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Baby Yoda
Baby Yoda has the entire Star Wars franchise in his tiny green maw. (Photo: Getty / Design: Tina Tiller)

Pop CultureMarch 3, 2023

Baby Yoda can’t stop the Star Wars death spiral all on his own

Baby Yoda
Baby Yoda has the entire Star Wars franchise in his tiny green maw. (Photo: Getty / Design: Tina Tiller)

The Mandalorian is back and better than ever. But that may not be enough to save the Star Wars multiverse.

Contains spoilers for season three of The Mandalorian. This is an excerpt from our pop culture newsletter Rec Room – sign up now for more like this in your inbox every Friday.

On a sun-drenched beach lined with caves and crystal-clear water, an initiation ceremony is underway. A child recites lines, agrees to honour a creed, and promises to “Walk the way of the Mandalore”. In return, he gets a shiny blue helmet freshly forged in fire. From this, it’s clear: this is how one becomes a Mandalorian, a member of Star Wars’ secret space police force.

Someone has other ideas. A giant scaly sea creature – imagine a Mermaid Jabba the Hutt – spirals his blubbery body onto the beach and begins a smackdown, scattering those present into disarray and chomping through Mandos like it’s dinner time. If someone doesn’t help them, they’re all going to die.

Enter man of the moment Pedro Pascal. With his super fast space ship, he peels in to blast the beast to smithereens, a move that blows slabs of meat across the beach. As our hero lands and waves to survivors covered in monster gloop, the camera instead zeroes in on someone else present: a familiar green puppet with a goofy look on its face.

Who, exactly, does Baby Yoda think he is? He’s not needed in this scene one jot, but I sure did smile when I saw his gremlin grin. But he’s more than just comic relief in a really rather good serialised weekly adventure series. Baby Yoda’s in the unenviable position of holding an entire franchise in his tiny green maw.

If you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: Star Wars, as a franchise, is in a precarious position. A second season of Temuera Morrison’s Book of Boba Fett hasn’t been confirmed. Based on lacklustre reviews, it seems unlikely. Same goes with Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Ewan McGregor mini-series that turned Darth Vader into a toothless villain.

As good as Andor was (and it was very good) viewership was so low Disney was forced to give it away for free. Several Star Wars films – remember those? – are rumoured, but none are confirmed. According to the rumour mill, everyone from Rian Johnson to Game of Thrones bosses David Benioff and DB Weiss to Taika Waititi are toiling away, trying to crack what exactly the future for Star Wars on the big screen looks like.

So, right now, the Star Wars universe belongs to a puppet. Beginning this week with a chapter titled “The Apostate,” The Mandalorian returns for a much-hyped third season, and if one thing’s clear, it’s that Jon Favreau is in complete control of what he’s doing.



There are pounding drums building tension right from the start. There are brilliant set pieces, from Mermaid Jabba’s demise to a Frankenstein robot crawling across the floor Terminator-style. There’s a classic Western street shoot out with pirates, a fiery space battle through an asteroid belt, weird folk bands performing on the streets of Nevarro and the great Katie Sackoff lounging around on her own version of the Iron Throne looking like a menace.

Oh, there’s also a great one-liner pulled straight from an Arnie action film: “That’s using your head,” utters Mando when the top of a bronzed statue crushes a killer legless droid.

It’s undeniably good television. The Mandalorian hits all of those Star Wars sweet spots. I love it, my kids love it, my parents love it too. Watching Baby Yoda snuggle into Mando’s lap for a wee nap during a hyperspeed trip doesn’t just look great on a big-screen TV, it hits me right in the parental feels. Sometimes, I wish I could be as good a dad as Mando is to Baby Yoda.

But I can’t help but wonder: How has it come to this? Star Wars began as a film trilogy, then a prequel trilogy, and another post-trilogy trilogy before morphing into what it is now, a collection of mostly pretty average TV shows. As good as The Mandalorian is, it’s the only one delivering the goods.

Most fans would happily swap all of it for more big screen adventures, Death Star explosions, battles between the Force and the Dark Side, Vader and arguments about who shot who first. Come in, Taika, you’re our only hope.

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Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large
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Image by Tina Tiller
Image by Tina Tiller

Pop CultureMarch 3, 2023

Is 2023 going to be our most star-studded census ever?

Image by Tina Tiller
Image by Tina Tiller

Harry Styles isn’t the only celebrity set to be on our shores come census night. Alex Casey assesses the smorgasbord of stars who could be nestled among the statistics.

