Acbagel

Based on the current trajectory and comparisons to similar Star Wars releases, The Mandalorian and Grogu is projected to finish its theatrical run with a global total between $325 million and $375 million. This figure would place it below Solo ($392.9 million), officially making it the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars film in history.

It’s already getting passed up by the two recent horror movie releases (both of which I saw last night and enjoyed more than Mando and Grogu)… Poor word of mouth and the knowledge that this will come to streaming in a couple months absolutely sunk any hope of it having a few good weekends to at least break even. Just a bad financial decision all around to release this movie in 2026. It won’t be AS much of a financial loss compared to Solo since they didn’t break the bank on making this, but based on the poor performance here we can definitely expect Disney to make even less movies like this. I bet after Starfighter (the last real Kennedy legacy project, at least that we know of that isn’t in production hell) it will be a long time before we see another “one-off” film in theaters.

I think we can see Disney will no longer act like Star Wars can carry several parallel theatrical experiments. The projects that survive will be the ones that either launch a trilogy/saga or cleanly capitalize on Filoni’s existing story infrastructure.

Pre-2019 tons of parallel theatrical announcements
2019 - Rise of Skywalker (Most universally disliked SW film ever)
2020-25 - NOTHING
2026 - Mando and Grogu (FLOP)
2027 - Starfighter (TBD)

Rey NJO? Placed on indefinite hold and removed from Lucasfilm’s active release schedule. Probably never sees the light of day under Filoni and Brennan. I bet this survives only if folded into the broader post-sequel relaunch with “The Hunt for Ben Solo”, maybe combining these two into one? I think Sequel related films are all going on the backburner though based on recent reports of that era and trends from the parks.

Dawn of the Jedi? Reportedly a script, but current reporting frames it as “on hold”.

Lando? Script turned in but I don’t see any shot of this going to theaters

Droid Story and Rogue Squadron? Both 99% confirmed dead as theatrical releases

Waititi film? Script turned into Kennedy and never greenlight, again very likely this is dead under new direction

Post ST Kinberg trilogy? Really the only thing that hasn’t received “bad news” necessarily, and is totally an unknown.

Filoni “Heir to the Empire”? Rumors that it is going to be a D+ ~4-5 hour series instead of a theater release… But nothing confirmed on that.

Really I don’t see anything outside of Filoni’s project moving forward as is. I bet we don’t hear anything officially until Celebration 2027 and it will probably be Filoni’s project. I bet we get like 1 clean announcement of the next major project there. But that’s a month before Starfighter, so they are really going to be pushing that hard because they will need a win BAAAAD. They probably won’t want to distract from that “hype” much. I think our future is Ahsoka S2 and some animated projects, Filoni’s project in ~2029, and then a new trilogy 2030+.

frionelherosw said:

Honestly, maybe it’s best to leave the movie alone until we get more content. Ahoska season 2 is supposed to come out in early 2027, and more importantly is the crossover movie that will bring all parts of the Mandoverse together. Making a substandard epilogue after a great run of fan edits might still end up being a disappointment.

I would definitely not want to make a substandard epilogue, but I do think I could make a solid epilogue with my main idea.

I will definitely do an Ahsoka edit at some point in the future. Right now I am running a poll tournament on my YT page for folks to vote on what my next edit should be, so make sure you check that out if you want to have a say!

“I love democracy.”

honestabe said:

I do not think it would be much of a risk too give Din a noble death in an edit of the movie.

1. It is highly unlikely Din and Grogu make an appearance in Ahsoka season 2 next year. Season 1 of that show was a dud, and thus far the Mando-Grogu movie is not exactly shattering any box office records.

2. Lucasfilm has an extensive track record for not following through with planned movies. No guarantee that the Thrawn or another set-up movie ever gets released. This will become increasingly likely given recent disappointments in the Mandoverse.

3. Even if we do get the Thrawn movie several years away, Filoni will likely want Ahsoka and the Rebels characters taking the lead in the fight against him. I suspect Luke and the OT characters will play secondary roles in that movie. That leaves very little room for Din and Grogu. At best, they will have very minimal cameo appearances. They both could just be cut out in a future fan edit anyway.

By all means proceed with your preliminary plans for this. Star Wars really could use characters dying off in a dignified manner given its history of characters repeatedly surviving fatal injuries.

That’s about exactly along the lines that I’m thinking! And like I said before, it’s really not hard to move this Epilogue film idea back a few years in the timeline if needed too.

thron99 said:

I just want to preface with that I really enjoyed your edits as a whole, and was pleased with the flow of the story for the most part so I only have a few technical notes.

As many people have already mentioned, and for me personally on my OLED in movie 2, theres a few scenes where the color banding looks rough (which if anything highlights how great the rest of the movies look). Especially at around 1h 12m in, theres a desert scene at night, and I could barely tell what was happening with the characters because it was so pixelated.

As far as sound, like 90% of the movies sounded great on my speakers. There were a few instances where (especially during combat) the sound effects were much louder than the music/voices. I couldn’t really say in retrospect where those occured, but I started noticing it around movie 3/4.

In movie 6 this was especially prevelant, the fight scenes are really bombastic and explosive and I was having to balance it being too loud, turn it down, then back up when the combat stopped and people were speaking. Not a big deal but yeah.

The subtitles for the most part were perfect and appreciated, aside from a random @ or # next to a word on occasion but it wasn’t a big deal until I got to movie 6. For whatever reason I couldn’t find a CC setting that made the random characters go away completely and it was a bit distracting trying to read when the Mandalorians were speaking to each other.

This concludes my notes, thank you for letting me view your edit. This will have a permanent spot on my watchlist.

Thanks for the feedback! I can take another pass on sound balancing in a v2 touch up this summer.

DarthBatMatt said:

So interesting! Thank you for sharing, sent Book 6! Oddly enough, for me reviewing my own series, I would rate it:

4, 1, 3, 5, 2, 6

Book 6 is your least favorite? or am I misreading?

Yes, that’s how I would rank my own personal enjoyment of rewatching each film. 6 being at the end just has to do more with the source material than anything. I’d give the original production a 2/10 and say my edit brings it up to a 6.5/10, so that’s still a big win in my book!

vranir said:

If the movie material needs to come after your prior edits, then yes, I think your idea is the way to go. That said, I hope that this isn’t truly the last outing for Mando in live action. If that turns out of the case, you’re going to have significant rework.

I think you could place a hunting Imperial warlords (and Dr Pershing) movie in between movies 5 and 6. We already ended with Din helping vs pirates, we saw increasing issues with the Imperial remnants near Mandalore, and we saw his growing connection to the New Republic fighter pilot. Now, doing this might require again cutting Grogu out of content, since you would be keeping the reunion to later, or maybe you’d add the reunion to the end of this hypothetical movie.

I think editing Grogu out of this movie would be WAY harder than how I did it for previous ones, because he is focused on a lot more in this film and is constantly on Din’s shoulder which wasn’t something he did before. Especially for parts of Season 3, as my analysis has shown, I believe they added him in Post-Production to scenes he wasn’t in at all originally so there’s a ton of shots where he’s off to the side doing absolutely nothing and no other characters are acknowledging him.

Patali said:

I think the idea is good as far as making the story actually mean something, but it is risky, I figured Din will be apart of the battle against Thrawn as a side character. Also, I suspect Grogu WILL return to Luke at some point, where there might be another transition sequence of Din saying goodbye.

But barring those things (cause Disney much of the time doesn’t use obvious ideas), I think your idea is a great way to salvage this new movie.

