Begun the streaming wars have. Star Wars fans can't wait to see Jon Favreau's upcoming The Mandalorian series, which will premiere on the service November 12. (Also, that's clearly when the entire service will launch.)
The release date and a dorm room wall-worthy poster were announced early Friday morning at D23 in Anaheim. The series is Lucasfilm's first live-action attempt at bringing Star Wars to life in the one-hour drama format. From writer and executive producer Favreau, The Mandalorian takes place years after the events of Return of the Jedi, with the fall of the Empire leaving several opportunities for various scum and villainy to slip through and conduct nefarious criminal activities across the galaxy and on worlds fans haven't seen before. At the center of it all is a Boba Fett-like character played by Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal. Check out the poster below.
Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Along with the release date news, Disney also announced that Mandalorian will be joined by two more high-profile projects: The Lady and the Tramp live-action remake and the original Christmas-set comedy, Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick as Santa Claus' daughter and Bill Hader.
What You Can Learn
The Mandalorian has been a big deal ever since it was announced, and for good reason. As Favreau says in the video above, it is the first live-action, in-canon Star Wars TV series ever. It's also unlike anything fans have seen before from the 40-plus year old franchise. The Western-y poster, coupled with the show's gritty, Unforgiven in space-like vibes, show us that you can push the boundaries visually and narratively even within the borders of a tried-and-true sandbox like Star Wars.
When blessed with IP like this to put your own unique stamp on, do it. Make their "X" look like your "Y." Respect and maintain a degree of fidelity to the property that audiences love, and at the same time, honor your storytelling instincts and why you love telling this story in the first place. Sure, there will be compromises. But giving audiences something new in familiar-esque packaging is worth it.
Especially when you get to make such a badass poster like the one above.
