening there?

[00:38:59] Not until after, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I totally recognize it. I turned to my wife and I'm like, Hey, you know what this is from? She's giving me a blank stare. I'm just like, all right, whatever. Yeah. In case you don't know what Rich is talking about. So first Mando has to fight Radha, but he yields and says, Radha should be free. And Jenny goes, okay, he's free to be killed. And then sent. And then, yeah, I liked it because all the laser fence went around and then they sent all

[00:39:27] the monsters from the chess like game, Dajaric that we saw. Was it Chewbacca and C-3PO playing on the Millennium Falcon? I think it was R2-D2. R2. Was it R2-D2? Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. C-3PO was like, what happens if you win? He's like, I don't know. He's gonna rip your arms off. He's like, oh, I suggest you win. Let the Wookiee win. So, and even the floorboard, floor was shaped like that chessboard circular with the little,

[00:39:56] you know, chess spots. Yeah, that was cool. And yeah, I was, this is where I was thinking about you. But my favorite part of this fight was when Rada threw one of them at the fence and it went down. And then there's this pregnant moment where the monsters are looking around like, oh, look, there's a lot of food out there in the audience. Right? That moment where you're like, oh, this is gonna get good.

[00:40:23] And then it's just terror and you hear screams off screen. Ah! I love that. And then they break out into the streets and wreak havoc. And then there's a classic, yeah, this is another, this is a Star Wars trope when they're racing through the streets outside. Yeah. But we've never seen it quite this way before. I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah. They had a couple of good chase scenes. There was another one too with the speeders that I thought was pretty cool. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.

[00:40:51] When baby Yoda was shooting at them. Mando was trying to. I think that's the wrong button. I love that. So then, um, wait, that was here. That was, I think right here a little bit after this, they get to that scene where Mando's racing back to the ship. The troopers are in the speeder following them and shooting at them. I think that was here. And, um.

[00:41:19] Well, that was when they went and got, uh, uh, the guy, Coyne. Yeah. That, yeah, that's here. They, they're chasing. Right. Is it? They speed through the city too, right? Yeah. Yeah. They speed through the city. Well, and then. They pick them up. Then they get Coyne and then they run away. Yeah. And then they chase after him. Then they have to go to Coyne. Yeah. And so that just reminded me of, there's great Grogu cuteness throughout the movie.

[00:41:48] Um, that scene, the scene where he keeps pressing the buttons, which we've seen before, but it's still cute. I thought it was cute that when he was, um, when they were watching the fight in the arena, he was eating something like popcorn. And, uh, I liked how all the criminals always comment on him. Like they either want to eat him or it's like how much for the shoulder candy? Yeah.

[00:42:15] And you do sort of in the back of your mind, wonder if it's very good parenting for Mando to be bringing him into these situations. Bringing a baby to this. Remember he's 50 years old. He can take it. Yeah. Right. And then after that, like the speeder chase immediately, there's an awesome air chase. I think you were, that was probably where, where you were talking about Chris and he tells him to put a seatbelt on.

[00:42:41] And then, um, he says, uh, when he takes Coyne back to the rebel air base, he tells, uh, Colonel Ward, who's played by Scorny Weaver, kind of a small role for her, uh, that Coyne is ready to sing like he has them. And that's a reference to the goofy singing alien in Java's palace that was added in the special edition. Oh, that's what that's from. Yeah. Yeah. It sounded familiar. I'm like, what is that? I didn't, I didn't make the connection. That's why.

[00:43:11] I thought Coyne Weaver was, was great in the movie. Um, it was kind of a small role, but she was one of my favorite parts, honestly. Like I thought she, she, she probably did this movie just like, I, I, I'm like, why not do it for fun? Right. Like be in a star Wars, get to be a pilot, you know, an X-wing pilot, like why not? And I think she did a great job and I can sort of feel that coming through and her performance a little bit.

[00:43:38] But, um, there's a lot of things in stars movie. You have to say that you, no one ever actually says in real life to make it sound good. She did. Okay. I think she did. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, going back to the fight in the ring though, I think I was, I was a little surprised about how, um, I thought easy a time Mando had beating Rhoda, the hut in the fight.

[00:44:05] Like he, it didn't seem like it took him much. Like he got that sword to his neck and then yielded. Um, and looking at that hut, I'm like, well, he's, he's going to be, he's going to be a tough opponent, right? He's a big, ripped, ripped hut. 10 times as much. Yeah. Yeah. So. And when he like smashed it, like squished him, you know, like just laid flat, like right back on, just landed flat on him, you know, on his back.

[00:44:31] And I'm like, is his armor, the kind of armor that goes fully around his torso? Because if it's not, then he would just be flat. We have to assume. Yeah. It's like a cocoon. Yeah, exactly. That's the hut move though. I mean, don't, they have arms, but otherwise they're just giant slugs. So they're going to pancake you if they can. But, uh, um, you know, I, I thought the huts, I think they're difficult characters to utilize well, to be honest, because of what they are. Right.

[00:45:00] Like what can they do? They can either like sit around on a throne and act menacing. And I think this movie tried its best to give the huts more mobility and the ability to fight and things like that. And it worked okay for me, but I still look at those guys and go like, they're just big slugs. Like they do a lot of satisfying to see three fat slugs fighting and wrestling each other. I don't know.

[00:45:30] I thought it was great. And just seeing the two twins up on the throne where, you know, it evokes the scene of Jabba, but it's two of them. They're kind of uncomfortably close together. I thought it worked really well. I thought it was visually really cool. The visual of them on the throne for sure. Because like you said, we're sort of, it harkens back to Jabba the hut. And we've seen that before. And that's, that's what huts are good at, you know, just acting menacing. And you're right. Two of them together.

[00:45:56] They're uncomfortably cozy, but, uh, I don't know the fight at the end between the three of them. It was like rolling around hilariously sort of flopping around on the ground, head, butting each other, flailing their arms. I don't know. That didn't work as well for me that part. I liked it too. You fight when you're a hut. Yeah. I, I, I loved it. And I liked it because it was one of those star Wars things where there's three different things going on at the same time. There was the big fat slug fight.

