‘The Mandalorian’ Found Inspiration From A Famous Scene In The Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy

The Mandalorian — the first live-action Star Wars TV series — debuts in just over two months, which seems like an impossibly long time (long time). But when you’ve gone your entire life without the Red Viper as an intergalactic bounty hunter and Taika Waititi as an assassin droid, what’s another 60-something days? Besides, once the Disney+ series is here, it will include things that “have never been seen before” in Star Wars.

That’s according to executive producer Dave Filoni, who told Entertainment Weekly, “I’ve seen a lot of Star Wars. And what’s most exciting to me is that I am very confident we did some things — and fans will see things — that have never been seen before.” To be fair, before The Phantom Menace, I had never seen a racist frog-man, either, and I wish I could go back to a time where I hadn’t. But The Mandalorian doesn’t sound like it will fall into the Sarlacc pit of, say, a ’50s diner… IN SPACE (which sounds cooler than it was).

The Mandalorian’s clearest inspiration is the first act of A New Hope, which played like a Western set in space: exotic creatures, smugglers, soldiers, and bounty hunters leading rough lives in an overlooked outlaw territory. (Conversely, the show is perhaps the furthest from the Star Wars prequels and the aristocratic poshness of their Jedi council meetings on Coruscant.) Expect The Mandalorian to travel from system to system in a very “boots on the ground” tale without any major legacy characters… at least, not in the first season.

Creator Jon Favreau was inspired by the scene in A New Hope set inside the Mos Eisley cantina, where you will “never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” (Obi Wan has clearly never been on Twitter.) “I’ve always been curious what the other people in the cantina are up to,” The Lion King director said. “We’re digging really deep in the toy chest and pulling out the action figures that people were always curious about and were not quite in the center frame, but have a lot of potential.”

What kind of shenanigans has Kardue’sai’Malloc gotten himself (?) into this week? Find out beginning November 12, when The Mandalorian debuts on Disney+.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

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