“The Mandalorian” is “Star Wars” Done Right
By Connor Danz, Junior Creative Editor
“The Mandalorian” created by director Jon Favreau is the latest addition to the media empire of Star Wars, created by George Lucas and owned by Disney. The first episode of the series was released on November 12th, 2019 as the flagship title for Disney’s then recently launched streaming service, Disney+.
Leading up to the launch of the first episode, the Star Wars franchise, helmed by Lucasfilm President, Kathleen Kennedy, had found itself mired in controversy. The show was coming off the release of the controversial 8th Star Wars film, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” released in 2017 to very polarised reactions with many praising and criticizing the movie, leaving the audience and fanbase divided, anxious for the future.
Despite the controversies surrounding Star Wars at the time, “The Mandalorian” is an incredibly well-crafted show by fans of all of Star Wars. The show is formatted as an episodic affair with an overarching story, following Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Din Djarin, played by Pedro Pascal, as he completes bounties to support his clan that leads him across the galaxy.
“Mando” travels to many different planets with an interesting and memorable character such as the Ugnaught moisture farmer Kuiil, voiced by Nick Nolte, bounty hunting droid IG-11, voiced by Taika Wattiti, former Rebel Shock Trooper Cara Dune, played by Gina Carano, head of the bounty hunters guild Greef Karga, played by Carl Weathers, and the Child, also known to many as baby Yoda.
The overarching plot of season one is that a remaining sect of the Empire desires the Child for unknown plans, hiring Mando to retrieve it for them for a high bounty of Beskar, the metal of the Mandalorian people.
After finding the retrieving the Child for the Empire and gaining an armor upgrade from the Armorer, played by Emily Swallow, Mando steals back the child and spends the rest of the series jumping around planets, doing jobs, and outmaneuvering other bounty hunters after him.
The series is expertly crafted with each and every planet feels lived in and each creature feeling alive. You can definitely tell that the production and set designers put the $15 million per episode to good use.
The majority of the series is written by Jon Favreau with the exception of Chapter 5 “The Gunslinger” written by veteran Star Wars showrunner Dave Faloni and Chapter 6 “The Prisoner” written by Christopher Yost. Despite having the overarching story of the Empire remnants wanting the Child, it mostly takes a back seat to the individual episodes’ various, smaller-scale stories, but never forgetting about the overarching story or the events of the previous episodes.
By far, however, the greatest achievement of “The Mandalorian” is mending the division between the different eras and fans of Star Wars. From aliens and ideas from the prequels and locations and plot points from where the original trilogy had left them. The show has also done a great deal of unification with Star Wars fans as the show has been received highly in many circles and has mostly washed away the sins of the recent past in the mind of many fans.
“The Mandalorian” is an expertly crafted show and a great addition to the Star Wars canon and is highly recommended.
8/10