It’s undeniable that Star Wars was a right of passage for those of us of a certain age and even though a further set of prequels and sequels and some stand-alones were never quite equals to the sheer magic of the first trips to a galaxy far, far away, the resonance of George Lucas and his epic sci-fi saga of battling Skywalkers has been with us ever since. Fans will dissect every element and there’s been much gnashing of teeth about various things, but there’s almost no-one who can’t name characters and quotes from somewhere in its long history.
The final part of the latest trilogy, entitled The Rise of Skywalker will arrive in cinemas at the end of this year but so far there’s been very little footage and the biggest elements of the plot so far uncovered seem to involve how the production worked around the sad death of stalwart Carrie Fisher who was due to be a principal player in this film during the scripting stage. However there’s been at least as much interest into another significant step in the mythology – the production of the first live-action series to take place in the Star Wars universe.
Guided by Jon Favreau (Iron Man) – with other directors involved including Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa and Deborah Chow – The Madalorian is set about five years after the events of Return of the Jedi and centres on a gunslinging character, one who wears the same kind of armour to cult character Bobba Fett (though the lead will be separate character). He makes a shady living on the edges of the New Reublic territories and faces threats from a number of people with different agendas in the wake of recent galactic upheaval. Some footage was seen at this year’s SDCC and subsequently leaked online, but the footage shown at the massive fan event ‘D23′ Expo in Vegas this weekend (and now released officially online) is the first real, authorised glimpse by the masses of the eight-part series for the Disney+ platform – and described as ‘Mad Max meets Star Wars‘ – that launches on November 12th.
We now know that the cast includes Pedro Pascal (as our main ‘hero’) alongside Haywire‘s Gina Carano, Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, veterans Nick Nolte and Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi and Werner Herzog. The panel at D23 also confirmed that Ming-Na Wen (Disney‘s original Mulan and a mainstay of every season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD) is also onboard in a significant role.
There’s a high degree of confidence in the project with a confirmed second season due to start filming in the first week of October.
