Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
It’s “blitz day” and that means we’ve got a bunch of new posters for The Mandalorian, as well as a new trailer dropping sometime tonight.
Buried in a fairly routine New York Times story on Disney+ marketing is a line that says the first episode will contain “a dramatic ‘Star Wars’-universe spoiler.” Speculate as you will, but chances are we won’t know until November 12, as the show isn’t even screening for critics.
Pull up your calendar app, Disney has released the debut dates for The Mandalorian on Disney+.
Continue reading “Here’s when all The Mandalorian episodes are coming out on Disney+”
Speaking of Force Friday, StarWars.com rolls in this morning with the news that a product launch livestream is coming Thursday. Here’s the teaser, featuring a few familiar faces:
Warwick Davis will host the live portions from Pinewood Studios in London, though I would be shocked if Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t make an appearance somehow.
The first wave of products for the three big launches coming later this year – The Mandalorian, The Rise of Skywalker, and video game Jedi: Fallen Order – will all be in stores October 4, but this will be our first (official) look at some of them.
Entertainment Weekly is dropping the name “Mara Jade” again, this time in reference to The Mandalorian and Jon Favreau keeps things mostly diplomatic:
“I don’t want to talk about anything that might be fun for people to discover,” Favreau says. “We do have conversations. Part of what’s fun to see if we could merge the worlds of the original trilogy, the prequels, the sequels, The Clones [sic] Wars, and what’s been considered canon up to this point and what’s been considered part of Legends. I think this show offers an opportunity to bring in all those elements so no matter what your flavor of Star Wars ice cream you like there will be something to enjoy. But you’re asking the right questions.”
They also mention Thrawn, who of course has already been brought back, and while canon, currently resides in a plot limbo of Dave Filoni’s making. So him returning in The Mandalorian is somewhat possible – though, I suspect, unlikely. But never say never, particularly with Filoni involved in the show.
But Mara Jade, on the other hand… My own take on her coming to canon is only a little different than the last time something Mara-adjacent was unearthed – also involving Mandos, and at the hand of Dave Filoni, when her “Emperor’s Hand” title showed up on Rebels being used by… Some dude. (Sorry, Clone Wars fans. I can’t.) As I said then, she’s not a simple port, like Thrawn was.
Continue reading “Here we go again: Mara Jade, The Mandalorian, and some thoughts on canon”
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.
More on The Mandalorian from Entertainment Weekly: On the differences between the title character and Boba Fett, (send this to your friends who don’t know the difference!) and how the show will explore the origins of the First Order.
There’s a new photo from The Mandalorian out today at Entertainment Weekly, though a lower-res version out of D23 has been floating around. The title character is fighting two Trandoshans, a classic alien species first represented by Bossk in The Empire Strikes Back. (Neither are Bossk, EW says.)
Continue reading “The Mandalorian takes on two classic aliens in new still”
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor is an official go for Disney+, and we finally have a proper trailer for The Mandalorian!
The Obi-Wan series is “close,” with the scripts written, and it will begin filming next year, as will the Cassian series. Obi-Wan is set eight years after Revenge of the Sith.
And we also got a date for The Clone Wars: February 2020.
There’s also a trailer for Disney+ as a whole, which leans heavily on the old heartstrings:
Ming-Na Wen is in The Mandalorian, we learned today at D23 Expo. Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed her involvement as the Mulan and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star was inducted as a Disney Legend. (Jon Favreau and James Earl Jones were also honored.)
Her exact role is still a secret, but maybe we’ll hear more at the Disney+ panel?
Lucasfilm and Disney+ are preparing for their big D23 panel today by launching the first poster for The Mandalorian.
Continue reading “Behold: The Mandalorian’s first poster”