SWCC 2019 [News & Photos]: The Mandalorian.

Earlier today, the first Star Wars live-action series on the Disney+ streaming service — The Mandalorian — was revealed to a galaxy.. not so far away.. of rambunctious fans enjoying Star Wars Celebration Chicago.

The 5-minutes of footage shown at SWCC 2019 absolutely rocks. Hurry up and watch it before the Evil Mickey Empire force-chokes it to death…

Before Showrunners Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars, director of the series premiere) and panel pals, Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), Gina Carano (the Fast & Furious series), and Carl Weathers (Rocky) unveiled the scum and villainous greatness to The Windy City, Sunday saw a Q&A that went into enough detail to get even the biggest of Boba Fett fanatics gassed.

The Mandalorian, the first ever live-action Star Wars series is also the first Star Wars project shot in the United States. And I should know, because I was there for a little over a half day of filming and barely-breathing (but I can’t tell which mask I ran around on set with; not yet anyway!). Also, sadly, I never got to work in scenes with the three charming stars of today’s panel. Pedro Pascal, the Mandalorian himself, referred to this dream job as “fantasy fulfillment” and revealed his inspirations for the role — old westerns (namedropping Clint Eastwood) and Kurosawa samurai flicks.

Carl Weathers, the Apollo Creed before Michael B., will play boss bounty hunter Greef Carga. He definitely didn’t shy away from showing enthusiasm for his role on this project, at one point calling it “insane.” Despite being the senior of the three, Weathers did many of his own stunts on The Mandalorian, which is entirely expected from an MMA legend. Gina Carano carried bodies and a heavy burden as ex-Rebel shock trooper Cara Dune. It’s not hard to see how “fit” she was for this…

The Mandalorian takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, so we’ll see a lot of new and old alien species, enemies, lands and spacecrafts. Both Favreau and Filoni promise that there is plenty to love for every Star Wars fan of all eras in this live-action series. Moreover, many of the warships we’ll see — such as the Razorcrest that helms our rustic Mando — originally come from practical effects. This handcrafted technology aims to mesh greatly alongside the usual high doses of CGI, Virtual Reality, NewGen software and other modern video sources.

The 5-minutes of series footage and the montage trailer that followed was outstanding. It really captures the essence of Star Wars around the time of RotJ, from sand-speeders coasting over the wind-shooting dunes to roaring TIE fighters and dirty Stormtroopers to an array of bizarre creatures — Jawas, Twi’leks, a Davorian, a Dewback(!!), etc. — taking up in a cantina to grilled kowakian monkey-lizards; there’s a lot of retro detail here, while the series’ narrative epicenter will be undeniably fresh. I can’t fucking wait.

-Travis Moody

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