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If you're looking for the lowdown on The Mandalorian and Grogu ending explained, then look no further than right here. We've got everything you need to know about the plot of the first Star Wars movie in seven years, helping you understand that action-packed adventure.
The film picks up after The Mandalorian season 3 and sees Din Djarin and Grogu set off on a mission involving Rotta the Hutt and a mysterious Imperial warlord called Commander Coin. Pedro Pascal returns as Mando, while Sigourney Weaver joins the galaxy as the New Republic's Colonel Ward.
Below, we've broken down The Mandalorian and Grogu ending explained, so you can get up to speed at a glance. Naturally, that means there are major spoilers ahead. Turn back now if you haven't seen the new Star Wars movie yet! If you're up to date, then this is the Way to our full breakdown.
The Mandalorian and Grogu ending explained
The film picks up with Mando and Grogu on a mission together to apprehend an Imperial warlord. But, the warlord ends up crashing in a craft and dying in the explosion, while Zeb Orrelios takes Mando and Grogu to safety. This gets Din Djarin told off by Sigourney Weaver's Colonel Ward, but she nonetheless gives him another task: to retrieve the kidnapped Rotta the Hutt.
Mando is reluctant to work for gangsters, but Ward says in exchange for finding Rotta, the Hutt Twins will give them information on another Imperial warlord: Commander Coin. So, Mando heads off to visit the Twins in a brand new Razor Crest gifted to him by Ward. They show him a hologram of young Rotta, in a fun call back to The Clone Wars movie, and then Mando and Grogu head off to the moon of Shakari to look for Rotta.
When they arrive, they learn that Rotta is actually a formidable fighter in an underground fighting ring. Rotta is resistant to Mando's attempt to rescue him and says Lord Janu, a local crime lord, has offered him his freedom after one last fight. Din Djarin and Grogu find Lord Janu in a bar, and, after a fight, learn that Janu intends to kill Rotta in a Dejarik match. That means he'll keep sending opponents at Rotta, drawn from the holographic, chess-style game Chewbacca and C-3PO play in A New Hope, until Rotta dies.
Rotta doesn't believe this when Mando tries to tell him and calls the guards on Din Djarin and Grogu. Grogu is taken captive by Janu and Mando is forced to fight. He and Rotta end up teaming up when it becomes clear Janu has indeed betrayed Rotta, and the Dejarik creatures escape into the crowd. In the chaos, Mando, Grogu, and Rotta escape, but Rotta tries to flee again because he thinks the Hutt Twins want him dead. Zeb Orrelios catches him.
It's then revealed by Rotta that Commander Coin and Lord Janu are actually one and the same, and Mando, Rotta, Zeb, and Grogu go to his estate to apprehend him. They successfully catch him after a chase with stormtroopers and return him to Ward, though Mando helps hide Rotta. Ward isn't happy, because she says New Republic intelligence has been cultivating a relationship with the Hutts.
Then, back on Nevarro, Mando arranges for transportation for Rotta to escape, but a bounty hunter named Embo arrives at Mando and Grogu's homestead and takes Mando captive. Grogu and the Anzellans follow in a tiny spacecraft. Embo takes Mando to Nal Hutta to face the Twins – they also have Rotta, whom they plan to kill very slowly. They drop Mando through a trap door and force him to fight a giant dragon snake.
With help from Grogu, who arrives and throws a bomb into the enclosure, Mando is able to defeat the snake, but he suffers a poison wound. The spacecraft is too small for Mando to escape Nal Hutta so he sends Grogu and the Anzellans away, except Grogu secretly stays behind. After Mando collapses from his wound, Grogu tries to take care of him alone. He eventually comes across a mysterious stranger, who gives the youngling food and a poultice to cure Mando.
The poultice works, and Mando and Grogu decide to stay and fight the Hutt Twins. They return to the palace and fight their way through droids to get to the Twins and Rotta, and a big fight ensues. It ends with the Twins and Rotta falling through the trap door into the dragon snake's lair, but Grogu catches Rotta with the Force and saves him. The dragon snake gobbles up both Twins. Bleugh.
