The Mandalorian: First footage debuts from Disney+ live-action Star Wars series

The series takes place five years after ‘Return of the Jedi’, as creator Jon Favreau added: ‘After the celebration of the Empire falling... then what happens?’

Star Wars Celebration – the world’s biggest convention for the franchise – offered attendees a very special treat, as a first look at The Mandalorian was screened during the show’s panel.

The series, which will debut on Disney+, boasts an incredible level of production value, with its darker, grittier approach somewhat echoing 2016’s Rogue One in tone, although its emphasis is on all the galaxy’s “scum and villainy”.

Executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni revealed that the show takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, as Favreau added: “After the celebration of the Empire falling... then what happens?”

The reel kicked off with a scene featuring Carl Weathers’s Greef, the head of a guild of bounty hunters, who offers The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) a very special job, requiring a direct commission.

The Mandalorian himself is, according to Pascal, ”mysterious, lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Some would say he is a questionable moral character.” The series will return to some of George Lucas’s original inspirations for Star Wars: samurai and western films, with the Mandalorian himself having “a lot of Clint Eastwood in him”, according to Pascal.

The scene then cut to a roasted Kowakian monkey-lizard, with another awaiting its fate in a cage – is this the inglorious end of Salacious B Crumb? The Mandalorian, meanwhile, visits his client, only to discover himself surrounded by four Stormtroopers with dirtied armour. When one trooper tells him, “We have you four to one”, he snaps back: “I like those odds”.

His client, however, is a mysterious character played by Werner Herzog, who appears to have some connection to the former Empire and is after a very sensitive target, dead or alive. He can’t offer a name or a description, but can only reveal that they’re 50-years-old, as he hands over a tracking fob and the last four digits of their genetic code. You can bet this target is someone who will already be familiar to us.

The Celebration audience then saw a short teaser for the series, which featured the Empire’s shadow prominently, as Herzog’s character intones: “The Empire improves every system it touches”.

We saw initial shots of Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, an ex-Rebel Shock Trooper and a loner who’s now struggling to reintegrate into society, alongside the Mandalorian’s ship, the Razorcrest: a silver, reflective old army gunship.

Also introduced were Giancarlo Esposito’s character, who is also connected to the former Empire and, at one point, pilots a TIE fighter, alongside a double blaster-wielding droid voiced by Taika Waititi (who also directs on the show). Although similar in appearance to IG-88, who we know from The Empire Strikes Back, when he appears among the bounty hunters summoned by Darth Vader, the character in The Mandalorian has been confirmed to be IG-11.

The Mandalorian debuts when Disney+ launches on 12 November.

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