[00:46:25] And then there was, um, Din Djarin fighting that cool ass bounty hunter that we haven't talked about yet. Yeah. Embo. And then there was, uh, Grogu facing off against this wolf creature all, all at the same time. That, that was really cool. And the ships, you know, with the impending doom of blowing everything up coming in. Yeah. They were on their way at that point still, but I really liked the hand to hand fight between Mando and Embo. Mando and Embo.

[00:46:53] They're sort of similar, but, uh, um, that part, that was my favorite part. And I kind of wanted to see more of that than the triple hut orgy fight going on at the same time. And, and the, the, the. Okay. To each his own. Yeah. I guess. Triple hut orgy fight. That's a star Wars movie. I gotta wrap that one down. I guess that was good. Yeah. Um, and Grogu doing. I'm sure there must be hut porn somewhere. Oh my God. I'm sure there is. Rich is Googling it right now.

[00:47:24] Oh my God. Um, Grogu and the dog, uh, that was fine too, but he was just trying to sort of subdue the dog with the force a little bit, but. Yeah. Calm him down. Yeah, exactly. So wait, we're skipping ahead though. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. No, I'm sorry. That's right. Well, can I put my two cents in about the huts? Please. So these huts are much more active and agile, which I found entertaining. I'm sure as Chris did. And Roda was amusing. Roda?

[00:47:53] Roda? He was amusing. Roda, I think. I tried to get into his character, but every time he spoke, I just giggled. Uh, he, he looked like a giant buffed worm, but he had this odd sound. It's like these fans all in all of Star Wars, you have this, the hundreds of fantastic creatures and beasts, you know, with like gruff talk and other worldly accents. And then, but here's Roda with an absolute normal workaday human voice. It was kind of weird. Oh my God. I found it so weird too.

[00:48:23] I didn't like that he spoke English in a normal, like English sounding voice. Like why can't they did it because they don't want kids to have to read subtitles, but I would have so preferred it to be Huttese and just subtitle it. You know, um, it also comes from the Clone Wars cartoon series where they had Hutt's speaking in English and also in like New Jersey accents or something like that. I can't remember. Zero the Hutt.

[00:48:51] I forget how he talked, but it was very much not. Yeah. Like, Hey, what's going on? What's the matter with you? You can't park there. No, it wasn't like that. I forget what it was, but it wasn't too far from that. Well. Listeners are like, no, Jason, that's not what it was, but it was English and it was in some weird accent that we're not used to with the Hutt's. Sure. I'd never seen a Hutt speak in like regular normal English before and I could not get used to it. Yeah. That was my thing too. But other than that though, I thought it was pretty cool to do a little bit of Hutt lore,

[00:49:20] you know, in this movie. Yeah. Yeah. No, I loved it. And, um, I really, really loved Nal Hutta, but wait, we're not there yet. So, so Ward is mad that, uh, that's Sigourney Weaver's character that Mando crossed the Hutt's at first, but, but he got this commander to her, uh, and she doesn't quite believe that they, the Hutt's were going to sell them out yet. Right.

[00:49:47] And, but what's interesting to me there is she's like, you know, they were going to pay you. And he's like, that's all right. And I'm like, Mando never seems that concerned about not getting paid. It felt like that happened in the series a lot too. I'm like, what does he have a trust fund? What's going on? I think he's wealthy. Then, um, I like, one of the things I did like about Rada is that they kept showing him getting along with Grogu to endear us to him. And that worked for me, although I don't know where he pulled those blue cookies out from.

[00:50:18] All right. Blue cookies. Before I thought, I thought you were talking about the little blue fishy worm things he was feeding them when they first met, but yeah, the cookies were there too later on. Yeah. Everything's blue. That was from, uh, their house, from, uh, his house. Oh, was it? Okay. Cause they're the same things that he had in the series at one point when he was in the little classroom and he kept like stealing them with the force from his classmate.

[00:50:45] It was funny when he tried to steal the snacks off of, uh, the Colonel's desk. Yeah. Force pull the bowl. Yeah. When they first met. So anyway, that, I mean, this movie to me kind of felt like two episodes of the Mandalorian because here he, he sends Rada off seemingly safe. He's gotten his man, the Imperial guy. And then he tells, uh, Ward, I'm going to take a break for a while. He's at his little homestead.

[00:51:14] It felt like the end of an episode. And then the next thing we see is in the middle of the night that the bounty hunter shows up. We don't even know it's a bounty hunter or how this is related. So it just felt like the start of episode two. And if it was two episodes, episode two was my favorite by far. Like I really liked the first half of this movie, but the second half, I, it just made me love the movie. Oh, that's great. Yeah. So anyway, but I'll, do you want to drive for a little while, Rich? What, what do you feel called to talk about?

[00:51:44] We don't have to keep going in plot order. Yeah. And you know, uh, I, I liked it because it took the best parts of a lot of the old classic star Wars and it's kind of stitched them together to with, with the characters that we love. But if you're, you know, I don't know how to like say it, the laser caged battle Royale death match in the arena. Super awesome. Some of those, what are they called? Dejaric creatures.

[00:52:14] They all look super familiar. My first thought was that those were the creatures from the, from the chess board between Chewbacca and R2 on the millennium falcon. Classic star Wars, creature monster fights. Always get an automatic thumbs up for me. Love the old Harryhausen special effects of the golden era back in the fifties and sixties. Big fan of all that stuff. You know, I even like the old King Kong versus Godzilla stuff. It's pretty good. Yeah. Special effects. Impressive. We're good enough.

[00:52:44] Uh, there was some things, uh, there was a couple of scenes though, where they kind of blurred the special effects a little bit. And I was like, eh, I like this. The special effects in the original series seems to be the Mandalorian series seem to be actually a little bit better than some of this movie. Hmm. In my opinion. But, um, To me, the stuff that stood out the most is the Hutts looked CG and I'm like, yeah, there's a CG thing right there.