EDIT: Side note, Hayden Christensen came to a convention in my town tonight and did an interview on stage, so I attended… The interviewer was awful. The event was only an hour and he spent 30 minutes asking unrelated “Do you like this or this” questions. “Do you like pizza or hotdogs more” and Hayden is like “Uh… pizza?” Then they talked about Star Wars for 20 or 30 minutes which he seemed very happy to do. But by that time, they only had time to talk surface level stuff that most of us hardcore fans have already heard him say. What a waste. Get me up there, I’d ask all the heavy hitters

Haha what a wasted opportunity! Crazy questions lol, but very cool you got to see him!

darthmarticus said:

Thanks for the links, we corresponded a little over email. The edits are all superb and can only get better with future revisions based on suggestions here. I love the idea that everyone’s comments will contribute to making this a finely polished masterpiece.

I personally would ignore anything people have said about trying to place Mando & Grogu earlier in the Mando story. The new film is definitely an epilogue. And I would literally call it that: The Way of Mandalore: Epilogue. ‘Book 7’ implies it continues events, which it just doesn’t really. On that note the Pershing material (which you say you have a cut of) could work as an optional ‘interquel’ to be watched between books 4 and 5. It wouldn’t need to be movie-length, just an optional special.

Thanks for watching! I am leaning toward the Epilogue route unless I see or brainstorm a clear plan for something else to do.

Azrake said:

Just watched book 1 to 5.

I’m a first time watcher with my gf so I cannot compare the edit to the original series.

We enjoyed the 5 movies a lot, plot wise there were no issues, we understood everything.

The weakest movie was the first one for us, we both felt it was both fast paced and nothing interesting was happening at the same time. A lot of events were succeeding one after the other, but we felt like the story was not progressing. I believe this is more an issue with the original serie than with the edit in particular, I am not sure how you could have done a better job, after watching the other movies I understand that all the events in the first movie are important for the rest of the story despite not being as interesting as the rest.
I also watched the first movie on an OLED TV and on low light scene there was a lot of color banding, blacks looked blocky. I watched it using Plex on an Nvidia shield, I did not have this issue on other media before.

For the 4 other movies, pacing was really good, the different events were taking a bit more time and had more impact on the story, so much more enjoyable. I did not watch the other movies on OLED so I’m not sure if the color banding issue is also present on the other movies.

Would love to watch book 6 if you could send me a link. Thank you !

So interesting! Thank you for sharing, sent Book 6! Oddly enough, for me reviewing my own series, I would rate it:

4, 1, 3, 5, 2, 6

DarthBatMatt said:

Bring on the Epiologue!

Elek!

JediJoe said:

I have finished through book 4 and wanted to give feedback.
Book 3 (9.8/10)
I think so far it is a my favorite. I think everything was pretty much perfect. I think the shadow council scene and the scenes after feel a bit out of place. I understand what you were going for but he doesn’t try to exterminate the Mandalorians until the battle for Mandoalore so it is kinda weird here. I also kinda feel a lot of the boba scenes also feel a litte out of place as well as he only has like 3 min of screen time and other than that is missing most of the movie. You probably had to include him somehow because without him his inclusion in the last movie feels weird but idk. All of that is nitpicks and I think almost all the edits made sense and all my critiques are mostly nitpicks.

Book 4 (9.5/10)
I think that everything flows together except for one thing the helmet removal cut. I personally don’t care for removal of the helmet removal scene. I think it adds to the sense of Mando’s desperation and I like that he does this for grogu without knowing that he will see him. It doesn’t hurt the movie unlike the last cut helmet removal with IG-11 scene as anyone new to the show would not notice anything for the most part and is not as crucial as that scene to the arc and the characters. But I still think it is a benefit more than a harm. Mainly a personal thing but I would have liked it to stay in. Other than that I think it is fairly perfect and is probably the best so far for those who don’t mind the cut, I just dislike that it.

Very generous reviews! Thank you so much. When I make my edits, I make them with first-time viewers in mind. So for example, my own wife had never seen the series before watching my edits, and she absolutely loved finally seeing Din’s face only at the very end. She had no idea anything else was missing, so it at least passes the eye test for the uninitiated 😉

Adolad said:

Hey, just made an account. Would absolutely love to watch the story your crafted. Any chance of a link or where to go to watch these ? Really appreciate. Thanks again 🙏. All the best from Ireland 🇮🇪

Welcome to the community! Sent you a DM

Mando and Grogu opening night Box Office from Deadline 3 hours ago:

"EXCLUSIVE: Lucasfilm/Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is pulling in around $12 million in North American Thursday night previews. It could be slightly lighter when the sun comes up in L.A. Shows began Thursday at 2 p.m.

That preview figure is slightly less than the Thursday cash made by 2018’s origin story Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was $14.1M. That turned into an $84.4M three-day and $103M four-day Memorial Day opening, not considered a starry start at all for the George Lucas-born, Disney-owned franchise. Mandalorian and Grogu in pre-weekend tracking is hoping to clear $80M-$100M over the four days.

The Jon Favreau-directed movie is playing at 4,300 theaters, including 425 Imax, with the full suite of PLF, 4DX, 3D and ScreenX. The wait-and-see of it all with the PG-13 Mandalorian and Grogu is whether the movie expands to families on Saturday and Sunday."

vranir said:

Well, I just watched The Mandalorian and Grogu. I think this is your biggest challenge yet, Archbagel.

Alright… Let’s start to brainstorm here. I will Spoiler tag below, but non-spoiler review first. It’s a 5.5/10 from me (5 is average, NOT 7, so I thought it was very slightly better than average meaning I walked out with a barely more than neutral opinion of it). It is such a nothingburger of a story, like there aren’t even any attempted character arcs or journeys. It’s just… an adventure, a simple, fun, pointless adventure that barely moves a plot and doesn’t do anything new for the characters. If anything, the only character development is seeing Grogu mature a little and take care of a Din a bit more. That one line about that is really the only character movement in the entire film. There’s just… not a lot to love if you’re a fan of deep stories, and not a lot to hate if you can turn your brain off for a fun adventure. I can see why people would like it, I can see why people would be bored with it. For me, it’s just not what I want from Star Wars. I don’t want fun side quest adventures. I want an epic saga-style narrative with impactful character journeys and emotional payoffs, whereas this film doesn’t even attempt to do that. So overall, it’s exactly what I expected and everything I hoped it would not be, but I don’t loathe it as there’s just nothing in it to waste energy on loathing. I think it was a terrible decision from Disney to have this as the theatrical return after 7 years and will only further damage the brand and cause less people to want to see Star Wars in theaters the next time. It MIGHT break even on box office, but I would guess it’ll come up a little short.

General Thoughts (minor spoilers, but no specifics I think beyond the trailer):

1. The movie holds up okay as a combo of about 3-4 episodes. It feels like they essentially did what you strive to do in your edits, knit a group of episodes together into something that makes sense, but it also doesn’t feel like the content was necessarily meant for that type of format.

Yes, it certainly 100% feels like series of a few episodes, and as far as how it would fit into TWoM it will be more like an Epilogue than a Book 7. But… I think I can make it a meaningful Epilogue. Anyone ever read the Witcher novels? That’s kind of what I’m thinking is the strategy here.

2. The amount of action and creatures in the movie feels like overkill, especially in the first half (and even more in the middle third), where nothing has been built up. I would hope that any edit scales the action down and lets things breathe a bit more. The battles need to feel earned.

I agree here too, the first monster fight is cool. By the 8th monster fight with no emotional stakes I’m getting bored in theaters. The movie feels LONG too. Like I was shocked when I looked at my watch and it had only been 75 minutes and I would’ve guessed it was like 105 already. Too many pointless action scenes crammed in, so there could be some trimming so it doesn’t get stale.

