Twilight, Westworld actress Julia Jones confirmed for The Mandalorian

As the parade of articles we’ve been getting over the past few days indicates, The Mandalorian is the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV preview.

Weirdly enough, the biggest news out of the cover story wasn’t even broken by EW themselves – it’s Deadline who ID’d the actress playing the character we see in the lead photo – Julia Jones, who may be most familiar to the general audience as Leah Clearwater from the Twilight films. (Hopefully her Star Wars character gets a better deal. She also had a brief role in Westworld S2. ) She can also be seen, briefly, in the D23 trailer. Maybe there’s another article coming with a detail or two on her character? Maybe?

And speaking of characters from the trailer, how about that Twi-lek who we only know is played by Natalia Tena because she tweeted about it? And Ming-Na Wen?!? We did get another photo of Gina Carano’s Cara Dune

Anyway, the cover story is low on new info for the die-hards, but we do get an indication of the personality of Taika Waititi’s IG-11:

The Kiwi, who also helmed the season 1 finale, labored on finding the perfect voice for the role before landing on a tone that he says is somewhere between Siri and HAL 9000. “[IG-11 is] very innocent and naive and direct and doesn’t know about sarcasm and doesn’t know how to lie,” Waititi says. “It’s like a child with a gun.”

And of course, another big question – will Pedro Pascal ever take off that mask?

Assisted by Pascal’s laconic line delivery and terse physicality, along with expressive choices in camera work and editing, [Jon] Favreau manages to infuse the character with a surprising amount of personality. “What’s remarkable is when you see the whole stretch of the first season how engaging the character is,” Favreau says. “It’s amazing how many Star Wars characters are emotionally engaging that aren’t even anthropomorphic. R2-D2 is my favorite character and he barely has an eye.”

Unanswered.

Jon Favreau is dropping Mandalorian hints again

Oh, Jon Favreau. So, is Taika Waititi voicing IG-88? All we know for sure is that he is a confirmed director for the series. We don’t even know if that’s actually IG-88, although we have seen it – or a similar droid – before.

Or… Is the helmet the actual hint here? I leave it to you, Mandofans.

The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars TV show, is expected later this year. It will be exclusive to the Disney+ streaming service.

The Mandalorian set pics, new acting rumor

Making Star Wars is back with more set pics from The Mandalorian. There’s a door, an alien and someone who seems to be an important cast member. Not sure how many more we’ll have coming, as the authorities seem to be onto them.

A new rumor says that in addition to directing episodes, Bryce Dallas Howard and Taika Waititi will also have roles in the series. Discussing Film says that Waititi may be voicing a droid.

Report: What The Mandalorian directors are directing

We know who The Mandalorian directors are, but Making Star Wars has learned what episodes they’ll be actual directing. The official release only specified that Dave Filoni was doing the first, but MSW has him, Deborah Chow, and Rick Famuyiwa each directing two episodes, with Bryce Dallas Howard on the fourth and Taika Waititi taking on the (season?) finale. The eight-episode number comes from MSW’s earlier reporting; an earlier report has it at 10, but shortening the load is one way to get the most out of a rumored $100M budget.

MSW has been killing it on this show – in addition to all their recent scoops, they were the first to report that Mandalorians were involved back in August. We don’t have much reason to doubt them when it comes to the show.

First image for The Mandalorian, directors announced

We get our first official look at Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, plus a director list. The first episode will be directed by Dave Filoni, and other directors will include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).

The series is being written and executive produced by Favreau. Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson and Karen Gilchrist are also producing.

Still nothing official on the cast (who’s in the armor, Lucasfilm?), but Making Star Wars has some evidence (though probably not for the armor-wearer, though who knows) as they continue their set reporting.