SPOILER WARNING. Only proceed if you are currently following The Mandalorian on Disney+.

I think this Favreau-helmed Star Wars project set 5 years after the destruction of the second Death Star is pretty good. To date the protagonist (Pedro Pascal) only known to all as the Mandalorian is still unnamed, a bounty hunter with a reputation of getting the job done, much to the envy of the others in his guild.

The first untitled episode briefly introduces the Mandalorian doing his job, successfully bringing in his bail-jumper bounty to Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) who heads the guild. Greef then gave the Mando a new job, where he is to bring in a target for an ex-Imperial bigwig of sorts (Werner Herzog). The target was revealed at the end of the pilot – a 50-year old infant from the same (to date unraveled as opposed to unknown) species as Yoda.


The premise of each episode thereafter follows the Mando and the now world famous meme star, baby “Yoda”, an homage to the manga Kozure Okami (Lone wolf and Cub) it seems, on 40-minute bite-sized adventures seemingly stand alone at the moment, but having a wider story arc to reveal itself with further episodes is something I cannot wait for. Like what do the ex-Imperials (or even possibly a newly-organised First Order perhaps?) want the child for? Who is guarding the child – Force/Jedi devotees similar to the likes of Lor San Tekka? Does Fennec Shand (Ming-na Wen) has a bigger role in everything that is currently happening? I’d be interested to see how far this series will go on for – not too long that the story gets too convoluted, but not short enough to go is that it?


Easter egg-wise, my current useless ability is to detect familiar sound effects used in previous Star Wars. Engine sounds from ships and speeders are one thing. but, to go as far as minor stuff like the hydraulics at the carbon freezing facility on Cloud City, and hums and whirrs on the Imperial medic droid – this is real Star Wars. Of course, for Lucas fans, the tribute to Indy hanging off a tank in The Last Crusade and possibly a nod to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is a tad obvious. Despite what I’ve heard, I think Ludwig Goransson’s score fits the Mando well. Can’t have John Williams doing everything, do we? Loving the catchphrases, and I quite like the cameos. Nothing like getting a bunch of mates into the action like playing an IG series bounty hunter robot or X-wing pilots.

If something’s in episode seven on Tuesday that will be relevant in the film I’m watching at midnight this coming Thursday, I’ll be in geek nirvana.