The upcoming Disney+ series The Mandalorian takes place during an unexplored time period
in the Star Wars universe.
It's set five years after Return of the Jedi, and will serve as a bridge between that film
and The Force Awakens.
Since the time gap that separates those two films is 30 years, there are bound to be plenty
of revelations mixed into The Mandalorian.
And apparently, fans won't have to wait long to experience at least one of them: according
to The New York Times, The Mandalorian's very first episode contains a major spoiler.
The Times didn't reveal what the spoiler is, but it did say this in a throwaway line tucked
in a lengthy article about the impending November 12 launch of Disney+:
"The Mandalorian, which contains a dramatic Star Wars universe spoiler in the first episode
and will be available the moment Disney Plus starts, has been as heavily promoted as a
traditional feature film, with billboards, 30-second television commercials, radio spots
and digital ads."
The show's time frame offers up some tantalizing possibilities about the bombshell spoiler
that awaits.
By taking place between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order, The Mandalorian
is primed to show how the First Order came to be.
As show creator Jon Favreau told Entertainment Weekly,
"What could happen in the 30 years between celebrating the defeat of the Empire and then
the First Order?
You come in on Episode VII, [the First Order are] not just starting out.
So somehow, things weren't necessarily managed as well as they could have been if [the galaxy]
ended up in hot water again like that."
Contrary to the rumors that swirled when the series was first announced, according to the
show's creators, The Mandalorian is not about Boba Fett.
Lead actor Pedro Pascal plays an as-yet unnamed Mandalorian bounty hunter who operates in
the seedy outer rim of the galaxy.
Carl Weathers portrays Greef Carga, the head of a bounty hunting guild and an occasional
ally of the Mandalorian, while Giancarlo Esposito plays a former Imperial Governor named Moff
Gideon.
Werner Herzog's character is a crime boss, Taika Waititi voices droid IG-11, and Gina
Carano plays ex-Rebel Shock Trooper and current mercenary Cara Dune.
They, too, will cross paths with the Mandalorian in their own unique ways.
Perhaps the most obvious spoiler is that the series' crew has been bamboozling us all along,
and the show really is about Boba Fett or someone related to him.
"The gloved, Mandalorian armor gauntlet of Boba Fett grabs onto the sand outside of the
Sarlacc pit..."
But it's hard to see the universe-wide implications of that, despite some fans' desire to see
it.
"...and we realize that he survived his fall during the battle at Jabba's Palace ship."
Maybe the first episode of The Mandalorian could offer a spoiler that helps set up The
Rise of Skywalker.
The series premieres on November 12, and Star Wars Episode IX opens in theaters December
20.
That gives fans plenty of time to catch The Mandalorian before watching the film, so if
the series, say, reveals how Emperor Palpatine survived the destruction of the second Death
Star, fans would be extremely motivated to pony up for a full Disney+ subscription to
watch the show before seeing the movie.
Disney has already hinted at seeding its upcoming MCU offerings on Disney+ with story beats
that will affect later films.
Namely, the streaming series WandaVision is set to tie into the film Doctor Strange in
the Multiverse of Madness.
Hey, wait a minute…
"If he holds the Reality Gem, that means he can jump from different realities.
This will be our link to the Marvel Universe from the Star Wars universe!"
Eh, probably not.
The other big possibility is renewed canon from the old Expanded Universe.
Some fans think Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker's wife in the EU, may be in The Mandalorian,
and Favreau didn't exactly deny it when asked about it.
He told EW in September 2019,
"I don't want to talk about anything that might be fun for people to discover [...] Part
of what's fun to see if we could merge the worlds of the original trilogy, the prequels,
the sequels, The Clone Wars, and what's been considered canon up to this point and what's
been considered part of Legends.
I think this show offers an opportunity to bring in all those elements."
The only way to know for certain what this big Star Wars spoiler truly is would be to
tune into the debut episode of The Mandalorian, hitting Disney+ on November 12.
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