aND
aNDa
HE MANDALORIAN STEALTHILY
enters the safe house. Two storm-
troopers stand guard. The sol-
diers have become freelance
mercenaries since the Empire
has collapsed, their once-pristine
armor now grimy with dirt. The
bounty hunter creeps up behind them and fires
his blaster, gunning them down.
So, yes: The Mandalorian shoots first—and
shoots his enemies in the back.
This is the brutal, lawless world of this new
Disney+ Star Wars series—which brings a galaxy
far, far away to the small screen as a live-action
series for the first time. The show is set after the
downfall of the Galactic Empire in Return of the
Jedi but before the events of The Force Awakens.
For now, chaos reigns across the universe, espe-
cially in the outer reaches of the galaxy where a
Mandalorian bounty hunter stalks his prey for
diminishing returns.
“It’s like after the Roman Empire falls, or
when you don’t have a centralized shogun in
Japan —and, of course, the Old West, when there
wasn’t any government in the areas that had not
yet been settled,” says showrunner Jon Favreau
(The Lion King), who spearheads the series
along with longtime Star Wars animated-series
producer Dave Filoni. “Those are also cinematic
tropes in films that originally inspired George
Lucas to make Star Wars.”
Indeed, The Mandalorian’s clearest inspi-
ration is the first act of A New Hope, which
played like a Western set in space: exotic
creatures, smugglers, soldiers, and bounty
hunters leading rough lives in an overlooked
outlaw territory. (Conversely, the show is
perhaps the furthest from the Star Wars pre-
quels and the aristocratic poshness of their
Jedi council meetings on Coruscant.) Expect
The Mandalorian to travel from system to
system in a very “boots on the ground” tale
Ne w
Drama
NOVÑ 12
DISNEY+
T
fall
tv pre
view
2019
THE
The Mandalorian
(Pedro Pascal)
fights off two
Trandoshan
hunters with his
double-pronged
blaster
