Recently at D23, the first public trailer for The Mandalorian was released, and it looks beautiful!
The trailer doesn’t really give anything away when it comes to the story, but it plays up the visuals and feel of the show – which will be the first ever live-action Star Wars TV series, coming to Disney+ on November 12.
If you missed the trailer, check it out here:
As I mentioned, this is the first public footage. There was quite a bit of stuff that was shown at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year only for those in attendance (though you can find leaked videos of it), and it was described as looking unfinished – which is likely a part of the reason for the footage not being publicly released.
This time, though, we get to see it too. So let’s dive in to our breakdown of the teaser trailer.
The first shots in this teaser are brilliant, because they do such a good job of building the context of the show without actually spelling it out. We see Imperial stormtrooper helmets buried in the sand, and then other helmets propped up on sticks. It’s a haunting image, but it tells us that the Empire is no longer the unstoppable force they once were. For nineteen years the Empire reigned over the galaxy, but the Alliance to Restore the Republic engaged Palpatine’s forces in a conflict that escalated into an open civil war. The rebels achieved a galaxy-altering victory at Endor as they took down the Second Death Star – and with it Emperor Palpatine and his enforcer, Darth Vader. The Imperial forces continued fighting for about another year, but they met their ultimate defeat at the Battle of Jakku one year after the Battle of Endor.
But the work was just beginning for the New Republic. They had overthrown the Empire, but they now had to govern the galaxy in its place. And it seems that they found it quite difficult to maintain control over the entire galaxy, especially in the further reaches of the galaxy where crime reigned. So when we begin the events of The Mandalorian, we’re set about five years after the Battle of Endor and four years after the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War. The New Republic reigns, but they’re apparently having trouble governing the whole galaxy. So in the further reaches, crime lords, bounty hunters, and Imperial remnants fight for power. So while the Imperials still figure to be an intimidating force, as these shots tell us, they’re no longer totally in charge. It’s a wild time in the galaxy.
We get some shots of two (presumably) new worlds, and then soon after we get a third (I’ve just grouped them together here). The first one sees the Razor Crest (the Mandalorian’s ship) flying over a green planet filled with trees and lakes. The second one sees the ship landed on a more industrial-looking world, with rocky terrain and what looks like a mountain in the background. And then the third is of a desert planet, and we see the Razor Crest flying over the cracked desert terrain. As far as we know we haven’t seen these planets before, so I’m excited to see more worldbuilding take place. But one thing I’m really impressed by is how beautiful these locations look, as well as how they present such a clear contrast from one another. If nothing else, the planets look like they’ll be beautiful looking.
This looks like one of the pucks, which gives bounty hunters their jobs. These pucks were shown at Celebration as well, and basically they contain the information needed about jobs that bounty hunters can take. I’m interested in seeing whether the Mandalorian will take several jobs during the events of this show or not, as we know that there’s one job in particular that figures to take center stage.
This is Greef Carga (played by Carl Weathers), and he is the head of the bounty hunters guild. So he’s the one who gives the Mandalorian his job, but he’s also responsible for giving other bounty hunters jobs as well. Though all we get of him in this teaser is this brief shot, we learned at Celebration that Carga has information about a particularly dangerous job – one which doesn’t even have a puck with information – that the Mandalorian agrees to take on.
There are then a couple of very brief shots of the Mandalorian working on his gear. He slips what looks like a knife/vibro blade into his boot, and then adjust something on his gauntlet. No surprise here, but this outfit looks really cool.
Here’s a shot of the Razor Crest door opening on this jungle world, and the Mandalorian prepares to disembark. There are several of these ascetically pleasing shots of the Mando in this trailer alone.
We catch a brief glimpse of Cara Dune (played by Gina Carano), and this is actually our only look at her in this trailer. From Celebration, we know that Dune is a former Rebel shock trooper, and in the footage at Celebration we saw her briefly fight the Mandalorian. Seeing as this trailer didn’t exactly give us any new story details we still don’t know anything more about her role, but we at least get to see her briefly.
It’s a Blurrg!!! And it looks like an Ugnaught riding it!
And it’s a Twi’lek!!
Like I said earlier, it’s great to see some familiar alien species appear in this show, as it looks like we’ll get Blurrgs, Ugnaughts, Twi’leks, Trandoshans, Quarrens (stay tuned… we’ll get to that), and more! That’s exciting. But also, seeing as we have both a Blurrg and a Twi’lek in this teaser, is it possible that we’ll see Ryloth?
Again, here’s another framing shot of the Mandalorian that just looks amazing, as the silhouette of the bounty hunter is set against the dusk sky, with mountains around him. This just looks so cool.
This looks like it’s on the jungle planet we’ve already glimpsed, and it looked like the Mando arrived for a job earlier – is this his target? Or are they simply innocent bystanders witnessing whatever it is the Mandalorian is doing?
