The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A new hope for Star Wars on Disney Plus in ‘The Mandalorian’
Never heard of a Mandalorian? You’re not alone.
Actor Pedro Pascal hadn’t either when he started talking to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about an ambitious new “Star Wars” series that would become a marquee offering for the Walt Disney Co.’s new streaming service, Disney Plus, which launches Nov. 12.
But Pascal, known for playing Oberyn Martell on “Game of Thrones,” knew that this Mandalorian character looked a lot like Boba Fett and that was enough for him. The stoic bounty hunter behind the helmet who made his debut in “The Empire Strikes Back” became a cultish fan favorite and happened to be Pascal’s preferred action figure as a kid. When he got out of the meeting and wanted to share the news, he could barely get the words out.
Pascal and anyone else scratching their heads about how they might have missed this Mandalorian concept can rest easy: It’s not even a word that’s uttered in the original trilogy. But the idea comes straight from George Lucas himself. He had envisioned a race of warrior peoples called the Mandalore that ended up getting streamlined into one character in the films — Boba Fett. “Star Wars” literature and series like “The Clone Wars” helped keep the Mandalorians alive over the years, and it reemerged again when Disney and Lucasfilm started thinking about nonSkywalker ideas for the new streaming service where it’s primed to get its biggest audience yet.
“The Lion King” and “Jungle Book” director Jon Favreau was enlisted to executive produce and write for “The Mandalorian,” which is set in the franchise’s Outer Rim five years after “Return of the Jedi” and 25 years before the events of “The Force Awakens.” The eight episode series, which will roll out on a nearweekly basis, follows the title character in his bounty hunting adventures.
While Star Wars is no stranger to the small screen, those efforts have mostly been animated. So when initial trailers debuted for “The Mandalorian,” in glorious liveaction, many observed how movielike it seemed, as though it would fit right in on the big screen alongside the “Star Wars” spinoffs like “Rogue One” or “Solo.” A reported $15 million per episode budget probably didn’t hurt.