Embo, meanwhile, flees. While Mando stays behind to battle the droids breaking into the palace's main room, Grogu and Rotta run towards a way out. Just as all hope seems lost, an X-wing squadron led by Colonel Ward arrives, with cameos from Carson Teva, Rick Famuyiwa's Jib Dodger, Lee Isaac Chung's Lieutenant Reed, and Dave Filoni's Trapper Wolf.
Mando, Grogu, and Rotta jump from an exploded wall in the palace, and Zeb picks them up. It turns out that the Hutt Twins were feeding information to the Imperials all along, which Janu told Ward. Rotta wants to stay behind and work for the New Republic, and Ward insinuates that Mando works for the New Republic, too, even though he insists he's an independent contractor. Then, in a sweet finale, Mando lets Grogu fly their new Razor Crest into lightspeed, and that's the end.
Who is Lord Janu and Commander Coin?
Lord Janu and Commander Coin are actually the same person, as Mando learns from Rotta. Commander Coin is an ex-Imperial warlord who is currently causing trouble on the moon of Shakari, running a fighting ring that holds Rotta the Hutt captive. Though he promises to give Rotta his freedom after one last fight, it turns out that he actually plans to kill Rotta with a Dejarik match, which involves throwing so many opponents at a fighter that they eventually die (with the opponents drawn from Dejarik, the chess-like game Chewbacca and C-3PO play in A New Hope).
Coin is also seen in The Mandalorian season 3 as a member of the Shadow Council plotting to undermine the New Republic.
Who is Rotta the Hutt?
Rotta the Hutt is the son of the late Jabba the Hutt, who was killed by Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi. Rotta was introduced to Star Wars canon in The Clone Wars movie way back in 2008, in a plot that saw him kidnapped by Separatists. Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano were sent to rescue him, and they transported him safely all the way back to Tatooine.
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, Rotta has broken away from his notorious family to become a star fighter in Lord Janu's underground fighting ring. The Hutt Twins, who are Rotta's aunt and uncle, are trying to get him back – while they lie to Mando that it's because they love Rotta, it's actually because they don't want any threat to their reign. At the end of the film, Rotta decides to stay and work for the New Republic: and, considering his fighting prowess, he'll surely come in handy.
Who is Embo the bounty hunter?
Embo is a bounty hunter first introduced in The Clone Wars TV show. He helped Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in a fight against pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka, and he also helped kidnap Palpatine – though he didn't get away with it. He also fought against Maul and his brother Savage Opress as the duo were establishing the Shadow Collective on behalf of the Hutts, and he worked with Boba Fett, too. Embo was ultimately pardoned by the New Republic, but he still works with the Hutts.
In The Clone Wars era, Embo had a pet anooba named Marrok (no relation to Inquisitor Marrok), though, in The Mandalorian and Grogu, he has a new anooba named Keibu. Just like in the animated show, Embo wears his big hat.
Who is Zeb Orrelios?
Zeb Orrelios is a main character in Star Wars Rebels, and he's a member of the Ghost crew: that is, the Rebel cell consisting of Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, Chopper the droid, and Kanan Jarrus (who died in Rebels). That makes Zeb a hero of the Rebellion. You also might remember him from his cameo in The Mandalorian season 3; then, like now, he at Adelphi Base, working for the New Republic.
Who is Colonel Ward?
Colonel Ward is a new character played by Sigourney Weaver. Not much is revealed about her in the film, but we do learn that she was part of the Rebellion and is now a commanding officer in the Outer Rim. "I think Jon [Favreau] knew very clearly that she was the same generation as Princess Leia, so she would have come up with her and the other rebels fighting against the evil Empire to establish this fledgling Republic," Weaver told us of her character. "And I think it's a very important job she's in as a commanding officer out in the middle of nowhere. There's no cavalry coming to save them if something goes wrong."
Does Mando work for the New Republic now?
Mando seems to have an arrangement at the start of the film that sees him pick up bounties for the New Republic while remaining, as he puts it, an "independent contractor." However, by the end of the film, it seems Mando has been fully accepted into the fold. When he protests that he doesn't actually work for the New Republic, Ward wryly responds: "Sure you are."
Is Grogu a Jedi? What's going on with his Force powers?
