The best of Star Wars returns with first trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu

They’re back — The Mandalorian Din Djarin and everyone’s favorite sidekick: that recently promoted junior Mandalorian that looks like a young Yoda whose name is Grogu. The first trailer is here for their next appearance and it is everything a Star Wars fan could hope for.

Flash back to 1980. Imagine you’re getting ready to see what Lucasfilm has in store next and instead of The Empire Strikes Back, the trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu splashes across the screen. That’s how good Jon Favreau & Co.’s galaxy within a galaxy really is: A mega-sized showcase of the best the Star Wars galaxy has to offer. After four seasons of what could be called The Mandalorian Tales (three seasons of The Mandalorian and the single season of The Book of Boba Fett), and nearly six years since the last Star Wars movie, Star Wars will be back in theaters next May.

Check out this rollicking roller coaster ride of a trailer that matches the fun of the original Star Wars back in 1977:

Pedro Pascal (the voice, and sometimes the body in the suit) is back as Din Djarin, with everyone’s favorite space fantasy sidekick Grogu by his side. And yes, that’s Sigourney Weaver adding another outer space character to her portfolio (earlier released marketing images show her in a starfighter pilot uniform). Will her character be replacing Greef Karga, the mercenary connection played by the late, great Carl Weathers?

Viewers are reminded The Mandalorian isn’t just a space fantasy, it’s a full-blown space Western–and get ready for a film full of callbacks. Front and center is a new kind of AT-AT tearing across a mountain pass, all for anyone wanting a revisit to the ice planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. The Razor Crest is back! Surely that’s due to some work by everyone’s favorite mechanic–Amy Sedaris’s Peli Motto and her Anzellan garage pals. And the big bonus of this trailer for fans of Star Wars Rebels is voice actor Steve Blum’s very Jason Statham-inspired, oversized lug Zeb Orrelios.

Thank “the Volume” (say that in C-3PO’s voice)–the technology referred to extensively in the show’s behind the scenes exploits, that marvelous recording studio of giant screens that utilize 360-degree panosphere cinematography to re-create real-world settings and enlarge digital scanned creations behind practical effects and physical actors for a much lower cost than previous filming methods. This is why Star Wars fans get new story spectacles as good as the first time a Star Destroyer first flew over their heads.