Star Wars died when Ewoks showed on the big screen and was buried by The Phantom Menace. New movies are copulating with the corpse kind of thing.
Mandalorian is nothing special or original but for the gutter that Star Wars became over the years, it is breath of fresh air.
As I often say, if you want to know what is popular look at official merchandise pricing. Mando figure currently costs as much all the other Star Wars characters from the new trilogy. Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo, Reia, Snoke etc. All sub 10 dollar on heavy discount cuz nobody wants those. Nobody really likes new Star Wars movies. On the other hand, Mando is 60-80 dollars, more expensive than classic Luke, Obi Wan, Darth Vader figures. Want to get my nephew one Mando but cannot justify paying that much on plastic toy. Baby Yoda merchandise is biggest fail of Disney ever. If they had any for this holiday season they would make billions of dollars just from baby Yoda. The single most popular thing to 3d print right now is baby Yoda, I printer and painted four different ones so far. Thinking to start selling them online. That Dinosaur looking mount they ride in the show has an awesome figure which was always on sale for the past ten years or so. Not this holiday season. Went straight to base price and then quadrupled in price over the night, and you can hardly get any. Mandalorian is crazy popular. Only non popular figure is of course, Cara Dunn, because people and kids dont like feminist crap.
You may say merchandise does not reflect anything but Star Wars generates most money through toys, they started action figures and movie merchandise collecting. When Lucas sold Star Wars he didn't sell future cinema ticket sales, he sold billions of dollars as profit from selling Star Wars toys.
Some smart dude on youtube made crappy video involving baby Yoda and baby Groot. Youtube videos made for children involving toys and action heroes have tens of millions of view, many are into half a billion range. But when you combine two cutest baby action heroes in one place, its like having a money printing machine. Bottom line is, no one gives a fuck about old farts. Which is why they put Ewoks in ep VI. Money is in toddlers mostly and partly teens (teens appreciate action heroes more than toddlers but parents spend a lot of money on 2-8 year olds). Disney hit the jackpot with baby Yoda and will milk it until it shrivels like old mans penis.