Pascal — sharing the role with stunt performers Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — has played Djarin across three seasons of The Mandalorian on Disney+. The Mandalorian and Grogu (TMAG) picks up that story on the big screen, following Djarin and his ward Grogu, a member of the same species as Jedi Master Yoda.

Djarin was meant to deliver Grogu to nefarious captors; instead, he formed a relationship with the child that neither expected. Part of that connection is shared history — both are orphans. Djarin’s parents were killed during the Clone Wars, and he was rescued and raised as a ‘foundling’ by Mandalorian warriors from the Death Watch sect. Djarin eventually adopted Grogu as his son, making them a ‘Clan of Two’.

In TMAG, Djarin now works for the New Republic, hunting Imperial remnants with Grogu at his side. A mission involving a mysterious warlord, the Hutt twins, and their runaway nephew Rotta sends the unlikely family on a dangerous adventure, but the film’s real momentum comes from how each test reshapes their bond.

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While promoting Season 3 of The Mandalorian in 2023, Pascal told StarWars.com: “There’s still so much to explore as far as that parent-child dynamic is concerned. Who’s teaching who? Who’s protecting who? Who’s saving who? There will be more of that.” TMAG delivers on that front, examining the father-son relationship but also occasionally flipping it on its head. Here, Grogu grows more independent, even looking after an incapacitated Djarin for a stretch of the film.

Relationships between parents and children — and especially between fathers and sons — have long been a fixture of the Star Wars saga. The original trilogy is built on the conflict between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the prequels give Boba Fett a father in Jango Fett, and the sequels turn Kylo Ren into the troubled son of Han Solo. Against that history, Djarin and Grogu stand out because their dynamic is unusually tender, reciprocal, and functional.

Father-son relationships also recur in director Jon Favreau’s filmography, from Elf to Iron Man 2 and from Chef to The Lion King. “I always thought [my work] was about the loss of one parent, but really, a lot of it was about navigating the relationship with the parent that was still there, with my dad,” Favreau told Esquire. Favreau’s father not only introduced him to Star Wars, but also to its influences, like Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. (His mother died when he was young, and before that, his parents had already separated.) The filmmaker, himself a father of three, added: “My main priority in my life is to be … a good father to my kids. You draw upon what you know.”

There’s real pathos underneath the cuteness, too. Grogu’s species ages slowly — he’s already over 50 in human years, and Yoda lived to 900 — so Djarin must reckon with the likelihood that his adoptive son will far outlive him. Grogu is maturing, just slowly, which makes TMAG something of a coming-of-age story.

“Just as all parents do, the relationship with your children changes as they mature and then you begin to take on another role,” Favreau told StarWars.com. “Each generation passes on that responsibility to the next, and it is our job to prepare the next generation for when they have to step into our shoes.”

Djarin sums up that sentiment in a beautiful line: “The old protect the young, and then the young protect the old. This is the way.”

Star Wars turns 50 in 2027. Across nearly half a century, generations of parents have passed their love of this galaxy far, far away down to their kids — making it fitting for the themes of family and legacy to recur in this enduring franchise.

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