Disney+ The Mandalorian (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

Given that this is for the upcoming Disney streaming service, I wasn't sure whether to put this thread here, since it's being categorized as a TV series, or in the streaming media section, since it will be streaming. But...

http://www.starwars.com/news/jon-favreau-to-executive-produce-write-live-action-star-wars-series

As with the Rian Johnson and Game of Thrones team's trilogies on the feature side, I feel like there isn't enough information here to have an opinion yet. Lucasfilm simply wants to make noise about hiring a big-name director, in this case Favreau, to supervise this project.

My question is: when is Favreau supposed to do this? The Disney service is supposed to launch in late 2019, but he's currently in the middle of The Lion King, which is set for a July 2019 theatrical release, so I can't imagine h'll be free to work on this much before that. He's also supposed to have a Jungle Book sequel in development, too. It would seem that Jungle Book will have to proceed fairly soon if they want Neel Sethi to return as Mowgli without aging out of the role. And it sounds like the Star Wars project will have Favreau involved in a continuing capacity, not just directing the pilot and going back to features. So, he's got a lot on his plate. So it will be interesting to see what goes next.

Also, while Favreau certainly knows how to make good blockbusters, I actually think Chef is his best film, so it's a little sad that he doesn't appear to have any plans to make more small, personal films like it (not necessarily a sequel, but you know, something else in a similar scale.)

 

[TravisR]

I'm guessing that Favreau is more of an executive producer and someone else will be the showrunner. The Clone Wars/Rebels mastermind Dave Filoni must be working on something new at LFL so it could be this but the end of Rebels seemed to set up a new animated series so I think it'll be someone other than him.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This is probably similar to how Favreau was hired to direct the first episode of The Orville but was not involved in the day-to-day production of the actual series, or how Akiva Goldsman was on staff at Star Trek Discovery and contributed story ideas and directed an episode, but wasn't the actual showrunner.

My guess is that this would also be a smaller season than a traditional broadcast one, so that it may not be as big of a commitment as it would be if the show was on a network.

 

[joshEH]

I guess with Rebels coming to a close, now is as good a time as any to announce something like this.

So as of now, that's:

- Rian's Trilogy
- Benioff & Weiss Trilogy
- Favreau Live-Action Series

...that are confirmed for development, right?

And as someone who's more-or-less enjoyed all the Disney-era SW projects, I'd rather Favreau do this, than get a film where he's the sole creator. It also sounds like this is going to be SW's "farm team," so to speak, where they develop creators to take on films.

 

[Carabimero]

Are one-shot spinoffs done? Opinions?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Are one-shot spinoffs done? Opinions?

Well, a one-shot thing would be a theatrical release; there is no way they would make a Star Wars movie for the streaming service. This particular announcement today seems simply to confirm that they are going to do a TV series for Disney's Netflix equivalent, which of course would be a continuing thing.

On the feature side, though, we know that both of the standalone "Star Wars Story" films they have attempted already have been beset by major problems. Gareth Edwards lost control of Rogue One and had to be unofficially replaced by Tony Gilroy to finish it, and of course, Lord and Miller being fired outright is a significant and extreme escalation of those issues. Oh, and Josh Trank's film, whatever it was supposed to be, never got off the runway because of his erratic behavior on the Fantastic 4 set. That's not a great rack record and Kennedy is smart enough to know it.

I think that in announcing these new projects at developmental stages with big-name creative talent attached, she is perhaps rethinking her strategy in terms of how to manage Star Wars going forward. Johnson proved with The Last Jedi that he can work effectively and make a distinctive movie within the Lucasfilm machine. Benioff and Weiss have already accomplished large-scale fantasy worldbuilding for TV with Game of Thrones, so it seems reasonable to assume they have the skills to do the same thing in features. These are clearly much more experienced hires than Edwards, Lord and Miller, or Trank at delivering the kind of movie Kennedy is looking for.