3. Rotta the Hutt. Wow. Interesting idea, but it’s hard to take him seriously. And all the English - I’m not sure it will work if you turn it all into Huttenese, but there’s just something off about it as-is. I do like the idea of his character in opposition to what we know of Hutts.

One million percent I will be removing ANY AND ALL lines of Hutts speaking basic, which means completely revoicing Rotta from the ground up. I would get drawn and quartered before allowing a Hutt to speak Basic in my film.

4. Speaking of Hutts, I did like seeing the Hutt homeworld. It was more rural than I expected, as the EU had always kind of implied that it was more of a seedy industrial world, but I still liked it. I also really like their use of leftover prequel droids. Nice worldbuilding.

I thought the environments looked great all around! Maybe the Imperial warlord palace world was bland, but Nal Hutta looks great, and the other worlds were nice and lively and didn’t seem empty. They were simple but nothing bad there. I was disappointed in the VFX for the monsters, CGI characters, and ship models though. I thought it all looked cheaply rendered, and everything looked oddly oily/shiny. I can’t do much to fix that in mine though as I’m not a VFX master on that front. Maybe color grading will help?

5. One of the biggest issues you’re going to need to deal with is that this all comes after the epic conclusion of your 6th movie. It’s just anticlimactic in comparison. One of my first thoughts was to re-arrange content to place it between movies 5 and 6, but there might be too many continuity issues to deal with - the new Razorcrest, again Grogu being there, etc.

I am certainly open to brainstorming ways to fit this in somewhere else in my saga… But nothing is sticking out as “Yeah that would fit great here!” I’d have to really tone down Grogu’s powers here if I do it in a different placement.

6. If you split the content of this movie up and blended it with other content from the series, I think that the hunt for Imperial warlords might go nicely as a parallel story to the cut content about the Doctor on Coruscant.

That’s a decent idea, I still have a solid cut of the Pershing content that I never released. Again, I’d have to really think about what exactly to do with the timeline placement in that case though. There’s nothing really here that would lead to Moff Gideon. I was hoping to see more Shadow Council out of this movie. There’s just not a ton to work with.

Anyway, best of luck. I really do look forward to whatever you come up with going forward.

Alright, here’s my only idea to make this film actually have a meaningful arc. This will be controversial and some here will probably hate the idea. So my only inspiration for an edit as I watched this came from the Witcher novels… Spoilers to follow in my idea:

I’m just gonna rip the bandaid off… Din has to die. I think the entirety of Act 3 can be restructured so that Din eventually succumbs to the poison from the eel monster, and Grogu’s whole thing of “healing” him is instead a character arc for Grogu learning to “let go”. The inspiration from the Witcher novels is that after a massive journey of 7 books, Geralt finally concludes the mission a changed man, and then goes and dies in the most unceremonious way possible. This won’t exactly mirror that as I think I can give Din an epic last stand, but it’s the passing the torch to the apprentice moment. I’d flip the whole Act 3 so there is no Rotta recapture, and Din’s final rampage in the throne room and palace is to make sure no one will hunt Grogu down and then his victory is followed by him escaping there alone and dying to the poison out in the swamps. Then we get Grogu’s solo arc, then then NR comes in and rescues him. There are no such thing as these magic force healing powers in my edits. Rey doesn’t do it, Grogu never does it in mine, it’s just not a thing, it’s “not how the force works” and wrecks all kinds of canon. So that’s just not an option in mine. Grogu can still go to that Swamp creature guy (revoiced to NOT be Basic) and that can be part of his lesson to “let go”. I understand, Din dying here might mess up future storytelling, but we could cross that bridge if we ever get there. I think it will be a long time before we see Din Djarin again, MAYBE in Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie? But that’s not even guaranteed and is still probably 3-5 years away. And even in that case, there is probably no reason I can’t just bump this movie to AFTER that movie. I don’t see anything set in stone how this would mess up future stories. I would venture to say we will never see Pedro Pascal as Din again. You might get some voicelines for a cameo but that’s probably it. Grogu will probably come back in a Post Episode 9 story at some point. But… Alright, give me your thoughts, throw your tomatoes, do what you gotta do. I’m just searching for ANYTHING to make this a story that is worth telling. There is no emotional reason to have this film as part of my saga without a meaningful event occurring. What are the initial reactions to that pitch of The Way of Mandalore - Epilogue: The Djarin Dynasty ?

aGreatHumanBeing said:

I’m sorry for commenting on the old books, when all the focus should be on the new one, but I thought I’d comment when my memory is still fresh. So here are some nitpicks on book 3:

Your logo in the start of the movie seems to be cropped? Like the top and bottom is missing. I’ve sneak peeked on book 4 and it is the same crop there. 1, 2 and 5 are correct though.

When Mando has left Nevarro Carson arrives in the following scene. I now nothing about pacing and how to structure a movie, so this is just my humble opinion: would it not be better to show Mando arrive at Tatooine and then let Carson arrive after this, to make it feel like a little time has passed before his arrival.

At the boat scene, right after Mandos release (1.38.40), there seem to be a shift in the color - at least at my end. In lack of any professional words: it seem to go from “bluey” to “greeny”.

And I feel bad for nitpicking on The Master Subitler himself (since I am one of those who nag most about getting subtitles!), but if the g00b is going to make a update on the subitles at one point: Davan is called “Davin” in the subtitles and the Tuskens is written as “Tuscans” at one point.

Nevertheless, another impressive edit!

Thank you for this feedback! Noted!

Collect0r said:

I’ve just watched Book 6 and apart from some minor nitpicks (janky video when characters are re-synced, a few artifacts here and there [p.e. Slave I enters Mandalore’s atmosphere]) it is beyond amazing what you were able to get out of the source material. This is in almost every way THE WAY. Thank you very much for all the time and energy you put into this.

Wonderful, thank you so much for watching! Yes, I did notice the Slave 1 rescue scene got some artifacts on the export too… Annoying. I’ll try and get that resolved for a v2 release, thanks. Glad you had fun with the film!

Patali said:

^^^ I’ve also wondered if Mando and Grogu might possibly be placed earlier, like maybe even before Book 4? (might not make sense with the skill Grogu has in the movie from what Ive seen in the trailers. But maybe just split that part off?).

Bagel, I just finished the rest of Book 3. So upset with myself that I did that premature review. You were totally on the money, I LOVED the way you incorporated the Boba content into the story. The scenes you moved to happen after the Rancor battle made so much more sense. It felt like Boba actually had the leverage to get that tribute from the gangs, and the visit from the Hutts. In the OG BoBF series, those things, especially the Hutt visit, felt completely unearned. I take back all my previous comments on the Boba integration. And the Boba-star destroyer sequence, beautiful…

We had a complete blast. This was our Star Wars event of 2026. Mando and Grogu, we’re going to see in 4dx, that will just be a bonus.

EDIT: Oh and btw, we FREAKED OUT when you had me listed as one of your live stream supporters lmao. We felt famous

Thank you SO much for the detailed review! That feedback is very valuable. Saying this is your favorite one is a huge compliment! It’s certainly the most transformative and ambitious, and I love seeing these perspectives from people who didn’t watch Season 3, and glad I could deliver the story in a new way with some emotional payoffs. Regarding Boba’s build up, it seems like a couple other people also felt like it jumps into his story a little fast, but there just isn’t ANY other content to use to show him actually becoming a crime lord. All I could brainstorm to fill in this gap would be to change Boba’s droid’s monologue in the beginning, but I felt like that would make it feel like an exposition dump for the sake of the audience rather than a conversation that would actually be happening in that moment… Tough call!

