Jeremy Allen White’s ‘Star Wars’ Debut Revealed In First-Look ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ Trailer

• Jeremy Allen White makes his Star Wars debut as Rotta the Hutt in Mandalorian & Grogu.
• Pedro Pascal returns as Din Djarin, the fan-favourite bounty hunter.
• First-look trailer teases Hutt empire drama, gladiatorial scenes, and small-scale adventures with big stakes.
  

Our first look at the latest Mandalorian & Grogu trailer shows that Hollywood’s leading man Jeremy Allen White is trading the kitchen for the cosmos as he makes his galactic debut in the ever-growing Star Wars franchise.

The Emmy-winning actor, best known for his breakout role as Chef Carmy in Hulu’s hit dramedy series The Bear, appears for the first time in a galaxy far, far away as Rotta the Hutt, the son of the original movie’s most notorious villain Jabba the Hutt and heir apparent to the Hutt crime empire.

The latest trailer, released this week, confirms White’s voice role, introducing the slug-like crime boss welcoming the roar of a packed arena, arms raised as he revels in the crowd’s approval.

“Gangsters. War criminals. We’ll take out every bad guy in your deck of cards,” Din Djarin declares early on in the trailer. It’s a continuation of Pedro Pascal’s armoured bounty hunter as he sets his sights on those who serve and profit from the reach of the Empire. Only this time, the helmet seems to be well and truly off.

From early shots, it appears the Hutts will once again serve as central antagonists in the latest Disney reveal, ruling over the seedy underbelly of the galaxy through illicit deals and spice control.

Fans in the room will remember Jabba’s first appearance in Return of the Jedi, where his long-standing feud with Han Solo, sparked by an abandoned spice shipment, ultimately led to Solo’s carbonite freezing in The Empire Strikes Back.

Disney has revealed too much about the storyline of the upcoming feature film. But with quick shots and the sense of dread that fans have come to expect from Pascal’s once-lone bounty hunter, seen in the trailer kneeling at Rotta’s feet – a further gladiatorial storyline to the franchise – we can assume that the titular character is committed to his vendetta against the some the galaxy’s bad actors.

Of course, across the new era of Star Wars projects released by Disney, many have received their fair share of criticism (Obi-Wan Kenobi notwithstanding).

Call it nostalgia, or, seemingly, an enduring reluctance from the franchise faithful to deviate to anything that doesn’t closely resemble the original trilogy. But it’s fair to say that The Mandalorian has remained one of the few steady successes of Disney’s uneven Star Wars era, earning praise for its Western-inspired combat and dramatic storylines, centred around the emotional pull of the growing father-son relationship between Mando and Grogu.

It just goes to show that, for Disney mapping out the next direction of this bumpy franchise, sometimes its smaller-scale adventures can still carry galactic weight.