Whether or not that means we never see another standalone movie, who knows? I assume Kennedy would be willing to consider it if she found the right idea and the right filmmaker to execute that idea. The appeal of something like Rogue One for actors makes sense, because they got to be in a big Star Wars movie without making a major multiyear, multi-picture agreement. But considering the rough patches that Kennedy has hit with this approach, it makes sense for her to try something else for a while. I would also like to think that maybe she hard the fans, including many of us on this board, who have said that the best path for Star Wars is one that goes forward to new places and new ideas instead of setting each spinoff five minutes away from A New Hope.

That being said, the long-rumored Obi-Wan movie spits in the face of everything I just said, but I think that is the one standalone spinoff she absolutely should do soon, because my interest in that is entirely tied up in seeing Ewan McGroger in the role again. Right now, he seems to be about the right age to do a standalone where he's older than he was in the prequels, but hasn't quite caught up to Alec Guiness yet, and he seems to want to do it, so I hope they get that done before he ages out of that sweet spot. I don't really want to see Ewan transform into Alec and have his standalone movie end with him finding Luke in the desert in A New Hope, but there's room for a story in between, and now would be the time to get that with Ewan. If they did it much later, with a third actor playing Obi-Wan/Ben besies Ewan, that I would not be interested in seeing at all. But the Obi-Wan movie is the exception that proves the rule that Star Wars will be healthier expanding the galaxy, not contracting it around A New Hope spinoffs.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Are one-shot spinoffs done? Opinions?

I don't necessarily think so, I think they're just figuring out where to go next.

My hope is that they're moving away from turning every throwaway line in the original trilogy into its own movie. Rogue One is about minutia about Death Star plans that was successfully covered in a couple lines of dialogue in 1977, and Solo will apparently take the joke line about Han's "piece of junk" ship actually being a great ship because it did the "Kessel run" into its own full length film. That's the kind of storytelling that I don't really need, and that I think would sink the franchise long term. Every new Star Wars project can't just be expanding another line of dialogue from 1977. It shrinks the world, it cheapens the work Lucas did back then, and it assigns too much weight to things that weren't meant to be so weighty.

So I think for better or worse, these potential new trilogies are about trying to move forward with new ideas rather than retreading old material, and I think that's good. But I think multi-part storytelling is all the rage these days, and they don't want to take the chance of releasing something that catches on and not have any sequel plans ready to go.

I am hopeful that the previously hinted at Boba Fett idea (which I think is the thing Josh Trank was fired from) will be left to die. We already got the Boba Fett origin story. It was called Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones. There is absolutely nothing left that needs to be said about that (very minor) character.

 

[TravisR]

Are one-shot spinoffs done? Opinions?

I'm basically in agreement with Jake and Josh but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a sequel to Solo if the first one works and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a single movie here and there. And I assume that the "A Star Wars Story" tag will still be used as a means of branding so it's not like the spin-off idea will be abandoned.

But the Obi-Wan movie is the exception that proves the rule that Star Wars will be healthier expanding the galaxy, not contracting it around A New Hope spinoffs.

Rey's parentage in TLJ expanded the galaxy and that's one reason why it was such a good move. I've said it in other threads but since all the movies announced are all unconnected to the Skywalker movies, it seems like LFL is on the page of moving to other places (and times?) rather than having every movie tie-in to an existing movie.

I am hopeful that the previously hinted at Boba Fett idea (which I think is the thing Josh Trank was fired from) will be left to die. We already got the Boba Fett origin story. It was called Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones. There is absolutely nothing left that needs to be said about that (very minor) character.

A Boba Fett movie could be cool but to make a Boba Fett movie that's a tent pole picture? That's when I would get worried. I think my idea of what I would want from a Boba Fett movie (not an origin but a movie that's basically a space western with Fett hunting a bounty) would likely be best served in a novel or comic book.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a sequel to Solo if the first one works

That might have been the plan with Lord and Miller at the beginning of the process, but now, I'm sure Kennedy wants to put Solo behind her as quickly as possible. Howard is very capable, but in terms of bad press, this whole enterprise has been a dumpster fire. I suspect the reason they didn't move the date to December is a desire to move on from this sooner rather than later. I'd be shocked if there was any other Star Wars movie featuring the cast of Solo ever again.

