The Mandalorian, the first-ever live action Star Wars TV show, arrives this November on
Disney+.
From nods to past Star Wars films to some classic cinema heritage, here are all the
Easter eggs, references, and other details you probably missed in The Mandalorian's debut
trailer at D23.
Stormtroopers, the Empire's most common foot soldiers, are famous for their iconic all-white
armor, but that's not the only color they wear.
Mudtroopers, who first appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story, wear green.
Sith troopers, who are set to debut in The Rise of Skywalker, wear red.
Death troopers, who we first met in Rogue One, dress in all black.
According to Star Wars lore, death troopers are the Empire's elite fighting forces.
Seemingly led by a character played by Giancarlo Esposito, the death troopers look poised to
live up to their name.
The Star Wars universe is full of weird little critters, and there's not nearly enough time
in the feature films to spotlight them all.
Take the blurrg, for example.
These oddly-shaped bipedal creatures have never actually appeared on the big screen.
Blurrgs debuted in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a made-for-TV movie that aired in 1985, and
have popped up in a few episodes of The Clone Wars and a handful of video games since.
However, in The Mandalorian, the titular bounty hunter faces off against a blurrg with a rider
on top.
If you look carefully, you'll see another blurrg, presumably dead, lying on the left
side of the screen.
Also, if you were wondering, the alien riding the blurrg is called an Ugnaught, a race that
hasn't been seen in a live-action production since the original trilogy.
During The Mandalorian era, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are busy establishing a new government
elsewhere in the galaxy, making any cameos unlikely.
However, some fans think they've caught sight of one well-known character in The Mandalorian
trailer.
Many viewers think the droid featured in the Mandalorian trailer is IG-88, one of the bounty
hunters that Darth Vader sends after Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.
They look similar, but that's actually a new character called IG-11, and he's voiced by
Taika Waititi.
We'll just have to wait and see to find out if IG-11 is as funny as the last character
Waititi lent his voice to.
"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Korg, I’m kind of like the leader in here,
I'm made of rocks, as you can see, but don't let that intimidate you.
You don’t need to be afraid unless you're made of scissors."
If the Mandalorian reminds you of Jango Fett or his son, Boba, that's on purpose.
Jango, Boba, and the new nameless bounty hunter all wear Mandalorian armor.
Made from a precious metal called beskar, the armor can withstand heavy blaster bolts.
However, the Mandalorian's outfit isn't a complete set of Mandalorian armor.
Some pieces are missing, and he's been forced to cobble together an outfit from whatever
he can find.
For example, look at the right shoulder pad.
It's blue and grey, instead of rust red metal like the rest of his suit.
Like any good bounty hunter, the Mandalorian is armed to the teeth.
In the trailer, he wields a blaster-pistol.
He has a "fibercord whip," which he uses to snag a runaway foe.
The Mandalorian's most interesting weapon, however, is one that you might've seen before.
It's the rifle slung on his back.
Boba Fett wielded that exact same kind of weapon in "The Faithful Wookiee," the animated
short that introduced Fett to the world.
"The Faithful Wookiee" originally aired as part as the infamously terrible Star Wars
Holiday Special, a Star Wars spin-off so atrocious that George Lucas once said he wants to destroy
every copy.
Aside from the Tatooine-like planet featured in the trailer, we also see a few glimpses
of a lush forest world full of trees and water.
In the trailer's most memorable scene, you can see the world outside.
It's not a desert.
It's not a forest.
From what we can tell, it's full of snow.
So, that's three different biomes in one brief preview.
If you're tired of the same old Star Wars locations, that's a good sign of things to
come.
At the end of The Mandalorian teaser, the bounty hunter stands in the office of an old
man.
Film buffs will recognize that man as Werner Herzog, director of countless unflinching
films like Grizzly Man and one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of all time.
He also acts, occasionally, like when he cameoed on Parks and Recreation.
"After 47 years of living here, I decided to move to Orlando, to be closer to Disney
World."
In the trailer, Herzog's character seems to be wearing a medallion engraved with a six-point
symbol - one that looks a lot like the insignia of the Galactic Empire.
The medal implies that Herzog is playing a former Imperial officer, raising all kinds
of concerns.
The Mandalorian is set a few years after the Battle of Jakku, where the Empire made its
last stand.
So why is Herzog's character still in charge?
And why are there so many Stormtroopers lurking about if the Empire is dead and gone?
The Mandalorian doesn't just draw inspiration from the Star Wars movies.
It also owes a huge debt to spaghetti westerns, especially those by The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly director Sergio Leone.
Like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, the Mandalorian is a man of few words.
An old fashioned saloon fight provides some action, and the whole trailer is infused with
a sense of quiet isolation, just like Leone's best films.
Late in The Mandalorian trailer, a quick shot shows an alien frozen in carbonite, much like
Han Solo was at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
Carbonite-encased Han is one of the most iconic images in the original series, and it's linked
with Boba Fett, who also wore Mandalorian armor.
However, if you look closer, you'll see that there's actually four figures frozen in carbonite,
all standing in a row.
That might be a big change from the original Star Wars trilogy, where freezing living creatures
in carbonite is extremely dangerous.
By the time that The Mandalorian takes place, those concerns appear to be gone.
People are freezing others in carbonite in groups, and it looks like it's now standard
practice among bounty hunters.
Or maybe bounty hunters are just even bigger jerks than they were before.
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