Maybe it’s for the best that Northeast Ohio-based journalists were not given a chance to screen “Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu” in advance of its release on May 22.

I concluded a while ago that I can’t be anything close to objective when it comes to the franchise — that if you put the goings on set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away in front of my eyeballs, I will be somewhat delighted.

The spaceships. The jumps to hyperspace. The lightsaber fights.

As with many children of the 1980s, “Star Wars” is one of the first things I remember loving.

Mom and Dad. And then “Star Wars.” And then, I suppose, my little sister.

So it takes me a few viewings of a “Star Wars” movie for me to be comfortable with my opinion of its quality. (After a screening, I gave 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” three stars out of four. Um, that’s far too kind, I later realized.)

For what it’s worth, my opinion (for now) of this first big-screen endeavor from Disney-owned Lucasfilm since “Skywalker” — an offshoot of the largely enjoyable TV series “The Mandalorian,” which has run for three seasons on Disney+ — is that it’s essentially a very expensive, two-hour episode of the show.

Sure, I was happy to spend part of May 22 in the theater with Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin — known to many other characters as “Mando” — and his little Force-sensitive apprentice, Grogu — known to many of us as “Baby Yoda.” However, the movie’s stakes are pretty low as the duo seeks to rescue the kidnapped Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) amid the slaughter and occasional apprehension of folks loyal to the defeated Galactic Empire. The fate of the galaxy doesn’t exactly hang in the balance during this one.

Regardless of the film’s strengths and weaknesses, though, it’s yet another example of a franchise almost hellbent on living in the past.

With the exceptions of “Skywalker” and the two films that preceded it, 2015’s “The Force Awakens” and 2017’s “The Last Jedi,” “Star Wars” largely has been serving up prequels of one sort or another since the franchise’s father and former owner, George Lucas, offered the world the almost wholly underwhelming “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” in 1999.

And look, some of this work to color in bits of the past in the Disney era of “Star Wars” has been worthwhile.

“Andor,” the two-season drama series designed mainly for adults and working as a cautionary tale about the danger of fascist forces gaining power, was spectacular — easily the best “Star Wars” Disney has delivered.

Plus, I really enjoyed the recent debut season of the animated series “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord.” The visual work is next-level, and the franchise has made a compelling figure out of Maul, a villain with great potential who was given the shortest of shrifts in “The Phantom Menace.”

Other recent retro fare has been OK at best, however. The first season of “Ahsoka,” the only season of the since-canceled series “The Acolyte,” the seemingly one-season-and-done series “Skeleton Crew” — none of it begs for a rewatch.

And these hops back along the “Star Wars” timeline aren’t about to stop.

We may or may not get more of Mando and Baby Yoda on the small screen, but second seasons of “Ahsoka” (meh) and “Maul” (yeh) are in the works. Plus, whether it remains, as planned, a theatrical movie or shifts to a Disney+ series, you have to think Dave Filoni — recently named president and chief creative officer of Lucasfilm — will follow through on his intention to direct an affair involving the gangs from “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka,” as well as maybe part of the “Skeleton Crew” crew, teaming up to take on formidable Imperial holdover Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).

The good news is that “Star Wars” also is looking to the future.

About a year from now, Disney is slated to release “Star Wars: Starfighter,” a story set — hallelujah — a few years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker.” The movie will star Ryan Gosling (“Project Hail Mary”) — a great choice — with a solid supporting cast around him.

Not much has been released in terms of the plot, but director Shawn Levy (“Free Guy”) and writer Jonathan Tropper (“Your Friends & Neighbors”) have insisted it will be a stand-alone story. Maybe so, but I’m nonetheless hoping it serves as the beginning of what I’ll call the “MCU-ing” of this unexplored era in the timeline.

I would love to see Lucasfilm borrow from sister company Marvel and turn this unexplored territory into its version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with an ever-expanding story told via movies and TV series, as well as novels and comic books.

Taking a page from 2008’s “Iron Man” (directed, by the way, by Jon Favreau, who helmed “The Mandalorian and Grogu”), “Starfighter” could tell a complete story while ALSO giving fans a tease to what’s to come. I’m talking about the announced but stuck-in-development-hell movie set farther into the future with Sequel Trilogy heroine Daisy Ridley reprising the role of Rey, a project commonly referred to as “New Jedi Order.”

Hey, I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but then THAT movie could serve to set up the planned trilogy of movies set to be overseen by prominent producer Simon Kinberg.

My biggest gripe with the Sequel Trilogy is a lack of a cohesive plan, with each director seemingly allowed to choose his own adventure. It couldn’t be more clear that Rian Johnson wasn’t interested in further cultivating much of what J.J. Abrams put in place with “The Force Awakens” when he penned the screenplay for his “The Last Jedi.” Then, Abrams — taking the reins back after the firing of director Colin Trevorrow — appears to have wanted to undo much of Johnson’s works when he helmed “The Rise of Skywalker.”

It’s such a missed opportunity, that set of films.

At the very least, I hope that “Starfighter” will begin to establish a long-running threat for the New Republic, and it CAN’T be ANOTHER version of the Empire. (The First Order? With its Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters? You all should be ashamed of yourselves. And don’t get me started on the Resistance.)

I don’t know what this next phase of “Star Wars” should look like — I know only that it should feel fresh. Fortunately, it’s not my job or yours to shape it, but instead that of Filoni and company.

Here’s hoping that “Star Wars” — a short time from now in this very galaxy — is thrilling us and leaving us dying to know what’s next.

May the Force be with them.

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“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” (rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action, 2 hours, 12 minutes) is in theaters now.

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