 

[Carabimero]

I'm with Travis. If SOLO does business, why wouldn't they do another?

 

[joshEH]

That being said, the long-rumored Obi-Wan movie spits in the face of everything I just said, but I think that is the one standalone spinoff she absolutely should do soon, because my interest in that is entirely tied up in seeing Ewan McGroger in the role again. Right now, he seems to be about the right age to do a standalone where he's older than he was in the prequels, but hasn't quite caught up to Alec Guiness yet, and he seems to want to do it, so I hope they get that done before he ages out of that sweet spot. I don't really want to see Ewan transform into Alec and have his standalone movie end with him finding Luke in the desert in A New Hope, but there's room for a story in between, and now would be the time to get that with Ewan.

Also, Joel Edgerton has said that he's jonesing to do this movie with Ewan, and if whiny people on the internet complaining about Solo spooked Disney to the point that McGregor doesn't grow out the beard again, I'm gonna be salty about it for a good long while. The thought of getting those two actors together in a character-driven post-Episode III Obi-Wan film makes me giddy (and you could also probably throw Liam Neeson in there too, via some Whill-mysticism).

A Boba Fett movie could be cool but to make a Boba Fett movie that's a tent pole picture? That's when I would get worried. I think my idea of what I would want from a Boba Fett movie (not an origin but a movie that's basically a space western with Fett hunting a bounty) would likely be best served in a novel or comic book.

I tend to be annoyed by Boba Fett fans (he doesn't deserve it), and reacted quite negatively at the prospect of him getting his own film; however, having recently watched Dollar trilogy again, along with the notion that you set it like a western, I'm very intrigued at the idea.

I hate knowing in advance that they would constantly pull a Raimi Spider-Man and find excuses for him to always take his helmet off, but can accept that it would be hard to pull off in a popcorn blockbuster. If they could stick to that genre and limit the removal of his helmet like with Dredd (Hugo Weaving certainly did just fine with V For Vendetta, after all), then I'm on board.

 

[SamT]

Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars Television series starts filming next week, first set photos!

 

[Jake Lipson]

With this gearing up, I wonder how close to done Favreau is with Lion King. If Lion King isn't in the can yet, he'll have to juggle the two for a while.

 

[SamT]

'Star Wars': Jon Favreau's TV Series Details Revealed

Jon Favreau, who is set to write and exec produce an original, live-action scripted Star Wars TV series, revealed that his new show will be called The Mandalorian.

"After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic," Favreau shared in a post on his verified Instagram account.

 

[SamT]

The Mandalorian First Image, Directors Revealed

 

[Wayne_j]

The only problem with the description is that the time I knew it was canon that Jango and Boba are not actually Mandalorians.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The only problem with the description is that the time I knew it was canon that Jango and Boba are not actually Mandalorians.

It doesn't actually state that the title character is actually connected in anyway to Jango or Boba, but it makes sense to mention them since they're the two characters wearing Mandalorian armor in the movies that general audiences are most likely to have heard of.

I'm quite certain that the new series won't contradict the Mandalorian history established by "Clone Wars" and "Rebels", but the time period of the story and the nature of the story also allows the show to avoid dealing with much of that. The main character might be from Mandalore, or exiled from one of the Mandalorian clans, and that bit of backstory is the only connection.

Telling a new story in an unexplored time period/location, with new characters, is exactly what I want out of the Star Wars universe going forward.

And there are some directors in there, like Rick Famuyiwa and Taika Waititi, that are genuine gets.

 

[joshEH]

John Leguizamo is rumored to be part of the cast:

https://www.makingstarwars.net/2018...alorian-a-casting-rumor-and-a-strange-tidbit/

Star of my beloved Spawn?!?

 

[TravisR]

I'd guess Leguizamo's going to be in a more comedic role but I like when he plays drama. He's wonderful in Summer Of Sam.

 

[SamT]

George Lucas Visits Jon Favreau on the Set of The Mandalorian!