“Less is more.” The saying has been around for a long time, most often attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a key figure in the modernist architectural movement. However, these days the phrase can be applied to countless topics – including the Star Wars Universe. Since 1977, Star Wars has become the most iconic sci-fi franchise of all time; in that time, George Lucas’ brainchild has constantly increased its scope and expanded its sprawling and colorful universe. Since the Original Trilogy’s conclusion, we’ve seen dozens of animated and live-action entries added to the Star Wars franchise, with an overwhelming majority of them positively contributing to the franchise lore. As the first live-action series in the franchise, The Mandalorian was groundbreaking in many ways – but it should have ended after Season 1. There are plenty of Star Wars characters who deserve their own series, and we should be exploring more unique corners of the universe, instead of following the same characters.
When The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ in November 2019, the show offered up a unique look into the Star Wars universe that we hadn’t seen until that point. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had teased us with the seedy and unpleasant side of various worlds, but The Mandalorian was our first taste of a Star Wars live-action series that explored that unpleasantness more thoroughly. The idea of a more adult-oriented Star Wars story began years ago, with Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum confirming the development of a “Deadwood in space” TV series called Star Wars: Underworld back in 2012. While that iteration of a new side of Star Wars ultimately stalled out, we eventually got our Western-inspired series in The Mandalorian.
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us
When we’re first introduced to The Mandalorian/Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), he is smack dab in the middle of collecting a bounty. From the jump it’s clear that he is a no-nonsense kind of person that is not only resourceful but cool, calm, and collected as well. So it wasn’t surprising when he’s offered an assignment that becomes something bigger than it ever was meant to: collecting a target bounty and bringing it back alive. But when the target turned out to be Grogu (or “Baby Yoda”), The Mandalorian suddenly became a game-changing part of the Star Wars franchise.
Much like the classic cowboy shows that inspired it, The Mandalorian took viewers on a whirlwind adventure with weekly journeys that were wrapped up with the end of each episode. Mando is a take on the iconic lone gunslinger who has begrudgingly accepted an innocent and seemingly helpless sidekick while making his way through dangerous situations and meeting unique characters such as Kuiil (Nick Nolte), Migs Mayfeld (Bill Burr), and IG-11 (Taika Waititi). All of this happens while building up to an eventual confrontation with Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), the show’s primary antagonist. By itself, Season 1 of The Mandalorian was as close as we’ve gotten to a perfectly self-contained story in the Star Wars universe. We saw an impressive amount of world-building in a short amount of time, and everything happened without too much reliance on pre-established Star Wars characters or lore.
With an impressive 93% critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was obvious that The Mandalorian was not only the flagship series for Disney+ but a universal success based on nearly every metric. Baby Yoda quickly became a pop culture icon, and you couldn’t escape the adorable memes and hilarious .gifs centered around Grogu. On top of that, the show cemented Pedro Pascal as an A-list actor who has the star power to carry a series; six years later, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to find a major movie or show that isn’t starring Pascal. That’s all to say: Season 1 of The Mandalorian certainly earned the chance to continue its story and lock itself in as a Star Wars staple.
You Can’t Stop There, Right?
Season 2 of The Mandalorian proved that the show’s first season wasn’t a fluke and it even maintained the same level of critical acclaim and adoration from fans. However, the charm and mystique surrounding Mando and Grogu started to slightly wear off the longer that we followed their stories.
In Season 1, we were along for an unpredictable ride as we learned bits and pieces from each character and delighted in their ‘lone wolf and his cub’ dynamic – but we were still in the dark about the specifics. After Season 3, there isn’t a lot that we haven’t learned about either character and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there is some truth in having too much of a good thing. Season 1 of The Mandalorian told us enough of a complete story that we could reasonably fill in the blanks about where their journey would take them in the future. However, after that, the curtain was pulled back to the point that the magical experience wasn’t ruined, just diminished. Now we’re hoping the larger scope of a movie event can reconjure it.
You can stream The Mandalorian on Disney+.
Read More
- Invincible Season 4: What We Know About Release Date and Plot Speculation!
- MNT PREDICTION. MNT cryptocurrency
- KAS PREDICTION. KAS cryptocurrency
- EUR JPY PREDICTION
- XDC PREDICTION. XDC cryptocurrency
- ATOM PREDICTION. ATOM cryptocurrency
- FIL PREDICTION. FIL cryptocurrency
- ICP PREDICTION. ICP cryptocurrency
- Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (And When You Can Watch It)
- USD RUB PREDICTION
2025-03-18 22:29