The first two chapters of The Manalorian have been released on Disney+, and it is like the second coming. I have not only had a high honor and privilege to work on not one, but two Star Wars television movies “Caravan of Courage” and “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor”, I have been a life long fan and nerd.
I may not know as much as my fellow geeky Star Wars friends because after all I am an Actor and Musician so wired differently, I do know what is Star Wars. The Mandalorian is Star Wars. Not only in looks and how it feels but in all the substance and many background characters we are delighted to see. The first episode is littered with so many different Alien species it makes you giggle with delighted as you sound off every time you recognize one and say the name of the species out-loud. Oh, look there is a Jawa and a Kowakian monkey-lizard! Poor Salacious Crumb, I wonder if he tastes like chicken!
The first episode is just called Chapter 1 and was Directed by Dave Filoni who is well known in the Star Wars community for the cartoon series “Clone Wars”, “Rebels” and current running show “Resistance”. The series was created by and Produced by Jon Favearu who brought us “Iron Man” and the new “Lion King” remake.
Dave Filoni is George Lucas’s padawan. He spent ten years working with and learning all there is Star Wars from the man who created it. He understands and knows more than anyone else. Kathleen Kennedy recently stated in an interview that she on a regular basis seeks the guidance from Filoni before doing things to make sure it’s on the right path. Much has been talked about how Filoni and Favreau are now having a big bromance going on. Which figures since we all know the rule of 2 seems to be working when it comes to The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal as the lead character. Nick Nolte as Kuiil, Taika Waititi as IG-1, Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, and Werner Herzog as the Client. Omid Abtahi as Dr. Pershing, and Brian Poshen as the speeder pilot who was Burt on the Big Bang Theory. In future episode Gina Carano will play Cara Dune.
Let’s go ahead and breakdown Chapter 1 and Chapter 2: The Child. If you have not seen the two episodes please read at your discretion.
We start off on a cold snowy ice world. The Mandalorian is holding a tracking beacon looking for his bounty. He looks off in the distance at a settlement. We then switch to the interior of an old rusty looking Cantina that reminds us of the one that we first seen in “A New Hope”. We are treated by seeing a variety of Alien species talking and having drinks. The camera moves over to three men who are giving a blue Mythrol alien a hard time. They are roughing up the Mythrol who is trying to avoid being beat up by saving he will give them all the credits (money) they want. One of the them looks like Tessek, from the Quarren species and the water planet of Mon Calamari.
The door opens and the Mandalorian is standing at the entrance looking calm and cool as he walks over to the bar past the unruly bar patrons who are yelling at him because one of their drinks fell over with the wind when they door opened. The bar owner does not want a fight so he says a new drink is on the house, which the Mandalorian grabs and uses it to hit one of the men striking first. He quickly takes two of the three out and the Tessek looking alien attempts to run away so the Mandalorian shoots his grappling hook to stop him. He starts to reel him in and takes his blaster shooting at the door for it to close. The door closes on the alien cutting him in half.
Now the Mandalorian walks over to a very thankful Mythrol. He puts down a bounty puck and turns it on. The Mythrol looks at it and says is that for me? Then in his what some describe as a Clint Eastwood type of voice the Mandalorian speaks and says: “You can come in either warm or cold, you’re choice”.
It then cuts to them walking outside with the Mythrol in handcuffs behind The Mandalorian who walks up to an Elephant snout looking man from the alien race Kubaz who plays a flute when the Mandalorian asks for transport to where his ship is. A brand new speeder with a cool looking droid shows up which The Mandalorian does not like because a droid is operating it, so he requests another with a real operator.
So a broken down old speeder shows up next and the speeder pilot is the first celebrity cameo Brian Poshen who played Burt the rock loving geologist on “The Big Bang Theory”. The speeder pilot takes them to the Mandalorian’s ship Razor-crest. An older ship but still very cool looking. The pilot warns them to get moving and not stay on the ice too long it’s dangerous. He takes off and as he is almost out of range he is swallowed by some huge creature.
This makes Mythrol panic but they both make it into the Razor Crest just in time. The huge creature bites and grabs the ship preventing it from lifting off, so the Mandalorian grabs his Amban phase-pulse blaster which is a call back to Boba Fett and The Holiday Special. He shoots the alien with the electricity stunning it and causing it to let the ship go enabling them to take off.
Now that they are on the way Mythrol still being freaked out at almost becoming lunch says he has to go the toilet and he will find his own way to it rather than just go on himself. He continues to talk while the Mandalorian does not speak or say anything. His talking almost becomes annoying because he just won’t shut up. But going to the toilet was just a ruse as he searches through the ship. As he is talking he says he had hoped to be home for “Life Day” which all Star Wars fans will immediately know it’s another call back to “The Holiday Special” in which Chewbacca celebrates as the sort of Christmas day on the Wookie home planet of Kashyyyk. God I love you Jon Favreau!
Then the Mandalorian appears behind him telling him he guess not that he won’t be available for life day freezing him in carbonite which is what was done to Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. We all know how that ended in “Return of The Jedi” after Boba Fett turned Solo over to Jabba The Hut.
The Mandalorian then goes to another planet to turn in all his bounties at another Cantina. It is here where we see Carl Weather’s make his appearance as Greef Karga. Greef Karga is surprised to see the Mandalorian back so soon with all the bounties he gave him. He then shows him some other bounties he has for which the Mandalorian says he will take them all. Greef tells the Mando that he is not the only bounty hunter in the guild. So Mando asks him what is the biggest bounty he has. Greef responds 5000 credits. Which the Mando says would not even pay fuel costs. He wants something more, so Greef tells him about a bounty that is off book and the Client behind it has deep pockets. He decides to take it.