JediJoe said:

I assume you are mainly focused on Book 6 at the moment, but I just got a chance to start the series and wanted to chime in with my thoughts on the first two books.

Book 1 (9.5/10)
​I liked pretty much everything about the first book. The opening cut with the Mythrol, where it cuts to him pretending to use the bathroom, felt a bit weird and didn’t flow well in my opinion, but other than that, I think it works great. Moving the prison break episode to Book 1 (before he saves Grogu) was a smart choice; it keeps the pace of the next book from slowing down and doesn’t hurt the narrative flow at all. The only real issue I found was with the droid picking up the rifle. It felt like he did it for no reason since he was no longer looking for Grogu. Having the droid hear blaster shots or Qin calling for help might help clear up that continuity. Otherwise, Book 1 works incredibly well and is probably my favorite of the two so far.
​
Book 2 (8/10)
​I have a few more glaring issues with this cut, though it is still very well done overall. The Book of Boba Fett material, while definitely less interesting than the Mandalorian’s storyline, is edited together well and never really detracts from the main plot. However, the Mando side of the story has a couple of issues:
​The Face Reveal Removal: Removing this scene creates a double problem. First, the cut itself is quite jarring, and it hurts continuity because we don’t see him get the bacta shot. Second, it removes the payoff to Mando’s droid arc for the season. I assume you cut it because you want to save the face reveal for a later book, but I feel there is likely a way to edit around it so that the droid arc is resolved without actually showing his face.
​Grogu Healing Greef Karga: Removing this scene makes Greef’s sudden change of heart feel like it comes out of nowhere. Keeping it in would make his turn much more believable.
​
Overall Thoughts
​Aside from those points, most of the cuts are seamless and work beautifully. The story definitely still holds up, but I think a couple of minor tweaks could make it perfect. I am really enjoying the edit so far. It hasn’t lost any of the magic of the original show. I’ll keep sharing my thoughts as I move forward!

All good, you are definitely allowed to share thoughts about the earlier films too 😃 Can’t wait to see your thoughts on the next ones! I do still need to take another crack at that helmet removal thing in Book 2, I also don’t feel like I’ve nailed it like it should be so that’s on a list to attempt again. Thanks for the feedback!

beachedwhale said:

To start, just want to say the vision for book 6 is incredible and this film really felt to be the beast of a climax for these arcs, after watching this last night with my partner, I have no doubt Mando and Grogu is going to feel like a filler episode when we see it tonight

Also disclosure before reading further, when it had been stated that subtitles were not ready yet, I assumed that meant ALL subtitles. Normally watch on VLC but accidentally started on media player but thought nothing really of it. There were NO subtitles for all alien language/Mando scenes, I took it as a rough cut and we guessed what they were talking about losing a lot of exposition. You can guess how I felt cracking this open this morning on VLC and seeing subtitles now!!! Why the Hutts were gifting him ANOTHER rancor etc has been explained, massive face palm.
…
…
All AI lines were great, were some lip reading issues but cannot recall specific ones that stood out

Incredible work and safe to say you have brought justice to your newfound empire of edits!

Oh gosh!!! I can’t imagine trying to watch that without subtitles on the Mando’a! I’m sorry that was your first experience, I can’t even fathom how you watched that movie without subtitles lol there is like 20-30 minutes of subtitled dialogue! For anyone else, YES, there are subtitles but please watch from a video player that can run them as they are not burnt in, but they are set to default so that if your video player can see them it will be auto-forced ON. Glad you enjoyed the film without that, but you missed so much! I appreciate the positive review regardless, and I am indeed proud of the work! I addressed the Boba intro thing to the poster above, so that will be on a v2 to try and see if I can clear that up a little bit, especially for first time viewers who didn’t see Season 3. I have to find the exposition balance though!

I watched Mando and Grogu movie in theaters last night. I will gather my thoughts here for a bit and then make another post brainstorming some things. Let’s mark spoilers for a bit as we discuss this, but I’m ready to start gameplanning… I have some… radical ideas.

Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

Guess I will be doing the same. Had something come up and had to cancel Thursday. Maybe I’ll wait to watch on TV where Mando belongs…

It will probably be on D+ in 12 weeks. Per recent budget report from Variety, this needs to hit $412.5 million to break even on box office. I would guess it will do mid $300s and quickly be moved to streaming to make up the cash discrepency on streaming subs.

Look, I’m going to see this. It’s Star Wars. I am going in expecting to be disappointed and underwhelmed personally, because I don’t like Star Wars for rinky dink little “fun” side adventures without any character development. I fell in love with Star Wars as a kid by watching A New Hope, seeing character progression, a large galaxy with rich lore and rabbit holes to dive into. I was 5 years old and I loved that slow, meaningful story. We live in different times now, and Hollywood has no faith in that kind of story sadly. I am taking my almost-5 year old son to this for his first Star Wars movie experience. I am sure he is going to love it and have a great time, and I’ll have a great time seeing him smile. But the real treat is coming up when we watch the OT at home for the first time together. I want THAT kind of Star Wars to return to theaters, the kind that forever changes a generation, not the kind that gives you a few smiles for an evening.

frionelherosw said:

I heard the new Mandalorian and Grogu movie isn’t that good, which is disappointing, but not unexpected. I hear it’s basically like 4 episodes of the Mandalorian put together. I think I remember you saying you would likely edit it someday, but I’m curious if some of the cut footage from Book 6 would make sense to move to an edit of the movie. For example, I remember a discussion about the Pershing scenes being good on their own, but don’t really add to the Mandalorians story, thus it had to be cut. This also goes back to what you said about there not being enough footage for two movies, and that’s why you made one long one, but maybe that can change once the movie is available and depending on how it fits narratively. I haven’t seen Book 6 yet (as soon as I can download it, I will), but it’s just a thought experiment for the future.

Yeah I am not enthused by anything I am hearing about the film, but it isn’t anything that I wasn’t expecting. Just sounds disappointing and a little pointless. But hey… New footage for The Way of Mandalore is new footage for The Way of Mandalore. Definitely open to anything for how to tell the best story I can with what we have. Who knows how I can move things around! I’m open to even going back to like Book 3 and 4 and expanding there if I can get this to fit. Hopefully we will have options and can brainstorm together!

I have been getting a ton of requests for links and Google is acting up with drive limits, so if anyone is still trying to watch and is unable please send me a DM and I will help you. There are some tricks you can do on your end to get around rate limits.

Patali said:

Okay so we have watched the first 90 minutes and took a break, will be watching the rest in another sitting before the end of the week.

We had a lot of fun watching it, I enjoy the story integration and how you pulled Din in compared to the OG series. But, I will say, I was one of the people who told you “Don’t split the films into 6 and 7, do it as one film.”

However, in retrospect, I wanted you to leave a little bit more from BoBF that you cut.

• Cutting around the mods, just introducing them as Boba’s goons, works GREAT. This was the best cut easily.

However, cutting:

• I thought you should have more explicitly included the Bib Fortuna death scene. However where I would recommend putting this is the same place as the actual series. In your book 4, Luke and Grogu get in the elevator, the elevator shuts, cut to black, then, cut to Boba walking into Jabba’s palace and taking out Bib Fortuna. Just how I would do it personally, then the sequence in Book 6 could remain unchanged as just a little flashback. As it is, it feels like we never really got that scene, and it is easy to miss in the flashback sequence. (unless you actually had it in one of the previous Books and I just don’t remember).
• The rancor intro/Hutts out of the series I found odd, I thought there would be some good space there for you to edit their dialogue for sure. Especially since it seems we’re going to see those characters again in the Grogu movie.
• Cutting the mayor plot down was a bit confusing, without seeing the early meeting with him and Boba. I honestly can’t remember how that sequence played out originally.
• I liked Cad Bane’s warning to the town “Boba Fett is a cold blooded killer for the Empire.”

