Disney is moving forward with its first-ever live-action Star Wars [1] TV series! (Whew, that's a mouthful.) Behold, The Mandalorian. If the term sounds familiar, it's because the infamous cult character Boba Fett sports Mandalorian armor. He's technically from Kamino, but bounty hunters are closely associated with the planet of Mandalore. Anyway, I digress. This week, Disney announced all kinds of fun details pertaining to the new project, which will drop exclusively on its to-be-released streaming service. The sad news is that we don't have a release date, since the streaming platform itself doesn't even have a locked-in launch. In the meantime, The Mandalorian is in production, and we have plenty of fun tidbits to hold you over.
The Story
According to the official Star Wars website [2], we're going to be following a new deadly gunfighter whose story is not unlike Jango and Boba Fett's. The initial announcement says we'll "follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic."
The Timeline
The Mandalorian will be set in hitherto unexplored parts of the Star Wars universe. It takes places after the fall of the Empire (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) but before the rise of the first order (Episode VII: The Force Awakens). We don't want to get our hopes up too high, but this means any of the characters from the new trilogy could possibly make appearances at some point. Wouldn't it be cool to get some backstory?!
The Cast
So far, the series boasts a pretty exceptional cast. A new press release from Disney has revealed that Pedro Pascal (perhaps best known as Prince Oberyn on Game of Thrones) will play the "lone Mandalorian gunfighter" teased in the premise. Also in the cast are Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi , Werner Herzog, and Nick Nolte. Whew, that's a lot of star power!
The Creative Team
Jon Favreau [3], the executive producer, is directing the first episode; he has plenty of experience with Disney, having previously directed Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Jungle Book, and 2019's next big live-action remake, The Lion King [4]. Favreau will team up with Dave Filoni, who worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson are also executive producers!
As for the rest of the episodes? Disney has tapped all kinds of talent. Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) will direct additional episodes in the series.