We now see the Mandalorian walking through a market place and we are treated with a wide array of alien species including Jawa, more droids, and Kowakian monkey-lizard, the same species as Salacious Crumb who was the pet of Jabba The Hutt. Mando then walks up to a door and knocks on it. An eye pops out of it and says something which causes the Mando to show it the card that Greef Karga gave him for the job. The door opens and a new Gonk droid shows Mando to another room where an imperial Storm Trooper answer the door and let’s him in.
In this meeting room we see The Client played by Werner Herzog. There are three other Storm Troppers in the room also. Another door opens and Dr Pershing walks in. This startles Mando causing him to draw his weapons. The Troopers do the same. A Trooper reminds Mando that they have him 4 to 1 and he replies “4 to 1, I like those odds”.
The Client walks over to Mando and calms him down reminding him that Greef Karga said he was the best and expensive. The now talk business and The Client reveals he has a bounty he needs the Mando to bring in dead or alive. This upsets Dr. Pershing who wants the bounty to be brought in alive. Mando says let’s see the bounty puck, but they have known. They have only the bounties age and a locating tracker. The Client reassures Mando saying with his experience that is all he needs and he should be able to make short work of it.
As a down payment he gives Mando a bare of Beskar. Beskar is the strongest type of steel native to Mandalore, the home world of the Mandalorian. He tells him when he brings in the bounty he has a whole load of it for him. Mando takes the job and bare of Beskar.
We now see him arrive on the planet of the bounty and see Mando searching the desert like hilly landscape with his binoculars. In them we can see a couple of Blurrg grazing in a field. The Blurrg are a call back to the Ewok movies and were seen in Ewoks: The Battle For Endor.
The Mandalorian is suddenly attacked by one of the Blurrgs. They either run very fast or some of them happen to be closer. As the Blurrg is about to do in Mando we see something hit it knocking it out. Another Blurrg appears and runs toward him and it is too shot by something that resembles a dart.
As the Mandalorian looks up Kuiil rides up on top of another Blurrg that seems to be domesticated. Kuiil is an ugnaught alien and voiced by Actor Nick Nolte. For some reason know one is mentioning this in reviews or other websites. The character Kuiil on set is being performed by Misty Rosas. It’s actually in the credits at the end which most people do not pay attention to.
Ugnaughts are a porcine-faced species. The short creatures are typically found on Cloud City though they originally hail from a planet called Gentes. This is yet another call back to “Empire Strikes Back”.
We now to to Kuiil home where the Mandalorian and he begins to speak about why he is there. Kuiil knows he is there for the bounty and tells Mando that many bounty hunters have already come and died trying to get the bounty. He says he will help him showing him where the bounty he seeks is located. He wants nothing in return, just his home and valley he lives in to return to normal.
Kuiil then teaches Mando how to ride a Blurrg and we are treated by seeing him knocked off the Blurrg like he is riding a bull. Frustrated by it all the Mando wants to hire a speeder or ship for transport and Kuiil tells him the only way available to travel on this planet is by Blurrg. He reminds him that his people were known for riding mythosaurs. Native to Mandalore, mythosaurs are ancient creatures, the stuff of Mandalorian legend. The tusked creature is seen on the armor of Boba Fett as insignia, and was spotted on a flag at Maz Kanata’s castle in The Force Awakens. In The Mandalorian, we see a mold of a mythosaur skull on the wall in the armorer’s lair. Mando then picks himself up and finally tames the Blurrg learning how to ride it.
They then travel to where the bounty is located. Kuiil wishes Mando well and tells him he assured he will do well and make quick work of it. He then repeats what is going to be the next catch phrase “I have Spoken”.
Mando now looks over the scene to see the best way in. As he is looking through the binoculars he spots an IG bounty droid. It is IG-11 who is talking to the men guarding the bounty spouting off the bounty code. The species guarding the Bounty are called Niktos. In canon, they traditionally work for the Hutts, and appeared frequently in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Resistance. Known for their spiky faces and scaly skin, they’re natives to the planet Kintan. The Mandalorian again reminds us that he hates droids as heads over to the area. IG-11 is performed again on set like Kuiil. The performance artist is Rio Hackford. The voice of IG-11 is Taika Waititi
A big fight begins and they both The Mandalorian and IG-11 become trapped. Mando convinces IG-11 that they should work together and share the bounty for which he agrees. Also during this fight sequence IG-11 keeps saying if he is captured he is going to self-destruct and the Mandalorian keeps telling him not to. The back and forth comedic moments are great not only bringing more tension to the scene but also making us all laugh.
During the battle, The Mandalorian takes away a big blaster from one of the Niktos. This blaster looks a lot like the one that the Marauders used in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. This one levitates so changes were made, but aside from that it is the same one.
Once the battle is finally over they use the big blaster to cut open the door where the bounty is located. They look around and see a oval shaped object. They open it and look at the bounty with the Mandalorian asking how can this be a 50 year old? It’s a baby. For which IG-11 reminds us all that some species age differently and live many centuries. So now they reveal what changes Star Wars forever. The bounty baby is a YODA!!!
What a way to end an Episode! We have so many questions? Is this a clone of yoda and what is the name of this species. Let’s hope future episodes will reveal more.
We at AllForSciFi have a zero to five stars rating system. The Mandalorian Chapter 1 gets….. 5 Stars!