[00:53:13] You know, I'm like, whatever. I don't, I'm, it's not going to kill the movie for me, but it takes me out of it a little bit. Yeah. And then there was this, there was a lot of scenes in this movie too, where it presented like miniatures. Like you'd have these big widescreen shots of a, you know, a planet or a settlement or a base. And it looked like, I don't know how to explain it. It's like, they looked like little miniatures. Like you're looking down on a diorama or something, you know?

[00:53:41] And I mean, you spend a lot of time in your train set. I wonder if that. Yeah. Well, I have to build another one right now, but yeah, absolutely. And it's exactly what it looked like. I love that style. I love that look. There was a lot of that in this movie. Yeah. I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah. I thought a lot of it looked, um, like, well, I, you know, in my mind, I know it's all CG, but I thought a lot of it looked like it.

[00:54:07] I don't think I really didn't like the, um, the big, uh, water snake thing that he has to fight with the dragons. What's it called? Something dragon, dragon snake, dragon snake. Dragon snake. Yeah. I just thought it was too much. It was like two over the top giant and silly in my opinion. So I didn't like that thing.

[00:54:31] Um, I was okay with the monsters in the, in the, the battle Royale. Um, but that I, you know, the big snake I couldn't do the huts actually. I didn't, they didn't bother me. I thought they looked okay as far as CG effects went. Um, but what I did really like about this movie is it felt to me like there were actually some really good, like real locations.

[00:54:59] Like a lot of the Mandalorian TV show is shot on that thing called the volume, right? Where it's a big room and they can, they can like project the footage or whatever onto the walls and the actors are in there and they're actually like reacting to it or something like that. I don't know exactly how it works. It's like a cylinder, I think, you know, like in the round, but I've read that, uh, that this movie had some of that, but not, it had more real locations, big sets, whatever the scene called for. And you'd probably. So it did feel bigger.

[00:55:26] You'd expect that in a full budget, you know, feature film. Right. But, um, the city Shikari or, uh, the moon Shikari, it was basically a city. That was one of my favorite locations in this film. I thought it's a new location. So it had, it was invented or added to star Wars canon for, for this movie, but it quickly became one of my favorites.

[00:55:50] And I thought it more than like almost any other star Wars place. It felt like it was like lived in, there were people around. It wasn't just digitally created. Um, and I could see some sort of real world earth, like city features in there, but with this like sci-fi fantasy sheen over top on top of it, or really like a star Wars effect put to it. Right.

[00:56:19] To me, it felt like New York city at night, but with a layer of star Wars on it. And I really liked that it had those like raised train tracks that you see and dark side alleys and stuff. And unlike more, more real than course. Yeah. Somehow. I was just going to say course to course, not has never looked real to me. And it's always bothered me a little bit. Mos Eisley is a better city, but it's so old West desert. Like it's, it's not like a modern city. Right.

[00:56:47] And then Lucas kind of ruined it with star Wars, Chicago or something. Yeah. Or New York. Like you said, Lucas kind of ruined Mos Eisley. I thought with all the special editions and everything added, I thought honestly it was better, simpler. But this place I thought was just amazing looking and it just felt real. And I could imagine, I don't know if I'd want to be there, but I could imagine myself in a city there like that. Yeah. And so, um, and he's almost like Batman there, you know, we've made a, uh, parallel with

[00:57:16] Mando and Batman before, but here I, I, this is the first time I'm having this thought, but even more, cause he like grabs a little, um, Greedo, like Rodian out of its crib and saves it or something. Yeah. So now, so yeah, that made me think we have baby Yoda. We saw baby hut and now we had a baby Rodian too. They're really, they're really going hard on the baby versions of, uh, star Wars aliens. But anyways, I thought Shikari was amazing and I love, I'd, I'd love to see a whole movie take place there.

[00:57:46] And, uh, so speaking of effects, I think it was one that was clearly lots of digital effects, but it felt like a real place to me. Yeah. That's how I felt about Navarro when they went back to Navarro. It was so much more brighter and vibrant than it was in the series because, you know, they've been, uh, liberated at this point. So the storm troopers were gone. Everybody was gone. A lot more color.

[00:58:11] And then just seeing where, uh, Mando kicks back when he's off duty, you know, I thought that was pretty cool. I have a question for you guys though. I did notice though, in this city that all of the like speeders and vehicles were kind of in that retro fifties futuristic style that we've seen in star Wars. And of course you guys, I'm sure remember the absolutely terrible, like Vespa biker gang

[00:58:40] from Bunker Boba Fett that I'm pretty sure everyone hated. That was in this movie a little bit, but I don't think it was nearly as bad because it was, it was more gritty and more dirty, even though it still had that style. So, yeah. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't notice that, but maybe now that you mentioned it, I might, I mean, I also think about in, was it attack of the clones when Obi-Wan was, it was sort of like a noir there for a little while and he visited this fifties diner.

[00:59:10] That was as bad as the Vespas in my opinion, because it's so, or, or in the pod races when you have those announcers being like, okay, everybody, it's like taking too much literally right out of our world and it just pulls you right out of it, you know? But I did not feel that with this town, but like I said, maybe if I watch it again, I might. No, I'm glad you didn't. I mean, it, it came to my mind when I saw the design of those vehicles, but I'm like, this is, this is fine. This works.

[00:59:38] Like it sort of references our real world, but it's still Star Wars-y and it doesn't call attention to itself, right? Like those frigging Book of Boba Fett guys did. I think I prefer like the Millennium Falcon. They use all the language as if it's a Corvette, but it doesn't look anything like a Corvette, you know? You know, it's a hot rod. He talks about modifying it. He says it's the fastest thing ever, but it looks like a hunk of junk or, you know, it's like a spaceship. Yeah.

