Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to jump to hyperspace, Star Wars’ The Mandalorian is coming to a streaming service near you. However, depending on what galaxy you live in, you might not be getting it as soon as you think…
When is The Mandalorian coming out?
Episode 1 of The Mandalorian arrives in the US, Canada and the Netherlands along with the launch of new streaming service Disney+ on November 12.
Unlike many Netflix shows, the whole series won’t be available at once, but a new episode is set to drop every week following the Disney+ launch. The US release dates are as follows.
Season 1, Episode 1: November 12
Season 1, Episode 2: November 15
Season 1, Episode 3: November 22
Season 1, Episode 4: November 29
Season 1, Episode 5: December 6
Season 1, Episode 6: December 13
Season 1, Episode 7: December 18
Season 1, Episode 8: December 27
UK and Irish viewers will have to wait a little longer for the show, with Disney+ revealing in November that it’s set to launch on these shores on March 31, 2020.
Disney+ available in the UK & Ireland on March 31, 2020. pic.twitter.com/MNT0rNMIcP
— Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) November 7, 2019
Is there a trailer for The Mandalorian?
Two, in fact! Back in August, the first trailer for the Jon Favreau-helmed show was revealed during the first day of Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and takes a closer look at the life of a lone gunman in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.
In October, a second trailer was revealed, and was a more action-packed teaser, in which we meet the space creatures and foes that the titular bounty hunter will do battle with throughout the first eight-episode season of the show.
Who is in The Mandalorian cast?
The lead in The Mandalorian is played by Pedro Pascal (aka Game of Thrones‘ Oberyn Martell) who pilots the Razorcrest gunship.
Pascal is joined in the cast for the series by Gina Carano (who plays ex-shocktrooper Cara Dune), Carl Weathers (who plays Greef, a character who hires the titular Mandalorian for a specific task), and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who voices robot IG-88, a bounty hunter who was recruited by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back to locate the Millennium Falcon.
Pedro Pascal – a man so charismatic as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones that it seems a waste to hide his head behind a helmet – leads the cast, playing a mysterious lone gunfighter who pilots an artillery-loaded gunship known as The Razor Crest.
Giancarlo Esposito (best known for playing Gus Fring in Breaking Bad) is also on board for The Mandalorian. There’s not too much known about his character just yet, but he’s spoken a little bit about the experience of filming the show.
He told Collider that he wears “a great costume” in the series, and spoke about filming in a place called ‘The Volume’, which seems to be a particular type of technology used to simulate special effects.
“We’re in a place called The Volume, where we do most of our acting,” he said, “where set pieces are brought in, where we can control the physical atmosphere of what is projected on the walls and control how gravity is; you get a feeling that gravity is being played with. This is a show that’s gonna be really fantastic.”
What is the plot of The Mandalorian?
There’s not been too much revealed yet about the plot of The Mandalorian, but we do know it revolves around the titular lead character, who is a lone gunman.
A synopsis for the show reads: “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe.
“The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”
The show is set to be directed by Iron Man‘s Jon Favreau, who has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter about The Mandalorian, saying: “I’m trying to evoke the aesthetics of not just the original trilogy but the first film. Not just the first film but the first act of the first film.
“What was it like on Tatooine? What was going on in that cantina? 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.”
There is no knowing who the man behind the Mandalorian armour actually is, but fans have been speculating that the identity of the new lead character may actually be someone that Star Wars fans are familiar with, as the films have often done in the past.
Some fans believe that the Mandalorian is in fact Cobb Vanth, a character that appeared in the post-Return Of The Jedi novels by Chuck Wendig, while others think it may even by Boba Fett.
In addition, eEpisode one of The Mandalorian is set to feature a “huge” Star Wars spoiler, it has been revealed.
A new piece in The New York Times on the launch of Disney+ reveals: “The Mandalorian, which contains a dramatic Star Wars-universe spoiler in the first episode and will be available the moment Disney Plus starts, has been as heavily promoted as a traditional feature film, with billboards, 30-second television commercials, radio spots, and digital ads.”
Who are the Mandalorians?
A race of people from the planet Mandalore, the Mandalorians are largely identified by their unique weapon – the ‘Darksaber’.
So far, the Mandalorians have appeared in the Star Wars universe in the animated shows Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, as well as little nods in the Star Wars films, largely linked to the Fett family.
It’s not totally clear yet whether the titular character of the new show is actually a Mandalorian though – the armour could just as easily have been stolen from another, especially with the character being a lone wolf.
Can we see any photos from The Mandalorian?
Indeed! Director Jon Favreau has been consistently sharing photos from the set of the series, with many a nod to the history of Star Wars.
Is George Lucas involved in The Mandalorian?
One of Favreau’s many Instagram photos came in the form of a selfie with Star Wars creator George Lucas.
It doesn’t seem like Lucas has been involved in the creation of the show directly, but Favreau has spoken of some advice he was given by Lucas while on set for The Mandalorian.
“We had a long talk with each other,” Favreau told GQ about the pair’s meeting. “One thing he said to me was, ‘remember, Jon, the real audience for all stories and all myths is the kids that are coming of age’, because he’s really a Joseph Campbell adherent.”
He continued: “We enjoy the stories as adults, but really, storytelling is about imparting the wisdom of the previous generations on to 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 the mistakes on their own. That’s the hope, that you can teach them how to avoid all the hardship but garner all the wisdom.”