Overall I actually think it was really good but I would have liked it to breathe with maybe 5 or 8 minutes more of content.

But that is in the context of me watching the first half basically as a separate movie from the second half.
Cutting both into one 3 and 1/2 hour, I see why you had to cut down what you could. But as I said, in retrospect, I think this should have been an 1/45 movie by itself. I think the Boba content is not quite enough to fill 2 hours so I see why you did it this way, if you’re trying to make 2 + hour movies out of the series.

Thanks for the feedback! Yes while I do recommend the 90 minute mark for the most natural “pause” in the story, it certainly does not give a complete movie experience to only watch that section. Some more Rancor and Hutt stuff comes later on, so just keep watching 😃 I did only cut one of the mayor scenes, but it’s one that I would’ve had to completely revoice from scratch to even have a chance of using and it would have added a chunk of runtime without a lot of payoff, so for the sake of the 3.5 hour full movie it wasn’t important. With Bib Fortuna, I think having that actually in the film after Luke’s exit with Grogu would really detract from the emotional weight of that moment. There’s a reason they did the Bib thing as an end credits snippet, and I think it really only works in that format or a cut-up flashback sequence like I did. It feels wrong when placed anywhere like an actual scene since it wasn’t filmed with that intention.

And yeah overall my struggle with Book 6 was that I had not enough footage to make two solid films, but too much for one regular runtime one, so we went with the hybrid solution of one long one! I do personally have an editing rule that when I make Star Wars movies it will never be under 2 hours, so it wasn’t possible with the footage I had to work with to make 2 films according to that rule. Let me know what you think of part 2!

I’m thrilled to announce the release of the sixth installment in my ongoing fan edit series: The Way of Mandalore - Book 6: Yaim’ol.

This ambitious project integrates Din Djarin’s crucial chapters from The Book of Boba Fett with a radically restructured The Mandalorian Season 3. The result is a cinematic experience for The Mandalorian unlike an other fan edits out there.

VFX/Feature Trailer
Story Trailer

The Way of Mandalore Book 6: Yaim’ol aims to deliver the definitive conclusion to my Mandalorian saga by radically reshaping the final stretch of the story into a larger, more mythic, and emotionally satisfying feature film experience.

Where Book 5: The Apostate isolated Din Djarin and focused on his exile, atonement, and lonely return to the Creed by removing Grogu’s reunion in BoBF, Book 6: Yaim’ol brings the scattered threads of Mandalore back together. This film restores weight to Din and Grogu’s relationship through an entirely reimagined reunion on Yavin, brings Boba Fett back into the heart of the storyline as an active ally in the liberation of Mandalore, and reshapes the final conflict into a broader, more EU-inspired Mandalorian war story.

This is not simply a trimmed version of The Mandalorian Season 3. It is a full narrative reconstruction with thousands of individual edits, extensive restructuring, new audio design, new music, alien language replacement, Mando’a integration, extended Din Djarin flashbacks, visual refinements, deep Legends and Canon references, and countless details designed to make the film feel like a true continuation of The Way of Mandalore saga.

Synopsis

After walking the lonely path of the Apostate, Din Djarin has been redeemed in the Living Waters, but redemption is not the end of his journey. With Mandalore stirring from the ashes, scattered clans begin to gather around a fragile hope: the restoration of their ancient homeworld.

But the shadow over Mandalore is far greater than any one tribe can face alone.

As Bo-Katan Kryze attempts to unite a fractured people, old wounds and rival visions of Mandalorian identity threaten to divide them before the battle is even won. Din, still haunted by the loss of Grogu and by the childhood trauma that shaped his life beneath the helmet, must confront what it truly means to be Mandalorian.

Meanwhile, on Yavin, Grogu’s path intersects once again with Din’s in a newly constructed, emotionally earned reunion that restores the heart of their bond without undoing the weight of their separation. Their return to each other becomes the emotional center of the film and a turning point in Din’s final arc.

And as Mandalore prepares for war, an old legend re-enters the fight.

Boba Fett returns to the storyline in a major new role, aiding the Mandalorians on Mandalore and standing with them in their fight for survival.

Inspired by the Expanded Universe and reshaped through a heavily revised plot structure, Yaim’ol transforms the final battle for Mandalore into a sweeping story of return, inheritance, brotherhood, and identity.

Features

The Way of Mandalore Book 6: Yaim’ol aims to provide a distinct and immersive viewing experience by:

Restoring Boba Fett to the Mandalorian Story

Reintroducing Boba Fett as a meaningful presence in the Mandalore storyline, giving him a major role as he aids the Mandalorians in their fight to reclaim their homeworld.

Rather than leaving Boba disconnected from the fate of Mandalore, this edit brings him back into the larger mythos and uses his legacy, history, and relationship to Mandalorian identity to enrich the final chapter.

Creating a New Din and Grogu Reunion on Yavin

Constructing an entirely new Din and Grogu reunion sequence set on Yavin, designed to feel emotionally earned after the long separation established in Book 5: The Apostate.

This reunion reframes their bond as the emotional heart of the final film and gives their return to each other the dramatic weight missing from the original structure.

Building a Brand-New Plot Structure

Radically restructuring the source material into a new feature-length narrative with a stronger dramatic spine, clearer escalation, and a more satisfying payoff for Din, Grogu, Bo-Katan, Boba Fett, and the Mandalorian people.

Expanding Din Djarin’s Inner Journey

Adding extended Din Djarin flashbacks. These flashbacks are used to reinforce Din’s emotional arc and give greater meaning to his choices in the final conflict.

Drawing from the Expanded Universe

Infusing the film with Legends and Expanded Universe inspiration through thematic choices, lore references, visual details, dialogue, worldbuilding, and easter eggs.

The goal is to make Mandalore feel older, stranger, more mythic, and more connected to the broader Star Wars history that longtime fans recognize.

Applying Signature “acbagel” Editing Techniques

Using the familiar Way of Mandalore editing approach: aggressive restructuring, invisible continuity work, new scene context, reframed character motivations, altered pacing, new audio transitions, visual polish, deep continuity stitching, frame-by-frame action choreography fixes, and thousands of edits.

Enhancing Alien Authenticity

Replacing select English alien dialogue with new alien languages and vocalizations, with subtitles where needed, to increase immersion and restore a more authentic Star Wars atmosphere. Alien species speak like alien species, not simply humans in costume.

Integrating Mando’a

Adding authentic Mando’a dialogue throughout the film, supported by stylized integrated subtitles, to strengthen Mandalorian culture and make the clans feel more distinct, ancient, and lived-in.

Overhauling Music and Sound Design

Reworking the soundtrack with new musical cues, adjusted score placement, enhanced transitions, and a more cinematic audio identity. Sound design has also been extensively rebuilt with upgraded blasters, ships, weapons, ambiences, creature sounds, battle layers, helmet processing, and environmental detail.

Reimagining Plazir

Transforming Plazir into a more visually distinct location through the “purple Plazir” color treatment, giving the world a richer and more stylized identity while better matching the tone of this restructured film.

Deepening the Battle for Mandalore

Reframing the Mandalore conflict as the culmination of the saga rather than simply the endpoint of a season.
The final act is designed to feel larger, more dangerous, and more emotionally connected to the Mandalorian people, with Boba Fett, Din, Grogu, Bo-Katan, and the clans all feeding into the same restored narrative purpose. You DON’T want to miss Paz’s last stand.

