In a very strange and poorly planned out move, all footage from The Mandalorian was blacked out on the live stream of the panel, so nobody outside of the room was able to see it (even at first those at Celebration in overflow locations).
It’s a horrible decision in the midst of a massive Celebration, as no new public footage was shown during one of the most anticipated panels for one of the most anticipated projects of the year. Twice during the live-stream, it was blacked out – first for a behind-the-scenes reel, and then later for a long look at a scene and then a teaser of the show. It’s especially strange since the footage has leaked online already, as you’d assume Lucasfilm would want people to see the actual footage rather than crappy versions of it.
But, again, thankfully the footage has leaked online. We’ll go over some of the things we learned from the panel and the BTS reel at a later point, but for now, here’s what was shown in the teaser that followed up the clip that was shown – all of this, again, unfortunately exclusive to those in the room.
In the leadup to this stuff, apparently the clip that was shown involves the Mandalorian sitting down with Carl Weathers’s character, Greef, to discuss this job. Before long, they are interrupted and the Mandalorian is informed that he’s outnumbered four-to-one… to which he responds, “I like those odds.” After sitting back down, Greef informs the Mandalorian about the job, as he’s supposed to deliver someone alive (or dead, but for a lesser price). As a downpayment Greef gives the Mandalorian some Beskar, Mandalorian iron, and promises there’s more of that should he complete the job.
The teaser begins with the Lucasfilm logo, like we’re used to, and then cuts to the Razorcrest flying through space. This looks like the final shot of what was shown as being in-progress during the panel (which they actually allowed everyone to watch!). Then we see the Razorcrest landed on a desert planet in the city, and the Mandalorian at a bar asking, “That one over there. What’s her business here?” While he’s saying that, we catch a glimpse of Gina Carano’s character, Cara Dune, sitting alone in a booth in the corner of the cantina. We then jump to a number of quick shots of the Mandalorian and Cara Dune in close, hand-to-hand combat, and they eventually both take each other to the ground and pull blasters on the other while laying on the ground.
After this, the teaser cuts to a voice saying, “The Empire improves every system it touches,” and we see someone standing in front of a number of Death Troopers and saying, “burn them out.” We then see an Imperial Flametrooper (with red markings) ignite his flamethrower and aim it at a house.
We then hear the voice of Werner Herzog talking about what it’s like now that the Imperial rule is done: “Judge by any metric – safety, prosperity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? Look outside. I see nothing but death, and chaos.” That voiceover plays during much of the rest of the teaser, with us catching a brief glimpse of Herzog delivering the final part of that line. In the meantime, though, we see a number of different aliens and creatures, we see Bill Burr firing twin blasters, we see the Razorcrest dodging another pursuing ship in space, we see some creature riding what looks like a Blurrg, we see people who look like scoundrels drawing their guns, we see what looks like 4-LOM, we see the Mandalorian throwing thermal detonators and pulling a knife on someone, we see Cara Dune firing a blaster turret, we see an IG droid in awesome combat firing upon enemies, and we also see the same figure earlier who was followed by Death Troopers this time piloting a TIE Fighter.
Then, in a really cool sequence, the Mandalorian charges out of a door and immediately starts to fight stormtroopers, firing at them and taking them out with all sorts of methods, including hitting one in the head with a staff – that causes the stormtrooper’s helmet to shatter! As the trailer comes to a close, the Mandalorian raises the blaster from the Holiday Special and aims it, readying to fire. After that, the logo for The Mandalorian appears.
Based on what we’ve seen, this show looks absolutely amazing. It looks like the live-action Star Wars TV show we’ve always wanted, a darker tale set in the galaxy far, far away focusing on some of the more shady parts of the universe, looking at what the galaxy looks like after the fall of the Empire. All of this looks and sounds awesome… so I’m not sure why Lucasfilm wouldn’t want this out there. Especially since it’s already out there in leaked form. Hopefully they’ll do the right thing and release it soon.
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