Grogu quit his Jedi training back in The Book of Boba Fett to return to Din Djarin, and, as of The Mandalorian season 3 finale, he was formally adopted by Mando and is in training as his apprentice. But, Grogu still regularly uses the Force, and is even seen meditating in the new film.
"He's not on the typical Jedi path of a youngling, but he has trained with some of the best Jedi teachers that there are," director Jon Favreau told us. "We know for sure he's studied with Luke Skywalker. There's implications that he may have crossed paths with Yoda, because he does recognize the name, is what we imply. And he also was there at the Jedi Temple before Order 66.
"So, it's a big part in talking to Dave Filoni, and by extension, to what he learned from George [Lucas], which is that the Force is about training," he continues. "It's about refining, just like an athletic ability or any skill. And we do see that, although Grogu is not serving under somebody who is teaching him, he still clearly is meditating and going through some version of the Jedi discipline. So, I think that his Force use has definitely leveled up a bit. Luke Skywalker didn't study under Obi-Wan for very long, but still refined his skills. So, I think that that's part of the path that's available to Grogu, as per what we've already learned from the previous Star Wars films."
So, Grogu isn't a fully fledged Jedi just yet, but he also hasn't given up on walking the Jedi path.
Is Grogu Mando's apprentice?
Yes, Grogu is officially Din Djarin's apprentice. Mando is actively teaching him the Way of the Mandalorian, and, as we see when Grogu goes on his own solo mission to save Din Djarin's life, the youngling is taking in all the lessons.
Din Djarin formally adopted Grogu in The Mandalorian season 3 finale, so that Grogu could be officially trained as a Mandalorian.
"Grogu is now a Mandalorian apprentice," Favreau told us. "He's been tasked with that, for those people who had watched the show. If you hadn't watched the show, what you need to know is that he is now going to be a Mandalorian in training, and so his father and teacher is taking him along on the adventures. What we learn through this is that Grogu's quite capable, but also Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, is a very good protector, and so he's always going to look out. And I think it's the next stage of their relationship, both as a father and son, but also as a teacher and an apprentice."
Who are the Anzellans who help Grogu?
We were introduced to these little guys in The Mandalorian season 3, and they live on Nevarro. They're not too keen on Grogu because he has a habit of grabbing them for hugs and squeezing them, though, in this film, they drop everything to help the youngling go and rescue Din Djarin on Nal Hutta.
Does The Mandalorian and Grogu set up Ahsoka season 2?
The Mandalorian and Grogu very subtly links to Ahsoka season 2 with the return of Lord Janu, AKA Commander Coin. He was glimpsed on the Shadow Council in The Mandalorian season 3, and some in the Shadow Council await Grand Admiral Thrawn's return. Thrawn finally returned in the Ahsoka season 1 finale. But, there is nothing explicit in the movie to remind us of this.
Does The Mandalorian and Grogu have a post-credits scene?
The Mandalorian and Grogu does not have a post-credits scene. Once the movie ends, you're free to leave the theater.
Does the film set up The Mandalorian and Grogu 2?
Nothing about a follow-up has been confirmed yet, and we still don't know what's going on with The Mandalorian season 4, either. But, the story is left very open for more adventures, and Sigourney Weaver even told us that she's hoping for more.
"Well, in an ideal world, I'd love to make another Mandalorian and Grogu, because it was so much fun to work with Jon Favreau," she said. "And I'm a huge admirer, and just to be in this world, for me, it was cool. And I really like my character, and I'd love to do more work with Pedro and his sidekick.
"So, I think that, secretly, we're all hoping maybe this could produce another one that would take us further into the Outer Rim and more adventures," she added.
Plus, Jon Favreau told us he has more ideas for Din Djarin and Din Grogu. "Creatively, I have a lot of plans, and I have a lot of thoughts about these characters, especially for Grogu," he told us. "Grogu is a character that is – his species lives for centuries. He's on a path to be both a Jedi and a Mandalorian. He's making certain choices and decisions, and he has a great teacher now. And so, as he develops and grows, there's opportunities for stories that would emanate from that."
That's a wrap on The Mandalorian and Grogu. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows, as well as our roundup of how to watch the Star Wars movies in order.
