Lucasfilm has released Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The Mandalorian is the beginning of this new strategy, with Jon Favreau taking charge of a series that explores the galaxy's shadier side. It stars Pedro Pascal as the titular Mandalorian, a mysterious bounty hunter who operates in the aftermath of the Empire's fall. The first trailer is light on plot details, preferring to establish the show's atmosphere and tone; it features several clear homages to Westerns, including a tense gunfight scene.
That does mean The Mandalorian trailer isn't particularly self-explanatory. Here's our guide to help you understand what's going on in the trailer, and who the characters are.
22. Stormtrooper Helmets Represent The Mandalorian's Lawlessness
The Mandalorian trailer opens with a powerful and evocative image: Stormtrooper helmets in the dust and on spikes. While viewers are used to seeing the Stormtroopers as symbols of oppression and injustice, it's important to understand that some Rim worlds had a very different experience. The Old Republic allowed the Galactic Rim to become a home to smugglers and crime syndicates, and for many Rim worlds the Empire represented stability, security, and order. These Stormtrooper helmets should be seen as an indication of the sheer lawlessness of the kind of places the Mandalorian is visiting.
21. Return to Mos Eisley
The camera pans up, and while the focus remains on the Stormtrooper helmets, the building designs are quite distinctive; The Mandalorian trailer confirms that Star Wars returning to Cobb Vanth was a slave who was freed after Jabba the Hutt's death, and who stumbled on Mandalorian armor in the desert wastes.
20. The Mandalorian's Ship Flies Over New Planets
The Mandalorian may involve Tatooine, but it's clear that the bounty hunter's career will take him to new locations. The trailer for The Mandalorian shows his ship flying over a densely forested world, and then moves to a dusty gray planet. Nothing is yet known about either of these worlds.
19. Carl Weathers Is Greef Marga
Carl Weathers has been cast as Greef Marga, head of a chapter of the Bounty Hunters Guild. The Mandalorian trailer shows a shot of Greef that seems to be lifted from footage shown at SDCC 2019. In that scene, the Mandalorian was looking for a mark, and he approached Greef and asked to take every single mission he has at the moment. Greef refused to do as the Mandalorian asked, insisting that there are other of the Guild who have to make a living as well. Instead, he offered one unique jump, a face-to-face commission.
18. Gina Corano is Kara Dune
The Mandalorian's mission remains a mystery, but it will involve crossing paths with Gina Corano's Kara Dune. Dune has been described as an ex-Rebel shock trooper who's acclimatizing to life after the end of the Empire, and SDCC footage showed her matching the Mandalorian blow for blow. It's reasonable to assume the two will wind up working together in the end.
17. Another New Location in The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian trailer spins off to another new location, as mysterious as the last two. The rock formations appear to be large-scale reproductions of the clints and grykes commonly found in limestone, suggesting that this was once a marine environment but has now become exposed. Limestone is normally associates with caves, so this could be a good hiding-place.
16. The Mandalorian Meets An Ugnaught
The Mandalorian trailer features a brief shot of an Ugnaught, a race who Star Wars fans will from The Empire Strikes Back. The Ugnaughts evolved on an Outer Rim world called Gentes, but because of their hard-working nature they were taken as slaves. At this stage, it's impossible to contextualize this shot; the Ugnaught could be a freed slave, or else it's possible the Mandalorian has actually gone to Gentes.
15. Never Underestimate a Twi'lek
The Mandalorian trailer moves on to show a Twi'lek woman give a leery wink at the camera. The Star Wars franchise has frequently associated Twi'leks with organised prostitution and even slavery, with Twi'leks serving Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. But the aliens haven't always been shown as victims; in fact, in the old Expanded Universe a number of Twi'leks wound up becoming crime lords themselves. It remains to be seen how this Twi'lek factors into the plot of The Mandalorian.
14. The Mandalorian Gets Ready For Action
The Mandalorian trailer then shows its hero suiting up and getting ready for action. At first glance, these shots may seem like "filler," but in reality they serve to emphasize the fact the Mandalorian has strap-on weapons to complement his armor. Boba Fett would be proud. This ends with the Mandalorian getting ready to step out of his ship on to an unknown world. It all sets up the Mandalorian as a troubleshooter, rather than just a bounty hunter.
13. A Mother and Child in Need of Help
Having hinted at its hero's role as a troubleshooter, The Mandalorian trailer establishes the kind of crisis he'll be dealing with. One shot shows a mother and child cowering in a river, threatened by unseen dangers. It's a smart image, demonstrating that the Mandalorian fights on behalf of the vulnerable. This further s the theory that he's really Cobb Vanth, who rescued just these kinds of people in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy.
