The Mandalorian is doing something never done in Star Wars history by bringing us a live-action TV series. Here’s what we learned from the preview clip shown at Star Wars Celebration.
Lucasfilm has been tightlipped about The Mandalorian while most efforts have been focused on Star Wars: Episode IX as of late. But the Disney+ series is one that Star Wars fans are truly excited about.
While at Star Wars Celebration, there was a panel with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni discussing what fans can expect to see from the show. There was also a teaser and a clip from the series, but only those in attendance had the opportunity to watch it. It was blacked out for the at-home viewing audience.
But the internet happened. And as people on the internet do, there is a video of the clip – and it’s well worth the watch. I’ve watched it several times already because it’s just different than what we are used to in Star Wars.
Here are the four biggest takeaways from The Mandalorian preview.
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It’s different
When I say it’s different, it’s not like this is something that hasn’t been done before. It has with other TV series. But this is something entirely different for Star Wars.
It’s gritty. It’s dirty. There is no light and dark side. There is living in a grey world and doing what is necessary to survive. That type of attitude really makes a difference and makes people act against the norm. .
You see that in the early clip when the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) is looking for a job. He talks about bounties with a character played by Carl Weathers and he is looking for something bigger to get credits that he needs.
We don’t know why he needs such a big score, but it’s likely that work is hard to come by these days. The Mandalorian takes place about five years after Return of the Jedi, which means the galaxy is in disarray with the destruction of the Empire.
Resources are limited. Because they are also in the Outer Rim, laws mean even less here.
It’s also different because the storyline has time to marinate. With movies, there are two to three hours you have to tell a story where there needs to be a resolution. While there may be cliffhangers or more that needs to be told, a television series is different because it doesn’t require many things to be wrapped up in just two episodes.
The Mandalorian should be at least eight to 10 episodes, which allows the storyline to work itself out and they can take time building up characters, moments and scenes.
A Western feel
If you have watched old Westerns, The Mandalorian might feel familiar to you. It has that grittiness to it.
The clip shows Pascal’s character in a town with a lot of criminal element. The walls are grey. The town streets are dirty. The stormtroopers are even dirty.
There is a distinct feel to the clips, setting the viewer up for a series that will have a lot of greyness involved – and not just from the coloring. The characters live in a world of grey as well doing what is necessary.
They make no apologies about it either. The Mandalorian takes contracts without asking many questions. Bounty hunters have been in these stories forever – especially Westerns. This seems to be a modern take on the old Westerns minus John Wayne.
In reality, Star Wars is a space western, but The Mandalorian just has a closer feel to it as it directly has a bounty hunter looking for his target. There is even the brief clip of Kara Dune (Gina Carrano) and the Mandalorian fighting and then both whipping their blasters out at the same time just like a duel.
While Westerns also tend to tell tales more about “morality,” this show is dealing with characters who are more morally ambiguous. But there will likely come a moment when a tough choice is going to be made (and if this plot reveal is correct then we know what it will be).
The Mandalorian. Gina Carrano. Photo credit: Lucasfilm
Timeline
Jon Favreau says The Mandalorian takes place about five years of Return of the Jedi. That means the Empire is mostly gone – other than the small remnant that survives in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions – and the galaxy is still trying to come to unity under the New Republic.
It’s not surprising to see where The Mandalorian winds up and why he needs money. With the structure in place torn apart, laws don’t mean as much and the government is likely working on building the center before working its way out.
That puts the show at about 9 ABY in Star Wars’ timeline.
As of right now, there is nothing in the Disney canon that we know about in this year. Plenty happened in Legends, but Disney doesn’t recognize those anymore.
That means Jon Favreau gets to work with a blank slate. He has created a new character, headed to new places, and gets to show what the remnants of the Empire look like in a way that we haven’t seen before. We got a little taste of that in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novel trilogy, but The Mandalorian is even a little further out than that.
We don’t expect too many ties to the episodic Star Wars films, but there is no way you create this series without at least mentioning what happened and why the galaxy is the way it is in the current timeline. But also, Favreau will undoubtedly give some fan service. That’s what many of his Easter eggs have been about.
The Mandalorian. Carl Weathers. Photo credit: Lucasfilm
What’s it all about?
There was a rumor of what the plot of The Mandalorian was about, which we covered here. On the rumor scale, we say this one is plausible.
The clip shown at Star Wars Celebration gave the rumor even more legs. When the Mandalorian meets with the client for the unusually high and secretive bounty, he’s given very few details on the target. But the target is a person who needs to be brought in.
A doctor tells him to deliver the asset alive although Werner Herzog’s character does say that the asset brought in dead would still be acceptable but for far less money. Very creepy.
I expect this is the very beginning of The Mandalorian series because any good story writing starts with the action. There isn’t likely much happening before when the first episode airs on Disney+. This moment where the Mandalorian accepts the job and is told scant details is the precipice for the entire show.
The one part of the clip that I love is when he walks out of the little hidey hole and the stormtrooper steps in the doorway to watch him leave. This moment says a lot about the Empire – there are those that are still loyal, the Empire is in decay given the state of the uniforms and these people that Pascal’s character just took a job from cannot be trusted. So whatever they are asking for should certainly be questioned.
While we still don’t know much about The Mandalorian, we certainly know more now than we did just a couple of weeks ago.
The Mandalorian premieres on Disney+ on November 12.