This is NOT The Way

Oww. Well, the Neilson Ratings for the first week of the Mandalorian have been dropped and they make the bad news we all knew was coming official.

The Mandalorian has definetly crashed in the ratings from Season 2

FIFTH PLACE! In its premiere week, the Mandalorian landed in fifth place, well behind HBO’s The Last of Us.

When Mando first appeared, there was an angry but still hopeful fanbase of Advocates and Intentionalists. These fans had absolutely detested the Last Jedi and made their feelings plain by ignoring Solo. It was assumed that Kathleen Kennedy would be fired for these failures, (not understanding yet that Woke had changed the old rules). It was viewed as an attempt at a course correction and an apology of sorts.

What the first season really was, was an emergency salvage operation built around the abandoned script for the Boba Fett movie that Faverau never got to make. You can spot the filler episodes between the first and last episodes. Nonetheless, it was desperately hoped that this was going to open the door for the retconning away of the Reyloverse.

The Advocates and Intentionalists knew there was probably no hope for the third trilogy’s last movie. We all knew it was gonna suck. But it was something that had to get pushed out the door before the presumed Mando reset could happen. There was an air of “we understand” about it.

The Return of Luke felt like a deliberate slap in the face to the Reyloverse, largely because it was.

So rather than let the fans bask in the pleasure of a Star Wars that seemed to be back on track, Kathleen Kennedy decided to end all doubt that it wasn’t by firing Gina Carano. That woman fascinates me with her incompetence, she gets every single thing wrong.

That firing shattered the superfan base and wrecked the timeline Favereau had planned for the Mandoverse. Bob Chapek screwed things up further by making senseless demands for immediately reuniting Mando and Grogu. That absolutely reeked of a clueless beancounter making decisions based on “creative excellence through data-driven audience feedback.”

The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi poisoned what remained of the Advocates. The Intentionalists had long since left.

A big factor that I admit to not appreciating was Bob Iger’s personal investment in the Reyloverse. There was absolutely no talk about reviving it until he was brought back as CEO.

The coup de grâce was delivered by Dave Filoni right before the start of the third season: All paths lead to Rey Skywalker. There will be absolutely no reset.

That was it. What little hope there was died.

Not only did The Mandalorian come in fifth at less than 900 million viewed minutes but it was only 87 million viewer minutes ahead of Bluey. And Bluey is a five-year-old series and has a death grip on that slot. The Heeler Family (which Disney doesn’t own) is now the masthead of Disney+, not Star Wars or Marvel. Baby Yoda has lost his magic.

Unless there is a major pickup somewhere in the following weeks Star Wars is unsustainable even as a TV brand. Jon Favreau should really start returning James Gunn’s phone calls at Warner.

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