

Leigh Brackett is the only woman to get an actual writing credit for a Star Wars film (she co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back with Lawrence Kasden), and in 2017, Victoria Mahoney became the first Black filmmaker and woman hired in any sort of directing capacity on a Star Wars film by serving as JJ Abrams’ second unit director on The Rise of Skywalker.
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Given how little the Western genre is represented in film and TV nowadays, it’s refreshing to see these vintage tropes applied so richly in the Star Wars Universe.įor decades, the franchise's live-action outings have been governed primarily by the creative voices of white men. He takes young bounty hunter Toro Calican (Jake Cannavale) under his wing as they try to bring in outlaw assassin Fennic Shand (Ming Na Wen). There’s even an episode called “The Gunslinger” set on Tatooine, the frontier-looking desert planet home of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, that sees the Mandalorian do a John Wayne in The Shootist. Rarely an episode goes by without a bar scene, bounty hunting, or deadly shoot-out. There are major callbacks to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly as well as classics like The Searchers, Shane, and The Magnificent Seven. No one’s looking to Star Wars for a dose of reality, anyway viewers want to see the wild wilderness of a galaxy far, far away, and through Mando and the kid (affectionately dubbed “Baby Yoda” because of his shared heritage with the iconic Jedi Master), we come into contact with a diverse range of droids, species, and alien races, plucked from the far reaches of the Star Wars Extended Universe as the two elude The Client (Werner Herzog) and the ominous forces he serves.įavreau has admittedly designed The Mandalorian to be more of a space Western than space opera, and Emmy nominations-and severals wins-in categories related to production design, cinematography, picture editing, and fantasy/sci-fi costumes serve as an early reward for this creative direction. He slowly accepts his new fatherly responsibilities over the subsequent seven episodes, and since each installment is around 30 minutes long, we only see an idealized, heroic version of fatherhood that doesn’t dwell on the minutiae of child-rearing. Instead of following in the footsteps of absentee parents Darth Vader and Galen Erso, both of whom leave their children at a young age, show creator Jon Favreau takes his cues from Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cubby, having Mando reluctantly take on the role of the caregiver. You can’t move for daddy issues in George Lucas’ space opera, but The Mandalorian presents a less toxic version of the father-child relationship.

It’s this transition from selfish gunslinger to selfless single dad that’s refreshing to witness in a Star Wars story. But when a new job leads him to The Child, he goes from hunter to prey as his protective instincts for the orphan kick in. As a multiethnic clan, the Mandalorians share a common creed and code, though the morals of this particular warrior are rather questionable, suiting his chosen path of bounty hunter. Set five years after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi and 25 years before The Force Awakens’ plot begins, The Mandalorian follows the titular gunfighter, played by Pedro Pascal, working in the outer reaches of the galaxy and purposefully far from the authority of the New Republic. The Internet Will Do Anything for Baby Yoda The story exists on its own merit without being a plot device for the space opera’s overarching narrative, and that’s why it should serve as the blueprint for future Star Wars offerings.

However, while the events of Rogue One directly relate to the story of 1977's A New Hope and include such primary characters as Princess Leia and Darth Vader, The Mandalorian has its own narrative autonomy. The first live-action TV show from Lucasfilm (if you don’t include the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special) is similarly positioned against the backdrop of the Skywalker saga, but focuses on an array of new characters. It’s this latter movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, that paved the way for The Mandalorian.
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What began with The Force Awakens, a fresh yet pleasingly nostalgic exploration of the Skywalker story, expanded to include two somewhat controversial sequels in the legacy trilogy, a lackluster Han Solo outing, and an impressive jaunt for a rogue team of rebels on a mission to find the Death Star plans. It’s been five years since Star Wars returned in live-action fashion, and it’s certainly had its ups and downs.