Offering a Unique Final Vision
Providing fellow fans with a transformative, emotionally driven, lore-rich conclusion to The Way of Mandalore that honors Din and Grogu, restores Boba Fett to relevance, leans into Mandalorian culture, and gives the retaking of Mandalore the mythic weight it deserves.

Fanedit Details
Fanedit Name: The Way of Mandalore Book 6: Yaim’ol
Original Work: The Mandalorian Season 3, The Book of Boba Fett, and additional Star Wars source material as needed
Type of Fanedit: Major Overhaul / Restructure, Character-Focused Movie Edit, Narrative Reimagining, VFX Enhancement, Audio Enhancement, EU-Inspired Mandalorian Saga Edit
Technical Specifications:
Format: MP4
Resolution: 4K
Video Codec: H.264
Audio: Stereo AAC
File Size: Approx. 31 GB
Film Length: ~3 hours 30 minutes when credits roll
Subtitles: Includes integrated subtitles for Mando’a and non-English alien dialogue.

How to Obtain
Please send me a Private Message or comment here for information on how to obtain the fan edit.

I sincerely hope fellow fans enjoy this drastically different take on the final battle for Mandalore, and I welcome constructive feedback.

This is the Way

Book 6 bug fixes from test screenings have been completed, and the v1 release is ready to ship! I’m going to make a VFX/feature trailer tonight and then release tomorrow. Hopefully still enough time for the folks doing rewatches before Mando and Grogu!

Book 6 Test Screenings have been sent out and feedback received, I will be making the final updates and getting a v1 release out hopefully tomorrow or Sunday! I’ll put together a VFX/feature like I did with Book 5 and release that tomorrow.

aGreatHumanBeing said:

Been watching the first two books the last two evening - what a thrill! Even better than I hoped to dream.

The first one is absolutely flawless. Great work!

Thank you so much for this review! Very glad you had a good time with it and excited for you to see the rest of the saga!

Book 2 is nearly flawless. There were a few things i noticed when watching it, and if you every gonna go back at book 2 I thought I’d share them.

1. Is there some kind of technical error around the time they find Fennec? Or is it just my PC that can’t seem to handle the (dark) background colors correctly? The background is very blurry for a several minutes.

Yes! There is a problem with it haha. I’ve talked about it a lot in this thread but yes I’m aware of the quality drop in the night time scene and would love to replace it with 4k footage at some point. Just been focused on getting Book 6 out

2. The 3 Blurrghs is seen by the bonfire at 1:43:00, but in the next scene just Quill is riding one - Cara and Mando is walking. Were the other two eaten? 😄

Yes! They are eaten lol. Life of a Blurrg… 😉

3. I’m guessing you’re holding on the face reveal until that moment and therefore cut the scene where he takes of the helmet for IG-11. And I really like that idea! But then it is a bit clunky that Mando tells them to leave him and go down the sewers - only for him to be down there with them in the next scene. I guess we got some explanations for this with IG-11 telling that he got a Bacta infusion, but I’m guessing I would scratch my head a little if I hadn’t seen the show and knew how that scene originally played out.

I know I’ve worked on that segment a lot and people had many different ideas about what to do, so it’s worth me taking another pass on at some point, thanks.

These are minor tough. It is a bigger problem that “do the magic hand thing!” is gone 😮

I like the way you incorporated Boba Fetts story into this. My only remark is that I felt his acceptance as a tribe member felt a bit rushed. But maybe is also was like that in the series - I’m not going to see that one again too check! How long was Mando at the village? I feel Boba Fetts time with the Tuskens should be many months, but since is happend the same time as Mando was at the village it feels like he only where there like a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately there’s not really anything else about Boba’s initial acceptance to the tribe. That’s just how it plays out in the show so I have to work with what exists. As far as the chronologies, Boba and Din’s stories are told thematically as parallels and contrasts, but they are not at all chronologically connected until they end up in the Fennec scene. If you think about it, the intro we see of Boba climbing out of the sarlacc happens within a couple days of Return of the Jedi, and the Mandalorian show starts 6+ years later! The creators of BoBF did not really consider how the timeline works… so the pacing of how long Boba was with the Tuskens does not at all feel like it should. But you will want to view all those scenes as occassional snippets over years.

Please don’t take this too negavtive! If Book 1 wa 10/10, then the second book was 9,5/10. Really looking forward to watch the next books!

(My biggest concern is that I’m going to bed now - and all I’m doing is humming on the Boba Fett theme song!)

DUN, DUN-DUN-DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

honestabe said:

Please do not kill yourself over a fanedit. If it takes a few more months everybody here will understand and accept it.

We all appreciate your hard work, but I hate for you to sacrifice your sleep over this - unless you are already awake changing diapers.

Too late lol! Thank you though, I’m having a good time with it and it was definitely just time to grind this out and finish it. I have ~5 more hours of work to do before test screenings go out. Should have public v1 release ready around the 16th-20th. Then I’ll definitely do a v2 as there are bound to be some techinical things that still slip through the cracks but we’re looking great overall!

pableve said:

I just checked the progress after a few months and, boy oh boy, reading all this has made me excited! I really appreciate having subtitles available, since English is not my native language.
Would love the link to all the latest versions of the edits once Book 6 is finished.

Book 6 won’t launch with subtitles but that should be ready in June or early summer

Even the first two! Sent 😃

Production on Book 6 is going phenomenal. Looking good for release timeline, probably about 7-10 days away. I will definitely do a v2 in June, because I’m sure there will be some technical touchups that will be needed still, but I am working on getting the best looking v1 release I can to have ready in time for rewatches beforeMando and Grogu.

Sent to all! So many people on here and Reddit and through my YouTube to watch to get ready for Grogu movie haha. From that trailer, I can already assure you it will be getting The Way of Mandalore treatment when it releases to where I can buy it… Hutts speaking Basic? BLEH!!!

Acbagel is back tonight working on TWoM! I may have only gotten 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours and have another full day of work first buuuuut it’s crunch time. No excuses! Come hang out in the livestream if you’re inclined or hide if you want no spoilers 😃

EDIT: And yes all my films have subtitles thanks to g00b! I’m not sure I can have those ready for Book 6 launch in time, but they will be ready and uploaded probably in late may-june.

vranir said:

Any May the 4th update on Book 6?

May the fourth be with you as well! The Star Wars Day update I have is: I have getting destroyed by a project for work the last 3 weeks, but that project will finally be completed tomorrow. Then I am planning on streaming EVERY NIGHT until I release the film. Still aiming for releasing like the weekend before Mando movie release to give people time to watch. I probably have ~20-25 hours of work left on the film to at least get a solid v1 release out. I think I can do it in two weeks! 3+ hours streams every day and some work on my own. I am committing to having no life at all until I release this lol.

Patali said:

I’ve been experimenting replacing Disney’s “Star Wars heads” intro with just the classic “A long time ago”. But for Mandalorian, and for yor first movie covering season 1, I wanted a couple lines of prologue in the blue text, similar to what Solo did, just to set up the story of the greater series and add a little hype. Was fun to make:

https://youtu.be/otSc7vT7T1Y?si=WWBv6iBrHUG_4rGb

Very cool! Love it!

SamwiseJumanji said:

Hey, literally just finished watching Book 1 and had to jump right on here to leave a review.

