The Mandalorian on Disney Plus: What we know so far
Star Wars finally enters the live-action field with The Mandalorian, their first of presumably many Disney Plus original programs. Disney’s frequent collaborator Jon Favreau serves as showrunner and head writer for the series premiering on Nov. 12, 2019.
The launch of Disney Plus is close and more information trickles in with every week. The new streaming service seems to plan to contend with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and the upcoming streaming services. One of its first maneuvers is to cash in on one of its most successful franchises, Star Wars. The folks at Disney understand what a gold mine of opportunity the Star Wars property is, and they won’t soon let it go to waste.
The Mandalorian is the first original Star Wars series in production at Disney Plus.
Premise
The Mandalorian will focus on the life and adventures of a bounty hunter similar to that of Boba or Jango Fett in the previous Star Wars content. The series takes place five years after the fall of the Empire and well before The First Order came into power. During this tumultuous time, the galaxy is similar to the wild west of old America. Where outlaws and bounty hunters operate in a broken authoritative state and criminal syndicates rise up.
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Cast
Pedro Pascal will portray this bounty hunter and joins the screen with Gina Carano, Nick Nolte, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Giancarlo Esposito, Ming-Na Wen, Julia Jones, Dominic Pace, Taika Waititi, and more.
Trailer
As a whole, the Star Wars franchise is heading towards brand new territory. The upcoming Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the end of the current trilogy, and potentially the end of the overarching story since its beginnings. The Star Wars universe now heads into new territory with live-action stories set outside of the battle of the force. The Mandalorian seems to act as a standalone story that may tie into the main plot of the films but doesn’t need them to support its weight.
Expectations
The expectations are high, as always, for Disney to create something the fans love and new fans will cling to. The plot-adjacent films that attempted this already were met with heavy criticism and creative differences.
Both Solo and Rogue One were Disney’s attempts at taking the universe in a different direction and while they are successful movies, they didn’t live up to the episodic hype. Now, the franchise has seemed to course-correct and start featuring these outside stories.
Release Schedule
Countering the style of Netflix, Disney Plus will release their programming weekly rather than dumping the content at one time. Any way they can capitalize on the competition will help them secure their spot in the race. As Netflix faces more and more issues with multiple services appearing in the next few years, we’ll see if the new platforms can take the lead.
Disney+ launches on Nov. 12 and will feature a large library of existing properties and some original content. The Mandalorian is only a small piece of the upcoming Star Wars lore to appear on our screens. After its launch and Episode IX’s premiere, the Star Wars universe has two more trilogies planned and of course, more Disney+ programming. The Skywalkers may have come to an end, but the galaxy far, far away has so many more stories to tell.