Death Troopers! We’ve seen these elite troopers as the personal guard of Director Orson Krennic and Grand Admiral Thrawn, and them showing up here likely means that these Imperial remnants may indeed pose a serious threat. I’m really excited to see these guys in live action again.
This shot looks like it’s taken straight out of an Old Western film with a duel imminent, and I think that’s great.
This is Moff Gideon (played by Giancarlo Esposito), who is described by Esposito as a former Imperial Governor who has an idea about how to keep order. We heard dialogue from him in the footage at Celebration, and here he is flanked by Death Troopers (to his left) and Stormtroopers (to his right). So I’m guessing that he is the leader of this sect of Imperials, still trying to hold on and preserve what they had. I’m actually really excited for this aspect of the show, as I am curious as to what happened in the years following the Civil War and how the New Republic and Empire continued on. I’m not sure how much of the former we’ll get in the show, but it looks like we’ll certainly get the latter.
Here’s the Mandalorian, in all his glory. And he looks awesome. Plus, that blaster rifle rocks.
These shots are pretty dark (because it takes place at night, obviously), but we see a figure staring up at a flare or something in the sky, and then another figure riding a speeder bike brakes as he stares at something that is generating some light. I have no idea what is happening here, but I’m all for more speeder bike action.
An Imperial walker marches and fires at night as people flee.
These people are fleeing as a firefight of sorts emerges in the streets of what looks like that industrial, rocky planet seen earlier.
The Mandalorian and IG-11 arrive at a cantina, as the door opens for them to walk in. It’s another cool shot, and it certainly looks like the two are working together. I don’t think we’ve had that confirmed before (though I might be wrong), so this trailer is a pretty good indication that these two bounty hunters are actually going to join forces at some point.
The Razor Crest is pursued by another ship, which is firing upon it, and the ship does take a hit. But who is it that is after the Mando?
In the city streets (it looks a bit like Mos Eisley), the Mandalorian uses a huge turret as he fires upon enemies on the roof of a nearby building. I wonder if this is the same firefight that we see people running from earlier, and either way, the Mando packs some serious firepower.
This is definitely my favorite glimpse from the trailer, as we see IG-11 in action! We saw this at Celebration briefly, but now we’ve got it in full. In this firefight against mercenaries (it looks like the same location as the previous shot, so maybe it’s the same fight since it seems they’re working together?), the IG droid rotates his torso as he fires rapidly at these enemies, taking them all out. If you ever wondered what made IG-88 such a feared bounty hunter, this should give you a good idea as we see just what an IG droid is capable of in combat.
Stormtroopers pull their weapons on the Mandalorian, who in turn draws his weapons and is in a standoff with them. At Celebration there was an extended sequence of the Mandalorian tensely staring down stormtroopers and saying “I like those odds”, so I think this is probably the same scene.
This sequence takes place in a cantina and shows the Mandalorian get into a fight with a Quarren. I’m not sure if this Quarren is actually a target of the Mando’s or not (though I’m guessing he probably is), but this scene is rather brutal. The Mandalorian grabs the Quarren by the tentacles, slams his head into the counter, and then when the Quarren tries to run, the Mando grapples him, begins to pull him back, and then fires his blaster to close the door – which appears to slice the helpless Quarren in half. Yikes.
This is a pretty slick move by the Mando, and I love the creativity of how to utilize the gear and tech at the bounty hunter’s disposal. It’s cool yet awful at the same time. I just hope that Jon Favreau doesn’t go too far and that he keeps in mind who the primary audience of Star Wars has always been (kids).
Here is a figure encased in carbonite, but a careful look shows the Mando walking away from several blocks of carbonite lined up in a row. It has been hinted at that we already know this figure at the forefront, but I can’t tell who it is. Either way, though, I like seeing the Mandalorian make use of carbon freezing to store and/or transport his bounties, as that has to be a relatively easy way to do it.
I also really like that this is a tribute to Boba Fett in many ways. Carbon freezing is a very dangerous thing, and you can tell that by Boba Fett and Lando Calrissian reacting the way they do in The Empire Strikes Back to Han Solo being frozen. But that process went off very smoothly, and so I love the idea that word of that tactic spread in the galaxy and became more common. It’s almost like once people realized it could work (and I imagine it’s an especially good option for those bounties who are wanted either dead or alive), it became a bit more common. I love that kind of development.
The only dialogue we hear in the trailer is from Werner Herzog’s character, who says, “Bounty hunting is a complicated profession. Don’t you agree?” We don’t know a whole lot about his character, but in the Celebration extended footage he was the one whom the stormtroopers (the ones that confronted the Mando) were working for.
The Mandalorian doesn’t answer Herzog, but we get one last awesome look at our main character before the title card.
Star Wars Thoughts 