[01:00:08] I never understood that. What do they mean a hunk of junk? I thought it looked awesome. That's just Princess Leia being snarky. Right. Yeah. Well, I want to talk about Nal Hutta because first off, when they're taking him there, I liked how this wolf creature was just playing with this Anzelan little Babu Frick guy, not

[01:00:33] killing it, just licking it and gnawing it, nosing it around. But then you see the bounty hunter guy come down and it's, this is Embo. He, he was in Clone Wars too. So it's an existing character. He had that wolf creature as his pet, I think.

[01:00:53] Like, but, um, he has a very cool look, his big, wide brimmed headpiece, his broad shoulders and just the way he rarely says anything and his stance and all that. And it kind of reminds me of, of, uh, the way we felt about Boba Fett when we first met him. Like, yeah, he's a bad guy, but he's cool and he, he's, he doesn't talk or anything.

[01:01:20] And I kind of liked that this bounty hunter made it out alive at the end. And, uh, you know, like he's the kind of character you'd like to see in future stories. They should make a mini series out of it. No, I'm just kidding. But, uh, I liked that. I liked this, uh, adversary for Mando a lot in this movie. Yeah. Kind of a darker version of him. So they get to now how to, and, um, man, I, I don't think this is, this is the home world of the Hutts.

[01:01:48] I don't think it's been seen in any, um, live action things before only animation and games. And it's always called like a swamp planet, but, um, it was just so beautiful the way the light came through the trees and just the big trees. And the music, like that's another thing that I loved about this movie. Ludwig Gorenson came back to compose it and you hear the typical Mandalorian themed, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[01:02:18] But there's little added things in there to develop it a little bit. But then we get like this wind instruments in this, uh, swamp planet, uh, in the peaceful moments, peace and quiet moments that just really, really added to the emotion of it for me. And then, uh, we didn't talk about it before, but when he gets to the moon of Shakara, they had this like pulsing techno, almost like Blade Runner esque kind of stuff. It's so cool.

[01:02:46] I love that they're playing with different kinds of things and not just doing John Williams as great as he is. Just try some different things. I loved it. I thought the score was amazing as well. Um, obviously the Mandalorian theme is great, but that synthy music or whatever it was in Shikari was, was so surprising to me because it's, it's, it's not Star Wars at all, but I thought it was perfect for the scene actually. Yeah. And it really stands out. Like it's a bold move.

[01:03:14] Like it could have been bad to do something that distinct, but I thought it worked. I thought it worked too. And I've heard a lot of compliments for it too. I think other people are liking it. That's good. And the, the little Anzelans, uh, they kind of remind me of gremlins, you know, they kind of talk under their breath. You hear, if you listen close, you can hear what they're saying. Like when they get to, uh, so they, baby Yoda and the Anzelans go to now how to try to save Mando. And he's like, he's inside. We've got to go find him and bring him help. You know, stuff like that.

[01:03:43] Or big pipe, huh? Big pipe. Big pipe. Um, so then when he's taken before the hut twins and we see Rada bound to this electric torture device, and then they threatened to do the same to Grogu after Mando, Mando dies. I kind of like that. Like, Oh, you assholes. They both live for hundreds of years. So why not torture them for hundreds of years?

[01:04:12] And then they take his helmet off. And so I thought about, you know, that's a big part of the Mando story. But before we've only seen him take his helmet off by choice. It was once when he was saying goodbye to Grogu when Luke Skywalker was there. And then, uh, he also took it off in front of IG 11, but that didn't count. And then he took it off. Um, when they had that one mission where they had to infiltrate the Imperial facility. Right.

[01:04:43] And, um, he had to act like one of them. Um, and so he had to atone for that by bathing in the living waters beneath the ancient mines of Mandalore. But I think this is the first time we've seen an enemy take it off. And it just seemed like very much a violation. You know, it felt like privacy. Totally. Like, Oh, how dare you? Yeah, exactly. Shame on you. And then, and so then we find out like he has to go bathe in the waters below the mines to atone when he chooses to.

[01:05:12] But I guess if an enemy does it, the only way to not be an outcast is to kill them all. Kill them all. That's right. Which is badass because he did. And then there's always a trap door with a hut. So he gets ejected down into the, into this cave. And first he fights what I found out were Amani gladiators. Those like hooded creatures that poke their heads up from under the water.

[01:05:40] But then this, uh, dragon snake comes up and I had the complete opposite reaction of you, Chris, for one thing in the movie. Um, I loved seeing Mando be a badass, but as you guys were saying, like with his fight with Radha and other times he just wipes the floor with everybody. No problem. Yeah. Never seems like he's in any trouble.

[01:06:01] Then this fucking big giant creature comes up and I just loved how it had like pale slimy skin and it looked so unique with its big skull looking head with its big maw gaping maw. And, um, right next to little tiny Mando with this thing hovering over it with the light coming down was just such a beautiful shot. And it looked like something out of a fantasy story or something.

[01:06:26] And I'm like, Oh, this is the, I mean, I know he's not going to die, but this is the first time I feel afraid for him in this movie. So I loved it. That was that moment was when I really, the, my appreciation for the movie kicked up a notch just as it was going down a couple of notches for Chris. Interesting. Yeah. I can see your point, but yeah. I'm not trying to convince you. I'm just telling you. No, I hear you. It's, it's just a little, something about it is just too much for me. Like he, the, the other, um, what, what did you call them?

[01:06:56] The guys he fought first down there? Uh, Amani gladiators. Yeah. I thought that was cool. And I, and I liked the setting of it where like you're sort of half underwater and so they can hide under there and stuff. It was a little bit, um, like I thought that was sort of scary and unsettling and stuff like that. And I'm like, okay, he's, he's good. He's, he's been in this, uh, troubling scene and he's come out the other side and it's all fine.

[01:07:22] And then there's this mega snake that nobody just suddenly appears, just suddenly appears out of nowhere. And nobody could realistically survive that. Even the Mandalorian. He did. It was huge. He didn't survive it. I mean, he, he escaped. Yeah. The end Zealots and Grogu used a bomb to blow a hole out. And that's the only way he got away. And then it was really satisfying to me to see the Hutts being fed to him at the end and eaten just like they wanted to eat baby Yoda. Okay. So I like that. I suppose. Yeah. I did get some satisfaction.