Last week, music magazine Coup De Main asked a question into the ether that sent both star spotters and statistics stans into a frenzy. “Important question for 2023 Census,” the post began, “will Harry Styles also have to do the census on March 7th with the rest of New Zealand?”. Census NZ was quick to reply, making headlines across the mediasphere: “Everyone who is in Aotearoa New Zealand on census night, needs to be counted in the 2023 Census,” they wrote.

“This includes tourists, visitors, and Harry Styles.” 

When asked why the census extends to visiting celebrities, Simon Mason, deputy chief executive for census and collection operations, explains that the census counts the entire population every five years, providing data that can be compared across time. “By asking everyone in New Zealand on census night to complete the census, we can determine from the data who lives here and who doesn’t,” he says,

An artist’s impression of Harry Styles doing the Census. (Image: Twitter)

As stated in this handy explainer, The Data and Census Act 2022 requires that everyone in New Zealand on census day fills out the forms. If you don’t, it is technically breaking the law, and submitting incomplete or inaccurate information can lead to fines of up to $2000. Visitors should receive a census pack at the premises they are staying such as hotels and motels, and are only required to complete the first 10 questions on the form.

So, aside from Styles, who are the lucky celebrity visitors lined up to sprinkle their dazzling statistics into our humble civilian soup? Very used to being “trapped in boxes”, comedian Rob Brydon should have no trouble checking some boxes after performing in Christchurch’s Town Hall next Tuesday. Julia Jacklin might feel some “pressure to party” after her show at Wellington’s Opera House, but we strongly suggest she does the census first. 

Further north, Wet Leg can pull up a “chaise lounge” to complete their census after opening for Harry Styles, and Pavement will have to find a “shady lane” in which to fill out their forms before performing at The Civic. West Auckland visitor Jason Momoa could be facing a new type of “Justice League” (the Data and Census Act) if he doesn’t do his homework. Greg Davies, spotted in Morningside this week, will have a new “task to master” if he ‘s planning to stick around. 

Jason Momoa practices for the census. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

It’s an impressive line-up that would surely blow any other census out of the water with its starpower, but there’s only one way to be sure. Our last census night was March 6, 2018, the very same night that James Blunt performed to what our own Madeleine Chapman described as a “lacklustre” Auckland crowd. “The worst part of the James Blunt concert was the crowd,” she wrote in her review. “The best part was everything else.” Census included? 

Chapman does not remember Blunt mentioning the census and, although she found time to rank all of his albums from least to most sad, admitted she had no memory of completing the census herself in 2018. James Blunt’s booking agent did not respond to The Spinoff’s request for comment. Other celebrities who just missed the 2018 census include Barack Obama (arrived March 24) and Ed Sheeran (arrived March 25, although his Dunedin mural would have been taking shape on census day). 

Let us go further back in history to census night on March 5, 2013. The English cricket team would have just finished day two of their third test against the Black Caps, so you can imagine they might have cooled down with a quick census. Once again, Ed Sheeran was set to perform at the then-TSB Arena in Wellington on March 8 and, given what we know about his penchant for lurking about in the regions, was probably already here (actually, best we assume that Ed Sheeran is weirdly aiming to be here for every census).

Ed Sheeran, so close but so far. (Photo by Al Pereira/WireImage)

On census night of March 7, 2006, Fort Minor performed at Auckland’s St James Theatre. The side project of Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park, you’ll probably remember the song that opened the show – “this is ten percent luck / twenty percent skill / fifteen percent concentrated power of will.” Although Shinoda’s merch store did not respond to The Spinoff’s request for comment, we can reveal that the 2006 census results contained as many, if not more, percentages than his hit song. 

The 2001 census was held on March 6, while Lord of the Rings was filming pick-ups. According to OneRing.Net, Elijah Wood was overheard saying “he had to catch a flight back to New Zealand in the morning” on January 24, 2001. Safe to assume Wood had been here for at least a few months, leaving him ripe for the census. According to his extremely wholesome blog, Sir Ian McKellen “did not pass” customs (come back for Gandalf pick-ups) until April 13, 2001

From a brief look back through our census history, it is clear that this year we are in for our strongest showing of celebrity statistics. When asked how 2023 sits in the pantheon of celebrity censuses, Mason is keeping schtum. “Information supplied in the census is private and confidential, so we couldn’t confirm that.” Of course, none of this matters unless the celebrities actually do the census, empowering Mason to make one final plea to the VIP cohort scattered across the motu. 

“Our message to Harry, Rob, Julia and everyone else visiting and staying in our fine country on Census night is this,” began Mason. “Kia ora, thanks for coming to our wonderful country. You picked a great time to be here.  We’d love you to be counted while you’re here, so please complete your census form. Ngā mihi.”

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