The Mandalorian Fan Reaction To Lizzo And Jack Black Proves No One Hates Star Wars Like Star Wars Fans
The negative Star Wars fan reaction to appearances by Lizzo, Jack Black, and Christopher Lloyd in The Mandalorian is incomprehensibly toxic.
I have made it no secret that I was disappointed with The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere, but the hate “Chapter 22: Guns for Hire” is getting from Star Wars fans is genuinely surprising the hell out of me. I thought it was the most fun episode of the season so far, with some of the most consequential movement in the larger story. I’m left to wonder if the real problem isn’t simply the fact that a famous Black woman made an appearance, because otherwise the loudest criticisms against “Gun for Hire” are just incomprehensibly stupid.
Take for example, Yandura, who enjoys a following of close to half a million on the controversial social media platform TikTok. Yandura rails against the latest episode of the The Mandalorian in the video below chiefly for three reasons: he argues they cast whatever “super famous” celebrities they could to artificially boost viewer numbers, because the show is focusing too much on appealing to children, and because the episode was a “side quest.”
@yandura Star Wars Content is Back #starwars #mandalorian #babyyoda ♬ original sound – Yandura
So, tackling the celebrity question first; the suggestion that The Mandalorian desperately corralled the most famous stars they could because streaming numbers were “way down” is insanely dishonest. And no, that’s not a matter of opinion: it’s fact. CinemaBlend reported last May that principal photography had already wrapped on the current season of the show by that point, so unless Jon Favreau has better fortune telling powers than either the Jedi or the Sith, he would have no way of knowing in the Spring and Summer of 2022 what the streaming numbers would be in April 2023.
And no, “Guns for Hire” couldn’t have been accomplished in more recent reshoots. Not only would the post-production work required make that impossible, but Christopher Lloyd‘s casting in Season 3 of The Mandalorian was reported last March. So unless Lloyd owns the same time traveling DeLorean that Doc Brown invented, it’s just not possible.
Regardless, I don’t even understand what the problem is with these stars appearing in The Mandalorian. If it took you out of the episode, fair enough, but it’s tough to see how.
If, rather than playing distinct characters, the stars had delivered pure fan service, I would understand. If Jack Black had broken into a Tenacious D song, if Lizzo’s character found an excuse to start singing “About Damn Time,” or if Lloyd started spouting famous lines from Back to the Future or Taxi, then I’d get the issues. But they didn’t, so I don’t.
Moving on to the subject of “Guns for Hire” supposedly serving as proof that The Mandalorian is supposedly appealing too much to children; it’s such an inane point that I feel dumber even responding to it.
Let’s forget about the fact that you’re making this charge against a series about a man in flying armor with a ray gun who spends all of his time protecting a magic baby. Let’s forget that one of my chief complaints about the current season of The Mandalorian is that it relies too heavily on continuity established in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, which the kids Yandura is talking about would be too young to be familiar with.
And let’s just talk about how the episode of The Mandalorian we’re discussing is essentially the closest Star Wars has ever gotten to a police procedural which, you know… CSI is always a hit with kids.
Finally we get to Yandura’s complaint about “Guns for Hire” being a “side quest.” You know what I’m going to say here, right? Something along the lines of… what series have you been watching?
Previous seasons of The Mandalorian have been practically nothing but long strings of side quests. If Mando wants to get Grogu to Point A, he can’t just go straight to Point B. From Point A he has to transport some lizard lady to Point E, then fly back to Point A where the only way he can pay the person who has the info he needs to get to Point B, is to get an artifact that the Sand People will only loan out if he helps kill a krayt dragon or clean their latrines or something like that.
If anything, The Mandalorian‘s third season has had the fewest “side quests” of all the seasons, with a much stronger focus on Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff), Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) redemption, and the efforts of the Mandalorians to unite. While yes, most of “Guns for Hire” could correctly be called a “side quest,” it also ends with the question of Bo-Katan and the Darksaber finally settled.
Don’t get me wrong: it isn’t like you’re not allowed to not like The Mandalorian. In fact, Season 3 has proven to be my least favorite of the series so far.
But the backlash against this single episode of The Mandalorian has been utterly unreal, and none of the overt complaints make any kind of sense. Between the harassment endured by Moses Ingram, Kelly Marie Tran, and now an episode that dared to cast Lizzo, it’s pretty obvious at this point that if you want to make these particular Star Wars fans angry, all you have to do is get a woman of color on camera.
