- The Mandalorian is the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV series.
- It will debut on November 12 on Disney+, the launch day for the service.
- The show will take place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.
It’s Star Wars season, folks. Sure, anyone invested in a certain galaxy far, far, away is waited with baited breath for the mid-December release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but for anyone really itching for some inter-galactic drama, we have good news: the wait for The Mandalorian isn’t much longer. The Disney+ series first episode will release on November 12, 2019, and the final trailer is out now.
The Mandalorian isn’t coming out in theaters, but don’t misunderstand—this show is massive. The first ever live-action Star Wars series, it’s budget has been reported at nearly $ 15 million an episode; that’s a final season of Game of Thrones figure, right off the bat. Plus, in case if a cool-looking, Boba Fett-esque mask wasn’t enough, we’ve also recently gotten word that the very first episode of the show will have a universe-shattering spoiler that could change everything.
So, while most of your past favorites aren’t expected to show up—showrunner Jon Favreau has said that he mostly plans on creating a new characters, and exploring a new Star Wars world—there’s still plenty to get excited about here. From what we’ve seen so far, we’re getting some major Rogue One and Solo vibes; a fun adventure set in that world we love so much, even if the force doesn’t necessarily play a role. We don’t know everything about the show just yet, but that’s the fun of it. In the meantime, though, here’s what we do know:
First, what exactly is a Mandalorian?
Mandalorians are the race of people in the Star Wars world that come from the planet within the world known as Mandalore. The most famous of these is Boba Fett, the very cool looking bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy. Boba Fett is the son of Jango Fett, the bounty hunter who appeared in the prequel trilogy, and another Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian, in this case, focuses on another person from that planet, to be played by Game of Thrones and Triple Frontier star Pedro Pascal. The show is said to follow “a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”
Is there a trailer for The Mandalorian?
A week after the finalStar Wars: Rise of Skywalker trailer premiered during ESPN’s Monday Night Football, The Mandalorian also released a new and final trailer. We get a closer look at the show and what’s going on right below here:
We also got several new character posters, which you’ll find below (as posted on The Mandalorian‘s Twitter). There’s Pascal’s titular character, along with an unnamed alien character, Gina Carano’s character, Carl Weathers’ character, and IG-11, the droid voiced by Taika Waititi.
Is there a poster for The Mandalorian?
After the first teaser trailer for The Mandalorian was released a few months ago at Disney’s D23 expo, an official series poster was also revealed:
Disney
In the months prior to the big reveals at D23, there were a number of photos released of characters, including Carano’s, Weathers’ and multiple of Pascal’s Mandalorian.
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm/Melinda Sue Gordon
Lucasfilm/Melinda Sue Gordon
Additionally, if you’re interested in this show at all, you should probably follow Favreau on Instagram. He frequently shares nuggets, behind the scenes photos, and cool fan art from the show:
If you want to sift through, the official Star Wars YouTube also posted the entire Star Wars Celebration Mandalorian panel. It’s about 45 minutes long, and features Favreau, Pascal, and the cast talking about the show.
Who else is in The Mandalorian cast?
Pascal—aka Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones—plays the titular Mandalorian. Joining him in the cast is Nick Nolte, MMA-fighter turned actress Gina Carano, Breaking Bad villain Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Bill Burr, and a pair of very notable directors: Werner Herzog (who says he’s never seen a Star Wars movie), and Waititi, who in addition to directing episodes of the series, will also voice a droid named IG-11.
Who’s making it?
Favreau is the primary force behind The Mandalorian. If you’ve been following film or television at basically any point in the last 30 years, there’s a good chance you know Favreau’s work. He’s well known both as an actor—appearing in movies like Swingers and various MCU offerings, and with roles in TV series like Friends—but somehow his greater mark has come in the last two decades as a director: with movies like Elf, Iron Man, the live-action The Lion King remake, and the underrated Chef (which he also starred in) to his name, he’s shown a real talent behind the camera.
Favreau wrote the first season of The Mandalorian series and will serve as the showrunner, but he won’t be directing any episodes. Instead, those duties have been parsed out to a number of different directors including Bryce Dallas Howard (star of the Jurassic World films and Ron’s daughter) and Taika Waititi (director of Thor: Ragnarok, one of the very best films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Waititi will also voice droid IG-11 in the show.
Why The Mandalorian?
This is somewhat of a passion project for Favreau. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he spoke about the project at length, describing how he’d been thinking about it since Disney first acquired the Star Wars rights for more than $ 4 billion back in 2012. He even said that he wrote four episodes of the show before he even had a deal with Disney. “I wanted to do this, but only if they wanted to do the version that I wanted to do.”
Due to some schedule finessing, he managed to balance his duties as showrunner and writer with his other projects (mainly, directing The Lion King). As it turns out, the television medium—namely, Disney+—helped him find the time for everything.
“When I was working on Lion King, it was a full-time job for a few of the years, but there was a lot of time when I just had to be available for three very focused hours a day,” he said. “The TV model allowed me to be an executive producer [on Mandalorian], which allowed me to, on my own time, write everything.“
That TV model, also, is the reason why Favreau is so excited about The Mandalorian. While it is a high-profile project in that it’s Star Wars, and its Disney+’s first series, he says that not having to deal with the expectations that come along with a major, tentpole, holiday release allow him to tell the kind of story he wants to tell. “The type of Star Wars that I’m inspired to tell is a smaller thing with new characters.,” he told THR in the same interview.
Will The Mandalorian connect with the Star Wars movies?
In terms of the show’s aesthetic, Favreau has said that he wanted to capture the spirit of not only the original trilogy, but specifically the first act of the first film. “What was it like on Tatooine? What was going on in that cantina?” he asked THR. “That has fascinated me since I was a child, and I love the idea of the darker, freakier side of Star Wars. The Mad Max aspect of Star Wars.”
The series is said to take place “after the fall of the Empire and before the rise of The First Order,” meaning it takes place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.
How can I watch The Mandalorian?
The show is exclusive to Disney+, and the streaming service costs $ 6.99/month or $ 69.99/year to sign up. If you have Verizon, Disney will offer a free year of the service to the provider’s unlimited wireless customers, according to CNET.
After the first episode of The Mandalorian drops on Tuesday, November 12, the schedule will mostly shift to releases on Fridays.