Skip to content
Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Everything in one handy email.
When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

Column Star Wars

Everything We Know About the First Live Action Star Wars Series: The Mandalorian

By

Published on April 14, 2019

The Mandalorian

Creator Jon Favreau and director Dave Filoni took the stage at Star Wars Celebration to talk about the upcoming live action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. Here’s what we know now about the show, set to premiere at Disney+’s launch on November 12th.

This marks The Clone Wars and Rebels creator Dave Filoni’s first gig directing live action. Favreau and Filoni met while the former was directing Iron Man and that latter was working on the Clone Wars, and quickly got on. Favreau pitched The Mandalorian after Kathleen Kennedy took over Lucasfilm, and she was instantly on board. The show is set to draw from the Western and Samurai genres, which are essential to the makeup of Star Wars.

According to Favreau, the show is set after the fall of the Empire, in that time of chaos and change after a galactic regime topples. They brought three actors to stage: Pedro Pascal (the titular Mandalorian), Gina Carano, and Carl Weathers. Here is what we learned about their characters:

  • Pascal was allowed to reveal that his character is a bounty hunter, a lone gunslinger type of “questionable moral character”. We don’t know the character’s name yet. Pascal stated that he would have played literally anything, a bug or a robot, having been a fan his whole life. He was elated to be cast as the Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian, television preview, Star Wars Celebration
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
  • Carano’s character is Cara Dune (unsure on the spelling here), an ex-Rebel shocktrooper, something of a loner who is having trouble reintegrating into society. Apparently, Carano’s stunt double didn’t get a lot to do because she insisted on doing most of the stunts herself.
The Mandalorian, television preview, Star Wars Celebration
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
  • Weathers is playing Greef Karga (unsure on the spelling here, too), the man running a group of bounty hunters. He’s looking for someone to bring in a particular set of merchandise, and finds our Mando.
The Mandalorian, television preview, Star Wars Celebration
Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Favreau promised that while the show is a new story, they’ve been careful to seed things that fans from every generation will appreciate. In addition, some of the effects shots were done with model-making the old-fashioned way, mostly because the crew at ILM are big ol’ nerds and were super excited to try it out in the basement. Here are a few pictures of that process:

The Mandalorian ship, special effects
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
The Mandalorian ship, special effects
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
The Mandalorian ship, special effects
Screenshot: Lucasfilm

The best story of the panel occurred as a result of a shortage of stormtrooper armor on the show’s set. Apparently, they needed more stormtroopers for the sake of the story than what they originally anticipated, and were worried they wouldn’t get the shots they needed—but Dave Filoni has connections with the fan costuming group the 501st Imperial Legion. They called a group of them to set (without intially telling them what they were there for), and the group got a completely immersive Star Wars experience. They found them to be ideal extras, being such dedicated students of the films.

Mandalorian, 501st Imperial Legion

Who’s excited for the first ever live-action Star Wars television series?

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Emmet Asher-Perrin

Author

Emmet Asher-Perrin is the News & Entertainment Editor of Reactor. Their words can also be perused in tomes like Queers Dig Time Lords, Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction. They cannot ride a bike or bend their wrists. You can find them on Bluesky and other social media platforms where they are mostly quiet because they'd rather to you talk face-to-face.
Learn More About Emmet
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments