The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian is an upcoming live-action TV show from series creator, writer, showrunner, and chief executive producer Jon Favreau. Who is always reliably great. It is set in the Star Wars universe a few years after Return of the Jedi. A couple of decades ago and I would have soiled myself with excitement at such a statement. Now, with the benefit of age, life experience, and having seen the Phantom Menace (sorry but easy shot), I am just cautiously excited. When Star Wars is doing its stuff well, it is superb but, and I say this with a heavy heart, it can sadly be a bit hit and miss.

The original trilogy was arguably more consistent right up to what was for me, the first misstep in the whole lot. Coincidentally that involved the Mandalorian known as Boba Fett. Boba Fett was first introduced in Empire Strikes Back as a double-hard badass bounty hunter who was the coolest guy around. He was a clone who was raised by his dad/master-copy Jango Fett, who was himself ridiculously awesome and capable of taking on Jedis as shown in a superb scene in Attack of the Clones.

Boba Fett oozed competence and don’t-fuck-with-me-ness from the start, so when in ROTJ a blind Han Solo turns and accidentally hits him with a metal staff causing his jet pack to fire and then fail, causing him to fall into the Sarlacc pit, it was a bit shit. I remember thinking it sucked at the time and then the Ewoks appeared and I gained some perspective. Okay, I have been sidetracked by my own childhood trauma, apologies.

The Mandalorian looks like it might be a lot of fun. I am basing that on some leaked footage (see below), a picture (see above), the general coolness of being a race of renowned space warriors, and also more practical aspects such as the people involved with the project. Because, as I mentioned before, the showrunner is Jon Favreau, who has a damn good pedigree when it comes to kicking off a successful franchise.

It is not just Favreau involved either. There are a host of other directors including Taika Waititi who directed Thor Ragnarok. The cast is interesting with the great Pedro Pascal as the lead but there are other intriguing actors involved such as Nick Nolte, Werner Herzog, and Carl Weathers. Quite a broad spectrum of interesting right there.

The Mandalorian will appear on the new Disney+ streaming platform which apparently launches on 12th November. More details can be found on the io9 website.

So here is the ‘behind the scenes’ footage. Please be good!