So, a little while ago I posted the trailer and a short snippet about the upcoming premier or The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. Needless to say, I have been excited ever since I heard that all of the Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney universes/franchises would be in one place. Additionally, the prospect of original programming in the Star Wars universe has been bandied about for some time.
Then, seemingly forever ago, news broke that the first original Star Wars series on the fledgling streaming service would be The Mandalorian - and I flipped out! As a long-time fan of Boba Fett (as many Star Wars fanboys are), the opportunity to see the backstory and culture of the Mandalorians come to the screen was VERY exciting!
...and so far the show has NOT disappointed.
In fact, my expectations were extremely high and I felt that Dave Filoni (director) and Jon Favreau (writer/creator) exceeded them.
If you haven't watched yet, or don't want things to be spoiled, get out now.
The show opens on a bar that feels like the (in)famous Mos Eisley Cantina scene - sans the bouncy John Williams score. The camera pans around a hive of scum and villainy and centers on a blue alien being roughed up by a couple of bad dudes. Then, in walks our (anti)hero:
The Mandalorian proceeds to dispatch the baddies with little effort (read: badass), then take our blue fellow (ably played by SNL alum Horatio Sanz) into custody, after displaying his bounty token.
The story line continues to develop as Pascal's Mandalorian embarks on a quest to retrieve a bounty that is "over 50 years old" for a paltry down payment of a bar of Beskar steel.
For those uninformed, Polygon has a fantastic write-up about Beskar steel, Mandalorian armor, and the yet-to-be-revealed signet for the title character here. The money:
Mandalorian armor is famous in the Star Wars universe. The armor plates themselves can withstand blaster shots, as we see in The Mandalorian, and can even protect the wearer from the glancing blow of a lightsaber — which can be seen in the Legacy of Mandalore episode of Star Wars: Rebels when Gar Saxon is disarmed. Despite this impressive protection, the armor also remains surprisingly light, allowing the wearer to remain agile and maneuverable. In some cases, the strength of the metal could lead to sets of Mandalorian armor that lasted hundreds of years. In Star Wars: Rebels, Sabine Wren’s armor is 500 years old.
The unique properties of the armor are due in large part to the Beskar metal that it’s made with. Beskar, also known as Mandalorian iron, is one of the toughest and rarest metals in the galaxy. In The Mandalorian’s first episode, we get a brief glimpse of Beskar in the form of the metal bar that the Mandalorian hands the Armorer. The Armorer takes the bar and turns it into a new pauldron for the Mandalorian. With Beskar more rare, and many Mandalorians spread out across the galaxy, it seems that not even the Mandalorian’s armor is quite complete.
Beskar is extremely rare. While we don’t have the details in the official canon anymore, the pre-Disney “Legends” stories explained that it could only be mined on Mandalore, the home planet of the Mandalorians, or its moon, Concordia. According to the Armorer, the metal was likely taken during the Great Purge — also known as Order 66, Chancellor Palpatine’s directive to the clone army to kill all Jedi.
The mystery! The intrigue!
I told you that it was awesome!
And much like the doorway image above, much of the cinematography reminds me of old western films. The Mandalorian really feels like a gunslinger movie. Is he good? Is he bad? Is he ugly? By the end of the first episode, we're still not sure (though there are definite leanings toward good-ish).
Episodes two and three are equally fantabulous. I'm not going to go into any details on them, just know that the final five minutes of the third episode (titled, "The Sin") had me cheering on my couch.
Here's to a great start for Disney+, and the continued awesomeness that is The Mandalorian.