It’s crazy that we haven’t had a live-action Star Wars show yet, but in 2019, it’s finally happening. It’s been a long time coming, but the very first live-action Star Wars series is on it’s way. Here’s everything you need to know before you watch The Mandalorian.
In October 2018, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau posted a picture on Instagram that evoked the classic Star Wars opening crawl and laid out exactly what The Mandalorian will be about. The series will focus on “the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic,” and will explore the rocky transition from the Galactic Empire to a brand new government.
If that makes The Mandalorian sound like a western, that’s not an accident. At Star Wars Celebration 2019, Favreau and fellow producer Dave Filoni confirmed that The Mandalorian, like the original Star Wars, is heavily inspired by both spaghetti westerns and Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. Like the heroes in those stories, the Mandalorian is a lone fighter “of questionable moral character” who flies a ship called the Razor Crest and does whatever it takes to survive.
Plot specifics are still slim, but we know that actor Pedro Pascal will star as the title character, who like Star Wars fan favorite Boba Fett wears a suit of iconic Mandalorian armor. Still, according to reports, Pascal isn’t modeling his performance off Boba Fett, but rather on Clint Eastwood’s classic character The Man with No Name. Pascal previously headlined the Netflix series Narcos, but you probably know him best as Oberyn Martell, the dude who had his head crushed by the Mountain on Game of Thrones.
Joining Pascal will be Carl Weathers. Best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, Weathers will play Greef, the head of a loose coalition of bounty hunters who sends the Mandalorian on a special mission.
That mission will bring him in contact with a pro-Empire crime lord, played by acclaimed director Werner Herzog , as well as Cara Dune, a former Rebel shock trooper played by MMA legend Gina Carano.
Other confirmed cast members include Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito as a TIE Fighter pilot, as well as Academy Award nominee Nick Nolte, Supernatural’s Emily Swallow, American Gods’ Omid Abtahi, and comedian Bill Burr. That’s a lot of star power! Clearly, Disney isn’t messing around.
If series producer Jon Favreau’s name rings a bell, there’s a pretty good reason for that, as he’s quietly become one of Disney’s biggest power players. Favreau first made his name back in the day by directing the hits Swingers and Elf. But he rose to a whole new level in 2008 as the director of Iron Man, the movie that single-handedly launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revitalizing Robert Downey Jr.’s career, and made Tony Stark a household name. Plus, he co-starred in it too as Tony’s assistant Happy Hogan!
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What is The Mandalorian? | 0:14
Who is The Mandalorian? | 1:00
Who is making it? | 2:13
What are Mandalorians? | 3:07
Will we see cameos? | 4:25
Who is directing it? | 5:44
Where can you watch it? | 7:14
What’s next? | 8:33