[01:07:51] Like a snake. I did get some satisfaction out of the twins getting eaten by their, their, their snake, their giant snake. So I'll, I'll give you that. It was worth it maybe to see them go down. There's a delicacy for the snake too. What'd you think of it, Rich? I, you know what? The whole idea of fighting creatures, the, the first ones you mentioned, uh, money, half underwater and half above water. That kind of shit freaks the crap out of me. I'm like, Oh God.

[01:08:21] It's the same reason I'm scared of sharks. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was a bit like the trash compactor scene in Star Wars. Yeah. It sure was a thing going around. Absolutely. Yeah. That stuff that gave me more anxiety than the snake. Once the dragon snake showed up, I was kind of like, Oh crap. How's Mando going to defeat this? And then he's like, kind of just like, you know, yeah, this look of terror. Yeah. He's like, I'm fucked. What am I going to do? He kept looking around and finally, uh, his helmet was thrown down to him by the huts.

[01:08:51] And it's right. Grabbed up, grabbed his helmet. And he seemed to like gain some sort of confidence or something. And then that's when he kind of went into action and escaped. But it's like, wow, man. Yeah. How do you do something like that? I don't know. It's stuff like that. I'm not thinking a whole lot. I'm just watching. And then, so whatever the outcome is. Yeah. I mean, whatever the outcome is, I'm putting my full trust and, and, and into the director and the, you know, the showrunners and everybody in the writers.

[01:09:18] And I'm just like, in this particular case, what happened, I was satisfied with. So I was like, oh, thank God. There's a fight with another gay. Jesus Christ. That was intense. Yeah. I mean, when I'm watching it, I'm, I love movies that make me feel something. If it's a scary movie or a romance or anything. And this whole movie, I was feeling like, oh yeah, oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. And then that scene came along. I was like, oh my God. You know, the first time I really, really felt something.

[01:09:48] So then, um, Mando tells Grogu to go back in their little ship with the Anzal. By the way, I loved how on the way there, they're in the ship and Grogu's the biggest one in the ship. It was the opposite. That was funny. I enjoyed that. That was pretty cool. For once, he's the biggest guy in the ship. Yeah. Yeah. So then it's like a sad moment because you think Grogu's leaving and then Mando has to fight more guys off running through the force, which was just gorgeous.

[01:10:16] And, uh, then you find out that I guess the dragon snake bit him, right? So he was poisoned. Yeah. That's what happened. And he falls over in the forest to die. It seems like. And then you just see this, uh, part of the movie was my favorite because it started to slow down and you hear the sounds of the forest around and bugs are crawling over him. Um, and it's like, Oh fuck man. What's that's gross. What's going to happen? And then Grogu pops up and eats one. Yeah.

[01:10:45] It's such a triumphant moment. Like he gets to do his thing, you know? Bugs don't scare me. You think the bugs are going to like play a role in healing them or something like that. And then of course it has nothing to do with it. It's just so. It was great. Grogu can reappear. And then even from this point on, they really took their time. Like Favreau really took his time letting the emotion build. And I say he, he knows how to great, make great moments.

[01:11:13] And it just, you really start to appreciate the beautifulness of the setting, the gnarled trees and the sounds and the pools of dark water. And then, um, um, Grogu by his side, trying to nurse him back to health. And he made a little mud hut for him, which is maybe like the mud hut Yoda made for himself on Dagobah. Maybe that's something they do. I'd say exactly the same thing. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:11:42] But it wasn't big enough. So there was another cute little moment. Just need a little more practice. Bong, bong. Yeah. Yeah. Right. What did you guys think about this helper that he found out there? A little out of nowhere, in my opinion. Yeah. Like he's just this weird guy living, fisherman, they, they call them, uh, living in the middle of the forest. Uh, so I guess it was, Grogu needed help, I guess. And he needed food and stuff like that.

[01:12:10] And this is the way they found to do it. But I did think it was a little out of nowhere. I actually thought all of this stuff while he was nursing him back to health took a little too long for me. Like I, I appreciated the fact that the movie slowed down for a minute and we got to spend some time just with Grogu without Mando being there to mentor him and, or do anything really because he was unconscious, which is fine. Grogu had to go find food.

[01:12:37] But yeah, this, this guy in the forest reminded me of a Gungan a little bit, um, which is what Jar Jar Binks was. Yeah. Um, yeah, I can see that. Uh, and then, and then that guy was the key to, um, to providing the antidote for the poison that Mando had. And I thought that was a little weak, like it would make, why couldn't they have had Grogu

[01:13:03] somehow figure that out or, or write it so that he didn't need this other character that came out of nowhere to like show him how to heal him. I think it would have done more for Grogu's character than anything. So. Yeah. He got lucky finding this nice guy who would protect him from the bounty hunter and give him the antidote to the poison. Yeah. Like I think there might've been a better way to do that. I mean, I didn't really dislike it, but it wasn't perfect.

[01:13:30] But, but I mean, I, I, I felt like, okay, Deus Ex Machina, but still, I still did get that feeling. Like if Grogu hadn't stayed back, Mando would have died. He would have. Absolutely. And as simple as that is, and it almost feels like pushing a little emotion button or something. It gets me. Like, I love that they take care of each other, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. No, it's, you're, you're absolutely right.

[01:13:54] Like they are a, they're a pair, they're a partnership and, and they, uh, the old take care of the young and the young take care of the old. That's the way. And I get that. And it's really good. It's really good. But yeah, I think it could have been depicted a little better. Grogu's older by the way, but it still works. Exactly. It still works. Uh, it was like, uh, I, the puppet works too. Like it's, he goes up and feeds him the poison under the, I mean the poison, the cure under

[01:14:23] the helmet, but he doesn't know if it's going to work. And I liked that they had the guy say, you know, this probably won't help. And you're just going to have to come to terms with that. We all, and we're like, yeah, whatever guy. But anyways, um, he gives him the cure. But you see Grogu's ears pointed down like a cat when it's sad or something. And it's just so effective. Yeah. And then he crawls in under his arm and lies with him. Right. Like, fine. That's nice. Come on.

