Many felt that the cute “The Mandalorian & Grogu” Super Bowl ad was a bit of a misfire from the Disney marketing team, as it attempted to parody the Budweiser Clydesdales commercials with a sleigh being pulled by tauntauns (another Jon Favreau/Lucasfilm call-back to “The Empire Strikes Back“).
However, there is a report tidbit from Variety talking about all the hurdles and hiccups that new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro will have to nagivate, that reveals there were some “internal concerns” (from Disney/Lucasfilm, which division isn’t named) that the spot isn’t going to move the needle and may explain why Disney launched a full trailer later on (which could have easily been aired in place of the Super Bowl spot).
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Adding that there is a “question mark” about the audience’s desire to see a large event film based on a streaming series like “The Mandalorian & Grogu” (a feature spinoff of the “The Mandalorian” series that has been mostly relying on the same mystery box marketing the franchise is known for), and go on to suggest that Shawn Levy‘s “Star Wars: Starfighter” led by Ryan Gosling would have been the more attractive offering to moviegoers (“Starfighter” won’t be arriving until 2027, so you can see the issue from these remarks).
This “concern” may explain why Disney marketing eventually dropped the full trailer days after the Super Bowl spot, when they could have easily released it online at the same time or hinted at it in the ad.
We suspect that Disney+ subscribers might wait instead of rushing out to theaters (a pricey ask as is), thinking the movie is a streaming project given a short theatrical release (a trend with other streamers like Netflix) and just wait until it ultimately lands on the app. Hopefully, we’re proven wrong, and the movie does great business in all markets.
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Then again, we won’t know the true impact until “The Mandalorian & Grogu” arrives in theaters on May 22. This could simply be misguided anxiety-fueled worries because they’re experimenting a little here (the first big “Star Wars” release since 2019) before a more traditional release with “Starfighter.”
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