It’s been a few years since I last watched the original show. I remember all the broad strokes and things came back to me as I went along watching your edit. Despite previous knowledge, your edit honestly felt near enough seamless. The pacing was fantastic throughout. You managed to keep the story moving along very well without the presence of the episodic format of the original show creeping through. I loved the insertion of the Prison Break episode before Mando rescues Grogu from the Client. It felt like a final look back on Din’s old life, with implications of an even darker past, before he decides to reunite with Grogu to potentially begin anew. It was very fitting and actually felt quite instrumental in his decision to do so. It actually made me think that it should have been that way in the show. I was a bit taken aback at first with the removal of Din’s flashbacks as a foundling, yet when you married them with him coming across the empty cradle, your intention became clear. I loved the back and forth of the flashbacks with the Mandalorians coming to the rescue in the past and present and then it coming to a close with the direct comparison of both Din and Grogu being saved. It really brought everything together and gave a very effective emotional resolution and cemented the entire point of Book 1. The new lines spoken in the Mandalorian language were perfect and gave much more of a deeper vibe to their culture, as well as giving them more character and a feel of community among them. Transitions between scenes were pretty much perfect, I only noticed one or two due to the parts of the score overlapping a bit but overall it was really well done. On a side note, good job on removing Grogu from the Prison episode, you would have never known he was there.

I have one or two slight crticisms aside from the overlapping score in transtitions (which is always a difficult thing to handle). I thought the fade to white in the flashback portions werent really neccersary. I felt that just a hard cut might have made it feel cleaner. The scene of Kuiil fixing IG-11 felt slightly jarring but I get why it was placed there and I think it’s just because I knew it was from a later episode. The shot of Greef surviving with the Beskar felt a bit awkward sandwhiched between the two scenes of Mando on the Razorcrest, but I don’t really know where else you’d put it. Please note, these are extremely minor crisiticms and they did not impact my enjoyment in the slightest - that’s all I have haha.

Regardless, I enjoyed this a hell of a lot. Thanks for putting so much effort into this, you should be proud. Can’t wait to watch the next one, this is already proving to be my go to way to watch The Mandalorian now. Thanks again!

Thank you very much for sharing the review, that was a pleasure to read! Would love to hear any other feedback on the other films as well as you go through.

Thanks everyone! I’m back to editing and put up a livestream last night. Will be doing more soon. Still aiming to get this out before Mando and Grogu so we can all complete our rewatches!

Hey, everyone! Thanks for your patience. Acbagel baby #4 made “another happy landing” a few days ago, so you can imagine things are very busy in the home! After a little paternity leave I will finish Book 6.

Darth Sadifous said:

Hey Acbagel, been following this project for quite awhile now. I remember speaking to you when the Mandalorian film was first annouced and how it may affect this project and at the time it seems like something far off on the horizon. However, time flies and now it is almost here.

Do you think you may release the final book prior to the new film’s release or with it so close, will you use a wait and see approach and adapt the final book off of what we are shown in the film? Also, do you potentially see yourself using footage from the new film for a Book 7 or to pad out the other books potentially? I look forward to seeing the “final” book when it is ready; I know it will be something special!

It really does fly! I can’t believe we’re 6 weeks away from a Star Wars film in theaters. It doesn’t really feel like it… But my plan is to release Book 6 before that film comes out, and then if the movie inspires me in some way or has footage I can use elsewhere, then I will re-release whichever of the previous edits gets the new footage. But that won’t happen until it releases in 4k on blu-ray etc later in the year. And then of course, I will be making a Book 7 based on the film at that time too. Blessings to you all!

alpha_tester said:

Hello! I have some comments about Book 2. Firstly, I want to say that the edit is fantastic, and what I enjoyed most is how you created a real sense of time passing for both Boba Fett and Mando by switching between their storylines. With that said, I do have some feedback. Take it with a grain of salt though. I’m an avid content consumer and I write occasionally, but I’m definitely not a film editor…

Thanks for the review! Regarding the scenes where you felt there should be more character building with Boba and Fennec, was there something you remembered from the D+ version that I did not include in mine? I thought I tried to utilize any and every conversation where there was any semblance of character building there, so let me know which one I missed.

Sirius said:

No problem, if you can add the subtitles, great, but if not, that’s fine too. As I said, I’m grateful that you added the subtitles in the last books because I usually watch fan edits without subtitles, and it’s harder to understand. But I fully understand that it takes time and it’s hard work. And I would like to thank Acbagel and you for the work you do, because it’s nice to watch something good to distract ourselves from the problems of everyday life, it’s a form of escapism, and this kind of thing help a lot sometimes. Really, really thank you guys

Good news, friend! Book 5 is fully subtitled and uploaded now. Previous links will work to retrieve the new upload. Huge thanks to g00b for all the help, and when Book 6 releases (soon tm 😂 ) it will be subtitled at launch.

nv0001 said:

Dear friends, thank you for your passion and hard work
As I understand, links providing by demand
please pm me links on Mando+bobf and mature bad batch. I found Asoka and Kenobi by myself

I fit on legal demands and purchased … I think everything (something few times, on bd and D+)

sorry for my English I am from Asia

Thanks for your interest, I sent you a DM

beachedwhale said:

We’ve finished book 4 and apparently that film was the best out of all Star Wars content so far (other than acolyte we’ve done EVERYTHING leading up to this). Lots of concern for baby yoda and when Boba finally made his appearance she thought he was going to be the villain which made the stand off more tense due to the Boba sniping scene in the previous movie.

I know it’s old rope by now but having him reveal his face here first at the end makes it so much more impactful, it hit wonderfully.

Bad news is she is dying to watch more now and we only have Ahsoka and your book 5 I need to drag out!

Take as long as you need but how are we looking on the next release? Can’t tell who is more excited to be honest

Haha awesome! Sound like a good time! Would love to know what she thinks of Book 5 when you get to it 😃

Book 6 is still in the second pass of the technical review stage. This one is very very detailed. I’ve been logging it on my YT channel, but you’ll see there it’s just slow, monotonous work. Like making a new 3-second transition for Boba’s Palace can sometimes take 45 minutes of work… and with my 4th baby coming in a month, 45 minutes is very valuable time haha. I’m working every free chance I get though! It’s coming along piece by piece.

Sirius said:

I watched movies 1 through 4, and I loved movies 1 and 4. I also enjoyed 2 and 3, although I think they have things that could be improved. But overall, I enjoyed all four movies, mainly because you cut out many bad scenes from the Boba Fett series, saved the scene of Mando removing his helmet for the fourth movie, and gave Luke the enhanced face.

My feedback:

Thanks, Sirius. I appreciate all the time it took to sort through and write out so many notes! The technical pointers are helpful, I’ll have to go back through each to see what exactly you’re noticing there. It seems like the overall critique is that most of the films don’t necessarily “feel” like a traditional movie feels. That, I will fully acknowledge as true. Some of them do feel like that more than others, as you mentioned, but to me it “feels” more like a consistent conglomeration of related episodes. I think TV to movie edits “feel” more like movies the more you end up cutting. One of my main goals was to cut as little as possible to preserve the overall pacing and integrity of the main storyline. In doing so, I retain a lot of the slower “non-movie” feeling scenes and such. Each film does have it’s own consistent 3-Act structure with character arcs and stories in place, but as you experienced, some films more “significant” than others. I think that’s something that I personally don’t see as a problem, as my goal wasn’t to create perfect traditional movie experiences, but to tell the best story possible in 2-3 hour chunks.

Some of the suggestions there like, “Perhaps it would be good to include a short AI conversation between Boba and Fennec” are cool ideas, but not really feasible at the moment. Maybe in a few more years the tech will be there to pull this off, but as of now even the most professional efforts possible will still scream “This is AI!” and look very out of place. I’m already pushing the limits to the max with the voicelines and a few small AI VFX shots.