[01:14:50] How can that not warm your heart? See, Rich loves the battles and I'm like all into this kind of stuff. I mean, it all works together. You need it all. It does though. It all does work together. I actually enjoyed this part too. You did, yeah. My question is, you said you saw it twice, right, Jay? Yeah. On second watch, did it still hold up or were you like, oh yeah, this might be a little too long? Uh, you know, it was conspicuously long and, but I enjoyed it.

[01:15:20] I thought it was, um, I thought, man, I bet you some people are going to think this is too long, but I think it's a bold move. Um, maybe it could have been a little shorter, but I wouldn't want it to be much shorter. I, I, well, upon a first watch, I think it was perfect because you're watching this. No, I was still, uh, caught up in the whole thing. Yeah. Actually I was too. My, my, what's going to happen next? My experience with things like that is I often like it more the second time I watch it

[01:15:48] because I sort of know what to expect and I, I don't have to worry about certain things and I can just sort of take it for what it is. So I only saw the movie this afternoon. So I, it's like for the, just the one time. And so, uh. I liked it more the second time. Did you? Yeah. I, I, I wonder if I would too. Yeah. I'm find out maybe. This particular section too. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:16:14] I mean this for me, like that big dragon snake and then this whole thing with the beautiful planet and the, and the, you know, just heartwarming series of events and a little bit harrowing because even though, you know, man, I was not going to die. You still can't have a worry for him. Just kicked the movie up to another level for me. And so, and then, um, the fights that happened at the end that we kind of already talked about were just as good, if not better than everything else.

[01:16:42] So I was left really satisfied by the end. It's funny how we, how we, uh, perceive these things, right? It's like during the, the dragon snake battle that we were like, Oh my God, is Amanda going to die? But then when Amanda was actually dying, I was like, yeah, he's not going to die. Nah, he'll be fine. Yeah. He's going to be fine. You know, Grogu is going to take care of him. He's going to do his thing. He's going to grow up. He's going to mature. Yeah. That'd be a bold move if Grogu gives him the cure and then he just dies and Grogu buries

[01:17:10] him or kick everyone's ass. Right. His feet are still sticking out. Right. Yeah. He was taught. Well, he just like, takes everything down with a force squashes everybody. He goes up into this grizzled, angry, like Rambo type or something. Yeah. Most powerful Sith in the universe. All right. But then, I mean, I might as well, I'm really close to the end.

[01:17:38] So we already talked about the fights with the Hutts and everything. And then, um, the X-Wing squadron comes in and these are, uh, characters we've all seen before. All played by Star Wars TV directors and creatives. There's Trapper Wolf, who's Dave Filoni, who's now taken over as head of Lucasfilm, by the way, from Kathleen Kennedy. Um, Carson Teva as Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. No, other way around. Carson Teva is the character. Job Dodger played by Rick Famuyiwa.

[01:18:08] Sash Ketter played by Deborah Chow. And Lieutenant Reed played by Lee Isaac Chung. Blow the shit up. And then the Mando and Grogu and Rhoda jumped for it. Just in time. Yeah. I thought we were going to see maybe Grogu force, force levitate them out rather than just jump and land in the water. Um. It was pretty high. Hey, yeah. Pretty high.

[01:18:35] But, uh, I mean, obviously Mando is a jet pack, so no problem. He could just jet pack out of there. He jumps out, flies away. Yeah. But like they all end up in the water. So I guess he decided not to use it. He grabs Grogu. Sorry. Sorry. You gotta, you have to plummet to the, uh, to the water. I, but I thought maybe we'd see Grogu lower them down or at least lower the hut down, uh, slowly, but nah, they just go for it, which is a little more dramatic.

[01:19:05] It's just a jump. Yeah. Jason and I used to cliff jump. Yeah. It reminds me of that. How high? How high? How high? How high? Oh, it was like 60 feet, right? Yeah. Holy shit. That's pretty high though. Yeah, it was scary. Yeah. Which looks a lot higher when you're up there. Oh my God. Yeah. Rich was the bravest, but our friend Tim would sit there and talk himself out of it sometimes. Like the longer you sit on the edge, the least likely you're actually going to do it. Oh God.

[01:19:34] There's a fine line between brave and stupid though. I go up a ladder and get to the top and be like, oh my God, this is so much higher from here than it looks from the ground. I don't know if I could jump off a cliff that high. Jeez. Well, that was 30 years ago. I don't climb ladders no more. Yeah. Good point. So is there anything we missed that you really wanted to mention, either one of you guys? Not really.

[01:19:59] I mean, I wanted to talk about the score, which we already did. So like, it's really good there. Yeah. No, I think that mostly covers it for me. I'm wondering where we go from here a little bit. If we're going to have more Mando. Because last time, as I said, season four had been written and we thought that was next.

[01:20:24] And around that time, they announced that Dave Filoni was going to write and direct a movie that would tie together plot lines from a Star Wars TV series, the Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Book of Boba Fett, maybe Skeleton Crew. And, but then it feels like Star Wars cachet has gone down since then. Series maybe haven't been doing as well. And so it's uncertain. And Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as head of Lucasfilm.

[01:20:54] Dave Filoni took her place. And it's sort of suggested that the success of this movie would help them figure out what to do next and whether to go forward with more Mandalorian movies, that Dave Filoni movie or what. Well, it's not that successful. It has a 62% from critics on Rotten Tomato. Maybe nobody cares about that. It has an 87% audience score, which is the highest of any Disney era Star Wars film. Tied to third one. Nice.

[01:21:22] I often agree with critics, but not this time. I think they're wrong. It had the lowest three-day opening weekend of any post-Disney Star Wars, purchased Star Wars movie at 81.6 million with Solo being second at 84.4. So I'm hoping that people are just kind of waiting to see it on Disney Plus since they're already paying for that. But, you know, the vibe, the feeling around this has been surprisingly negative.

