The Mandalorian and Grogu

Even in the wake of (or despite) recent controversy, a Star Wars film is still a sure bet some six years after The Rise of Skywalker. Rather than start a brand new story arc, however, this spinoff film continues the hit Disney Plus series The Mandalorian, with Pedro Pascal reprising one of his most successful roles alongside Grogu (or “Baby Yoda”, should you prefer).

The trailer quite logically uses and extends Ludwig Göransson’s atmospheric, Western-inflected themes for the series (which earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series).

The trailer opens with Grogu holding a tiny telescope as the titular duo scopes out a scene for danger, with a perfect fifth in the brass heralding their arrival—the heroic score providing a bit of a counterpoint to Grogu’s diminutive stature. That fifth quickly shifts to a minor seventh and then a minor third, lending it a more distinctive, rudimentary aesthetic in line with the series as a sci-fi Neo Western of sorts. At 0:30 the music is cut for a visual punchline, as Grogu is denied what looks like a bowl of money that he tries to surreptitiously move towards himself using the Force.

Things take a stark turn at 0:35 with the introduction of the Grogu-themed shrill flute and the studio title card (Lucasfilm, of course), the epic percussion accenting steady, high strings. As the action unfolds on screen with Pascal and his animatronic sidekick laying waste to all kinds of creatures, synthetic and organic, a particularly epic version of the series theme unfurls. Its sturdy harmonic changes—from tonic to submediant to subdominant (skipping every other key down the piano in a minor key, in essence)—feel assured.

This instrumentation is particularly abrasive—notice how at 0:44 we get a minor second in the strings, only for the whistle to crack into the major third of the home chord and then slipping back into the minor third an octave down. Right after this move, the ships diving into the atmosphere synch with the sixteenth notes in the percussion. In other words, it’s one notable arranging move after another, keeping the audio viewer on their proverbial toes and emphasizing that this outing with the warrior and his adopted son is destined for a larger screen.

At 0:51 we get another harmonic twist as it resolves upwards before turning to another sight gag—this time, Grogu eating popcorn as comic relief. At 0:55 the music simply moves on to the next part of the series theme, with a triumphant, major key refrain. This time, however, a countermelody stays busy just underneath, in a call-and-response form. It steadily rises in a harmonic sequence, spiralling outside the key as the AT-AT walker tumbles on a snowy planet—this time, no visual punchline, with the Raiders-styled title card instead appearing to round things out.

Overall, the trailer very much leans directly on what made The Mandalorian a success, amplifying it—perhaps even to a bit of a fault, if you were to read some of the video’s comments (e.g. “this doesn’t even feel like a movie — this feels like season four”). Even so, the soundtrack serves to honour the series’ theme thoughtfully, while extending it in a few key ways appropriate to trailer music tropes and design. In this way, at least, it’s well executed.

The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theatres May 22nd, 2026.

— Curtis Perry