Everything about the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise Of Skywalker looks epic – huge battles, epic Jedi confrontations, space-horses riding atop Star Destroyers. But on the other end of the scale, Star Wars’ first live-action TV series The Mandalorian is about to get down and dirty, depicting a world of bounty hunters, gunslingers, and criminals, getting plenty of space-dirt under its fingernails along the way. The show has a brand new trailer, teasing an action-packed series with plenty of nods to the original saga.
The Mandalorian fighting a Trandoshan! Someone (not Han Solo) frozen in Carbonite! A Cantina-style bar! This looks like Star Wars alright, but something more hard-edged – probably closer in tone to Rogue One, with its moral grey areas and sense of lawlessness. And at its centre is Pedro Pascal as our mysterious hero, whose voice we finally hear from under that iconic helmet – though we’re yet to see his face. There are new glimpses of Gina Carano as mercenary Cara Dune, Giancarlo Esposito’s former Imperial governor Moff Gideon, bounty hunter figurehead Greef Carga played by Carl Weathers, and much more. But best of all is a big showing for Werner Herzog’s still-unnamed villain – the German filmmaker sounding incredibly menacing as he intones over the flashes of action.
If there’s a reason to be slightly less excited, it’s that the show still doesn’t have an official release date in the UK – with details yet to be confirmed around when the Disney+ streaming service will be launching on these shores. For those lucky territories who are getting the much-hyped service in the next few weeks, The Mandalorian will be arriving week-by-week starting on 12 November. You lucky so-and-sos.