[01:21:51] I was like, what happened? I thought people liked Baby Yoda. But maybe it was because, like you said, the trailers didn't excite people. I don't know. I don't know. I also read that it had a pretty strong drop-off from first weekend to second weekend after release because we're a bit late seeing it, right? Now, movies drop off all the time and some a lot. But apparently this one was pretty big. But the word of mouth is good, though. So I just think people are, you know, strapped for cash right now.

[01:22:21] Well, it could be a bad time. And you're right. They could be just saying, we're already paying for Disney Plus. It'll be on there in a few months. We'll just watch it then. I don't know. So it's made money, though. Like, it's not a financial failure. But I guess it has to make a certain X number of times the budget to be a true success. But, you know, I don't know. And in the Star Wars universe right now, what do we have coming up?

[01:22:50] There's a Starfighter movie coming, right? Next year or the year after. With Ryan Gosling, right? And that'll be past The Rise of Skywalker in the timeline. So the farthest we've seen in the timeline, I think. Right. But do you think that will have any play into what you were just saying about how it'll sort of start incorporating things from TV shows and tying it all together a little bit, I wonder? I don't know. I don't think so. No.

[01:23:16] But because it's after Rise of Skywalker, and I just, from what I've read about it, it's more about the future than the whole Mandoverse stuff, which is in between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens. They can create their own new thing. Yeah. And then there's, I mean, they've announced so many movies that haven't come to fruition, but that one's definitely happening.

[01:23:37] And there was one that I thought sounded interesting, James Mangold directing a story about the origins of the Force back thousands of years before. But I don't know where that is. But the one that puzzles me the most is, oh, who's that guy? Damn it. I'm going to have to look this up. There's a guy who's writing, supposedly doing a trilogy of movies.

[01:24:06] There's a guy who's writing, Simon Kinberg. What the hell are you guys doing? I mean, I guess he did.

[01:24:34] He had a lot to do with the Rebels cartoon or something, but I'm very skeptical. Not on the same page with that dude, huh? No. Not at all. Well, and there was a time too, when I think Catherine Bigelow was attached to direct a Star Wars movie. Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron. Right, right, right. And they made a teaser for that.

[01:25:00] And I remember talking about on this podcast, I think, how much I loved that and how excited I was for that. And then it just disappeared. It got canceled. Well, then Wonder Woman 1985 came out that she wrote and directed and it was the worst thing ever. It was the worst. Yeah. I think that might've killed. Well, the Game of Thrones guys were supposed to do a trilogy. Taika Waititi was supposed to do one. Rian Johnson was supposed to do something.

[01:25:27] Boy, there has been so much more canceled Star Wars than there has been. Rian Johnson. Like, create-made Star Wars. Wow. So we'll see. But, you know, as far as The Mandalorian goes, I was thinking about how I was liking the series. I thought season three probably was trying too much to be a springboard for other things and they should have brought the focus back in. But I still like the series.

[01:25:55] And when they announced the movie, I was excited to see a Mandalorian movie. But all said and done, it reminds me of when Star Trek The Next Generation ended because they wanted to do movies with that. I was like excited when it happened. But then it quickly became apparent that it felt like the end of an era because you get used to spending regular time with all these characters. And then you just see them once every few years for a couple hours.

[01:26:22] And it's kind of like graduating high school and then you just see people at reunions or something. And in hindsight, I really – I do wish that they had just kept The Mandalorian as this sort of Old West Story of the Week series. Right. And I don't know if there's any chance it could come back as a series. But I just really hope that the executives don't go, oh, well, the movie didn't do as well as we wanted it to.

[01:26:51] So let's just not do anything with The Mandalorian again. Yeah. Because I know Jon Favreau wants to do more. That's a possibility for the Disney machine. Yeah. But when you see something every once in a while instead of every day, don't you appreciate it more? Executives always take the wrong lessons from things too, right? They'll look at this movie and go, this was a huge failure, so we're not doing it ever again. Yeah. Where they should be like, you know what? We had a good thing going. Yes.

[01:27:18] We tried something, it didn't work, so let's go back to that good thing. Yeah. That would be perfect. I think it's a mistake to try to capitalize on something that's working by changing it into something else. Yeah, right. You know? Oh. Go figure. So, anyway, I hope that this isn't the end for The Mandalorian. You know, these days, they don't just take box office into account and hopefully, you know, they'll look at streaming.

[01:27:45] Maybe they'll get more people signing back up to Disney Plus or something when it comes back on there. It's a strange error with the streaming. This movie will be, I'm sure, will be a huge hit on Disney Plus. I don't know if they tell people if they report on viewership or anything on that, but I bet you plenty of people will watch it on there. Yeah. I'll watch it again on there for sure. Yeah. You know, it's totally regional too because, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but my wife is a manager of a movie theater, Regal Stadium 14.

[01:28:14] And she said that The Mandalorian movie didn't do that well in her theater. Yeah. But across the board in other areas of the country, it did some places, it did pretty well, like in the East Coast and actually in the North. But then, you know, the movies that are doing well right now and outperforming The Mandalorian and Grogu are all the horror movies, like Scary Movie and all those other ones that are out right now. Yeah. Backrooms, which I might be going to see tonight. Obsession. I saw that. It was really good.

[01:28:44] I've heard. It's amazing. It's hard to watch, but it's good. Okay. Yeah. I asked her, I was like, why do you think that is? Why are people choosing these campy horror movies over Star Wars? And she's like, I don't know. People are stupid. Yeah. I think it's just a bit of Star Wars fatigue. Could be. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:29:08] Because the articles are framing it like, oh yeah, these YouTubers, the backrooms comes from YouTube as Obsession, I guess. And they're like, these YouTubers are, you know, they're like hungry to make good films, unlike The Mandalorian. But I just, I don't agree with that. I think Jon Favreau is, it's a beautiful movie with some, I mean, it's not like super edgy. Of course, it's a family movie, but it's got some heart in it. You know, I think it's great.