I would be interested to see what you think about Book 5 as well if you ever get the chance!

potty meister said:

Not sure if this has ever been brought up, but the color banding in a few scenes is pretty distracting. It’s pretty much only in darker scenes like when they’re hunting Fennec Shand in book 2. I wonder if it would be possible for Acabel to re-encode the edit using h265 10 bit settings as that really helps to eliminate color banding.

Yes, this has been discussed before (can’t remember what page of this thread though). Unfortunately, it’s not just a simple “re-encode with some altered settings” situation. I don’t have the original project files anymore. Those were on a hard drive long since dead, but I did have fully rendered edits saved of the films. So the vast majorities of revisions (like, the last 3+ years of work) I have done on earlier films are not done by working on original source files, but onto already rendered versions of my older films (the exported ones with the borked settings). That is to say, the only way to “fix” the dark scenes like the Fennec night scene and sections of the mercenaries in Book 1 would be to 100% remake it from scratch. I tried AI restoration a year or two ago and it didn’t seem to help at all. Maybe some new tech will help alleviate it, but as of now, I wouldn’t have any other choice but to compeltely remake all of that and you’re looking at a loooooot of hours to do that, and no guarantee I could get it exactly how it appears now again (but with fixed coloration).

g00b said:
Great to hear! 😄

I’m close to finishing off the Book 4 subs for the older ones to keep enjoying 😉

And by “close” he meant REALLY close. Book 4 subtitled is completed, and I have uploaded it on my end. Again, no need for new links. If you have them already you have it where Book 4 is located.

Bored at 3AM said:

Awesome to hear. My younger students have been loving your Rebels Recut by the way.

This is so cool! Learning through Star Wars is the best learning haha

I am ~75% through my first technical pass on Book 6, working a little bit as I go, but mostly making notes and figuring out what’s causing what, evaluating scene placements/pacing. All pretty stable so far, I have about 40 changes to make still so far from my notes and I expect that to get around 60 by the time I’m done. Nothing that should take too long, these range as simple as “do a -3 audio gain on Din’s line” to “color grade overlap on frame X” to “Add new hyperloop pod sfx on way to fleet”. Some tasks are like 1 minute tasks, some are like 10 minute tasks. All is progressing well and I should have it finished review by the end of tomorrow, then will probably do a livestream or two cleaning up this final changelist, then will send out previews for editor review. Working hard!

Hey all, just wanted to announce that Darthg00b has completed the subtitles for Book 3! Give him a big round of applause and check out his Rebels project. The new subtitled/chaptered version of Book is now uploaded into your previously linked folders, you don’t need a new one.

Book 6 review continues! Adding a little bit more Mando’a (mostly like background/side lines) and testing some things for Luke’s academy.

Oh yeah! 😉

Once this project is all done I definitely want to do an Andor rewatch interweaving these episodes where they’re placed chronologically!

Lots of good points being made her, interesting disucssion!

Darth Sadifous said:

Enjoy your time with your family over the holidays and release it once you feel it is 100%. Grateful for you undertaking this project, especially attempting to salvage a lackluster Boba Fett mini series and a phoned in third season of The Mandalorian. The hype is real though! Happy Holidays and may the force be with you!

Thank you, Darth, I really appreciate your patience and hope my Boba Fett will feel far less lackluster than the one you remember from the show (and don’t remember from S3 because he wasn’t there…)

Bored at 3AM said:

I watched the first two movies over the weekend and this is most certainly going to be my go-to versions from now on. Excellent work. Looking forward to seeing how you wrap it all up.

Wow, very cool! I am glad to hear that, definitely post again once you’ve made it through the other films!

aGreatHumanBeing said:

Out of curiosity: I guess you, as me, saw the original show. And hopefully I will be es excited as you when I finally sees this version.

But how you (and others in this thread, please share your thought also) think this edit will be for a first time viewer?

I’ve been planning to introduce my girlfriend to Star Wars in the (hopefully near) future. Will it be better to show her this then the TV show, or should we see the full show first and use these edits for rewatches?

I can say that I showed my edits (though, much earlier versions) to my wife who had never seen the show before and she had a great time with them and has no interest in watching the show, but does want to rewatch the edits (when I finish lol, got pressure from all sides ;P).

I have made the edits to be very first timer friendly, that was a primary goal, to make it a great experience for a first time viewer. So I would recommend it if you think my edit is preferrable to the D+ version.

vranir said:

To me, the single biggest downside of this edit vs the original series is the movie vs episode length. All the changes here are excellent, but the longer format makes it a harder sell, especially for new viewers who might be more open to a series of 30-40 minute commitments until they get hooked.

My ideal plan is to recut these edits back into episodes for my own use, but I have no idea about when or how well that would work.

This would be a cool project! I definitely made them to fit into movie arcs, so I’m not sure you’d find a consistent episode length time, but you could just make episodes of the “Acts” in my films. Feel free to do that if you wish!

EddieDean said:

That’s an interesting take Vranir, but I can see the value, since Acbagel’s done so much great work within the episodes themselves.

I’m a fan of the movie format since the existing Acbagel movies work so well combined into arcs, but I balk a little at the 3.5 hour runtime of the final movie. I had been thinking of chopping it into two for personal use (the first half ending on the pirate fight over the planet), and reinserting the Dr Pershing content which I believe was planned to be cut, but we’ll have to see what Acbagel puts out!

The Way of Mandalore Book 6… Inspired by the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions 😉

beachedwhale said:

…You have no idea how excited I have been to get to Acbagel’s movies and I showed her the first one, somehow she only knew about “baby yoda” from toys etc thinking it was literally just a silly version of yoda. It was a crazy twist when she actually saw him and was worried when Mando just left him (going on that prison mission just works so well for the pacing)

Long story short I would happily recommend these films to anybody instead of the series, higher quality story telling and the Boba back and forth is incredible. I’d happily never have further adventures with Mando if it meant these edits could remain

Wow that’s a cool experience! Thanks for sharing, I love hearing how first timers feel as they watch it with the various changes. Book 6 reignites that Book 2 feeling again with the back and forth with Boba, and some mixing in of Bo-Katan too. Excited to share it ASAP!

Patali said:

I would 100% recommend showing her this cut for the first watch through. It makes the content much more digestible. And honestly, when you watch Way of Mandalore, it just makes more SENSE than the original version. THe plot elements he fixes, and to me, the best part is how the Boba Fett plot from that show is sprinkles throughout. it is sort of becomes the main B plot of the show. Like the way GOT switches over to Khaleesi in the early seasons. And then finally midway through, Mando and Boba finally meet. That moment was well done in the original show, but it’s even MORE epic having spent time with Boba up until then. It feels like a big event.

I haven’t even watched Mando season 3, but from what I understand, this series is a major improvement. I didn’t want to watch Season 3 after Boba Fett shoehorned Grogu back into the story so fast. But Bagel salvages it wonderfully, removing him from the first part of season 3, Bagel’s Book 5, and therefore increasing the separation time between Din and Grogu.

For me who has never seen Season 3, and my wife who had never seen the Mandalorian (or BF) at all, we have had a wonderful experience. I think she would have become bored with the regular series.

Thanks for the recommendatio, Patali! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Book 6 as a first timer viewer too. Hope you are doing well, friend!

Bored at 3AM said:

I’ll be using it for my ESL students in movie form, because I can cut it up however I’d like in 10 to 20 minute chunks with the readers I’ve made for it. So, yeah, that would presumably be their first exposure to it.

This is really cool as well, I can’t believe that haha! Well, make sure you give them review templates to fill out after they watch 😉 And another big thanks to g00b for the subtitling effort. I know he’s going through some big life changing (good) things as well that’s taking up his time, but it will be very nice to have them subtitled for people who need it. And when I finish Book 6, I can join in on helping