The Mandalorian airs on Disney+ on November 12, 2019, at 9 a.m. ET. Below is everything you need to know to be ready for the Star Wars first live action TV show.
What started as a funky little sci-fi trilogy from the late 70s/early 80s has exploded into the world's most beloved fan franchise. Growing to ten films, a couple animated series, and hundreds and hundreds of novels, it's the most expansive work of sci-fi ever created.
So it's amazing that 40 years after A New Hope exploded onto the screen, Star Wars can still experience a franchise first—its own live-action TV show. Helmed by Jon Favreau, a directer/producer most remembered for kickstarting the Marvel film franchise with Iron Man in 2008, this new project already has a name.
So what is The Mandalorian? Who will be in it? And most importantly, when will we get to see this new adventure in the Star Wars galaxy?
What Is It About?
The best look we've got so far is through the show's trailers, especially the official trailer launched in late August and late October. Other info leaked from The Mandalorian panel at Star Wars Celebration in April.
Here are some highlights from what directors and actors have said about the show:
Favreau: It takes about five years after Return of the Jedi...this new character is a gunfighter, a bounty hunter, a citizen of the underworld of the outer reaches of the galaxy. It starts with him hunting down quarries, making his money. This is a character you've never met before in a period of time you've never seen.
Pascal: There's just an aesthetic to the Mandalorian, that is extremely powerful and mysterious. This armor that harkens to medieval knights. He's relateable, we're all covered in our own armor.
Favreau: This series offers the opportunity to introduce new planets, new races, new species, new starships. However, we wanted to feel completely connected and familiar...something anyone could sit down in their seat and enjoy.
The idea of a Star Wars live-action TV show goes back to at least 2005, following the premiere of The Revenge of the Sith. It wouldn't be until Disney grabbed the reins from George Lucas and greatly expanded the franchise that we'd finally get a Star Wars adventure fit for TV—or at the very least, a streaming service.
The following trailer shows a pretty gritty version of Star Wars, more like akin to Star Warsfilms like like Solo or Rogue One than anything that's come before it. While the voice over gives an impression of lawlessness, the overall story is still relatively unknown beyond a Mandalorian does...something.
Speaking on the setting, Favreau's production is wholly separate from Lucas's, which would have been set in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant between the original and prequel trilogies. Instead, The Mandalorian will take place around five years after Return of the Jedi (originally reported as seven years but corrected to three).
With the fall of the Empire being so recent, the Star Wars galaxy will likely be a galactic Wild West as a very young New Republic grapples with its newfound powers. Right now the only piece of current Star Wars canon that falls within that time frame is the novel Last Shot, which details the continuing adventures of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian.
As far more plot details, Favreau's Instagram has helped fill in a few holes:
Months later, a rumor popped up on Reddit, describing a Star Wars presentation that went into some detail about Favreau's project. From Reddit:
...The central plot revolves around the main character and a baby. I guess the Mandalorian encounters a baby on one of his missions that he is supposed to kill, but instead of that, he ends up saving it and a lot of the rest of the story revolves around their growing relationship and his efforts to keep the child safe and protected.
This description sounds eerily familiar to the famous Japanese manga, Lone Wolf and Cub, where a traveling ronin and his young son go on adventures during the time of the Tokogawa shogunate. This would fit well with Star Wars history as George Lucas was originally inspired by Japanese cinema, specifically Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.
But this rumor is far from confirmed and the trailer doesn't seem to involve a baby—at least from what we can tell—but who knows.
We do know who will not be in the show—anyone from previous Star Wars films. While it's possible considering the timeline that someone familiar could make an appearance, Favreau stated in an interview in May that his Star Wars show would feature "all new characters."
Finally, no more Skywalkers.
Favreau's Instagram has also provided fodder for Star Wars fans to get excited about.
Although this prop looks relatively random, it's actually the property of Willrow Hood, a cult favorite seen only briefly running through the halls of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. This could mean that Hood will make an appearance in the show…or maybe Favreau is just having some fun.