[01:29:37] Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, Jon Favreau seems like he loves what he does, right? Yeah. And you can feel that for sure. But it, I don't know, maybe the audience is just looking for something that they haven't seen before. And like backrooms fills that. I haven't seen it, but I've heard. Yeah. Obsession also haven't seen, but everything I've heard is these are, these are small indie, indie movies that are just speaking to people right now. I don't know.

[01:30:07] They're fresher. They're fresher. Apparently they appeal to like younger generations. Like we're old guys, right? So I don't know. Yeah. That's true too. But who knows? But I'm curious about those movies. I'm interested in these movies. Yeah. Well, I am too. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah. I'm going to take Nico to see backrooms. And we saw this other movie, Exit 8. That's, there's movies, there's this thing about liminal spaces right now, which are like hallways or room.

[01:30:37] Just side rooms, but they're creepy and other dimensional somehow. Anyway, getting way off track. Do we want to, do we have any notes before we close it out? Look at that one right there. Yeah. Creepy. It's your liminal space behind you, Rich. I'm not leaving this room after this. Some shadows moving around back there. Oh gosh. Any notes? I don't have any more notes. No, I'm done. Okay. I just had a couple of quick ones. I was glad to see Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder's name in the opening credits.

[01:31:07] They are the two actors that typically inhabit the armor, not Pedro Pascal. I think he's usually just in there when he has to take his helmet off and otherwise it's voiceover. And I read that typically Brendan Wayne is usually the acting Mandalorian and Lateef Crowder is the action stuntman Mandalorian. Cool. Wow. They did a great job. They sure did. Mando, yeah. Cool jobs, man. Mando, still, he moves incredible. Yeah. He reminds me of Captain America. Yeah.

[01:31:35] It's all about the movement and the style and the body language. Utilizing all his, yeah, all his tools and just like kicking ass all the time. I, another note, I think it's called The Mandalorian Grogu because it's, the story's inspired by this classic 1970s Japanese manga and film series, The Lone Wolf and Cub, which I've never read, but always heard about.

[01:31:57] And it's about a disgraced samurai who wanders feudal Japan as a assassin, hired assassin while traveling with his young, little young son going place to place, taking on dangerous jobs, encountering colorful characters, developing a father-child bond, you know. That sounds similar. The same thing. Yep. What else? The fry cook was Scorsese. We didn't mention that, but that's Martin Scorsese doing the voice of the fry cook. Oh my God. The little, the little guy in the, in the booth.

[01:32:27] The forearm guy? Yeah. He didn't want to give any information. No, I found his forearms a little weirdly unsettling. Like they, they, just the way they moved all independently. It's cool. But I thought it was, it distracted me. Like it was weird. I was trying to follow what all his arms were doing all the time. Make a better fry cook with forearms though. That's true. It also requires four brains, by the way. Wait. Wait a minute. So two arms requires two brains?

[01:32:56] How many brains do you have, Rich? Well, yeah, it's exponential. Clearly at least two. You got to bifurcate four times. Beep, beep. Four brains. One brain per arm. That's true. Like an octopus. Right. Okay. All right. That is our show. Thanks so much for listening to everybody.

[01:33:23] It was fun to podcast with you guys again. And the three of us should be back in, I think it's July when we'll be podcasting on the upcoming new Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Burn. Oh my God. Evil Dead Burn. Oh my God. Looking forward. Got a hard on for that one. It looks like action horror. Action horror. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Crazy. The only thing better would be action horror comedy. Oh, you guys got to watch this show Widow's Bay. I've seen it.

[01:33:53] It's a horror comedy on Apple. It's pretty funny. I love it. It's great. It's funny and fun and like horror island, baby. But it's not as good as Evil Dead. No. All right. In the meantime, Chris, what are you up to over on the Talking Dead right now? Oh, same as we've been doing. Uh, rewatching the original show kind of slowly. Um, but, uh, we're next episode will be starting season five and it's been fun.

[01:34:22] So, um, check that out if you can. Talking dead podcast.com. So that's my favorite episode. Season five, episode one. There you go. Wow. I'm looking forward to doing it. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's talking dead podcast.com as Chris said. All right. That is our show. Thanks for listening. All right. Great. We should eat. Is there any of that pizza left? I can bring you some warm or I can bring you some cold.

[01:34:52] From artificial intelligence to the gig economy to global volatility, the economy is changing at a dizzying pace. Enter the managing the future of work podcast, the chart topping and critically acclaimed podcast from Harvard business school hosted by me, Bill Kerr. And by managing the future of work project co-chair Joe Fuller, the show explores technology trends, demographic changes, the rise of the care economy, and many other forces transforming

[01:35:22] the landscape of work. We'll highlight the insights of business leaders, technologists, and experts like business round tables, Kristen Silberg on corporate workforce strategy and Khan Academy founder, Sal Khan on AI education and the future of work. With more than two and a half million downloads and close to 300 episodes, there is something for everyone. Follow HBS managing the future of work on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now.

[01:35:57] Have you ever wondered why Reese Witherspoon founded Hello Sunshine or where Kevin O'Leary got his start? Or even how Alex Earl became the most accessible founder to someone who may not even consider this space? Enter the Founder Mindset, the new podcast from Harvard Business School Foundry hosted by me, Reza Sakshu. As a leading educator in entrepreneurship, I've built multiple high-profile companies and mentored

[01:36:23] thousands of students and founders through the realities of starting and scaling ventures. And with the Founder Mindset, I'm sharing those lessons with you by sitting down with world-class entrepreneurs, including Witherspoon, O'Leary, Anne Earl, plus Tim Ferriss, and many more to break down exactly how they commit, decide, and build for impact. These aren't surface level interviews. Each episode, I challenge my guests to revisit their toughest moments, their boldest decisions,

[01:36:51] and the mindset that carried them through. Follow the Founder Mindset wherever you get your podcasts.