When The Mandalorian and Grogu was announced, it seemed like it had everything going for it. Star Wars movies have never had an easy path, which was made clear not only with the sequel trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story but also before Disney entered the picture, with the prequel trilogy. Yet, initially, The Mandalorian and Grogu seemed primed to be on track with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in terms of reception, especially considering both movies represented narratives falling outside of the traditional focus of many other Star Wars movies (that is, this wasn’t a story about the Skywalkers, the Jedi, or the Sith). The fact that the movie was spinning off of one of Star Wars’ best TV shows, The Mandalorian, also certainly helped, as it meant there would be a built-in fanbase for the film.
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Unfortunately, The Mandalorian and Grogu ultimately proved to be a box office flop, and while it arguably didn’t face the same level of scrutiny and backlash that other Star Wars films, such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, did, it also was far from the smash hit box office success that many fans—and, undoubtedly, Disney and Lucasfilm executives—were hoping it would be. There were various reasons for the movie’s mixed reception, including criticisms about the story not delivering on what the Mandalorian and Grogu trailer had promised in terms of a larger galactic impact and feeling targeted to a much younger demographic than is typical for most Star Wars movies and TV shows. Among the smaller criticisms was also chatter about Dave Filoni’s multiple Mandalorian and Grogu cameos; apparently, though, Filoni himself hadn’t wanted those cameos to be so extensive.
Dave Filoni Asked to Have His Cameos Reduced
Cameos are far from new in Star Wars; in fact, they are arguably a staple of the franchise. It therefore wasn’t surprising that Filoni had a cameo in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but what actually caused fans to react negatively was the number of appearances the new Lucasfilm co-president had. Specifically, Filoni appeared two separate times, first on a New Republic base when Din Djarin was going to speak to Colonel Ward (at which point Filoni was wearing his signature hat) and second flying into battle, as his Mandalorian X-wing pilot character named Trapper Wolf had done before, in the show. The second cameo in particular included multiple shots of Filoni. This number of appearances, some fans argued, was overkill.
Fans shouldn’t be too mad at him, though, as Filoni recently revealed that he’d actually shared a similar perspective. While speaking to Jon Favreau on the first episode of The Mandalorian and Grogu’s official podcast, Filoni said, “Let it be known that I asked for you to cut me out of the movie a lot more. I was in there more, and I was like, please, I want the movie to be good. Let’s not have a lot of me in there.” Not only does this suggest that Filoni was wary of appearing too much, but also, it sounds like, originally, he was shown even more than he ended up being in the final cut. If anything, then, fans who didn’t like these cameos (or at least the extent of the cameos) should be thanking Filoni. Unfortunately, that may mean turning their frustrations to Favreau instead—although, it should be said, this ultimately isn’t really a huge deal.
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