Our new antihero's trusty weapon? Eagle-eyed fans have noticed that this weapon is seen in the hands of Boba Fett in the much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special.
Then one last post brought a bombshell:
IG-88 is one of the most memorable bounty hunters from Darth Vader's rogues gallery in The Empire Strikes Back. We've long wished for the return of IG-88, and Favreau is giving it to us—as an IG-88 robot can be seen slinging blasters in one of the trailers.
That George Lucas Feel?
Favreau also spoke with GQ Middle East while promoting his live-action Lion King filmabout George Lucas' lingering influence on Star Wars on The Mandalorian in particular, saying:
From talking to George Lucas, because I'm working on Star Wars with The Mandalorian. We had a long talk with each other and he said "remember Jon, the real audience for all stories and all myths—because he really is a Joseph Campbell adherent—he said the myth is designed for kids who are coming of age. We enjoy the stories as adults, but really storytelling is about impart the wisdom of the previous generations onto the children who are becoming adults and giving them a context for how to behave and how to learn the lessons of the past without making mistakes on their own. That's the hope that you can teach them how to avoid all the hardship yet garner all the wisdom.
How that advice will factor into Favreau's Star Wars vision is anyone's guess.
Who are the Mandalorians?
So you might be asking—what the hell is a Mandalorian?
Mandalorians are the inhabits of their home planet Mandalore, its moon, Concordia, and various other planets and colonies throughout the galaxy. Although they have a complicated history that's been explored extensively, they're a warrior race akin to Klingons in Star Trek.
Mandalorians are notorious for their fighting ability and were a major thorn in the side of the Jedi Order in the Old Republic, being one of the few warriors that could match the Jedi's force-augmented power. However, the Mandalorians are far from being one note, and factions within the society formed that argued for a more peaceful Mandalore. These factions would eventually lead to civil war. If you want to know all about the Mandalorians, Wookiepeedia is your best bet.
The Mandalorians feature prominently in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and are also known to ally themselves with Darth Maul's Shadow Collective, which fans saw a small glimpse of in Solo: A Star Wars Story. With Dave Filoni's involvement as a director and executive producer (and Favreau's own voice work on Clone Wars), it's very likely that The Mandalorian could feed off of Filoni's previous work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars' previous, wholly animated TV shows.
Who's in it?
On November 13, 2018, Variety reported that Pedro Pascal, known most famously for portraying Prince Oberyn in Game of Thrones, will take on the lead role as The Mandalorian. Other credits include Carl Weathers (of Rocky fame) as Greef Carga, the head of a bounty hunting guild in the Outer Rim, and Gina Carano, a mixed martial artist and actress, as Cara Dune.
The casting only gets more interesting from there. Werner Herzog and Giancarlo Esposito will play Empire loyalists.
Jon Favreau will be the showrunner and writer on the series. He's also been intimately tied to the Mandalorians when he voiced Pre Vizsla, a Mandalorian Death Watch leader in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He'll also serve as executive producer along with Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson. Ludwig Göransson, who scored the mega film Black Panther, will also compose the music for The Mandalorian.
StarWars.com also revealed that he'll be joined by a cadre of directors, many of whom will be major "firsts" for the Star Wars franchise when it comes to diversity in the director's chair. Here's a quick list:
- Deborah Chow: Jessica Jones, Mr. Robot, Flowers in the Attic
- Rick Famuyiwa: Dope, Confirmation
- Bryce Dallas Howard: Solemates and co-star of Jurassic World
- Taika Waititi: What We Do In the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok
- Dave Filoni: Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels, directing the first episode of The Mandalorian
When Does It Air?
Disney is launching its exclusive streaming service on November 12, 2019, (at 9a.m. ET) and The Mandalorian will be a launch title. Disney plans to charge $7/month subscription price for the service.
But the first season will stretch eight episodes, and it's been previously reported that the show will cost $100 million for its first season. That joins the upper echelon of expensive TV shows like Game of Thrones and Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings show.
This post was originally published on December 28, 2018. It's been updated to include more information as its become available.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
