During the Clone Wars period and leading into the Imperial period, Mandalore was a race, but one beaten down by the Siege of Mandalore (something we’ll get to see for the first time on the small screen this spring with a new batch of Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes on Disney+) which included something called “The Night of a Thousand Tears,” which sounds like the beginning of the end of the Mandalorian race. This is a good example of Star Wars official canon reclaiming something from the uncanonized Expanded Universe (“Legends”). The Mandalorians, once a race of people from a planet called Mandalore, are now, definitively, a “creed,” or a way of life. In the time period of The Mandalorian, set more than 20 years before Rey gets off Jakku in The Force Awakens, the Empire slowly crumbled (or retreated to the Unknown Regions) leaving behind destruction in its wake. If we’re worried about Rey’s parentage and what’s going to happen to Princess Leia, we get to spend less time with the other people in the galaxy, the ones who lived through their second galactic conflict once The First Order showed up. The thing The Mandalorian has in spades that Rise of Skywalker sacrifices to tell a greater story of the Sith and Jedi in the galaxy is the actual "war" part of Star Wars.
How did they make Kuiil look like an Ugnaught Nick Nolte? Who puppeteered The Child? Spotlight these badass stunt performers playing Mandalorians and Stormtroopers, throwing themselves over desert landscapes and executing choreography with buckets over their heads! The Mandalorian has been great action television, and you’d think the PR gods would let the stunt folks off the leash.
Here’s hoping that between seasons one and two of this show, Lucasfilm and Disney can lighten up on the spoiler policing and allow some basic questions to be answered about the talented people who made this show. On stunts we have Solomon Brende, Richard Cetrone, Mark Chadwick, Jimmy Chhiu, Whitney Coleman, Paul Darnell, Mike Estes, Ross Kohnstam, Trevor Logan, Donald Mills, Katherine O’Donovan, Joe Perez, Jerry Quill, Nick Stanner, Amy Sturdvant, Albert Valladares, and Stephen Jackson (as the Mando stand-in). Let’s assume it’s just "voiced," since the Mandalorian himself is often played by a stunt double, then voiced by Pedro Pascal, and the many masked individuals of The Mandalorian season one gives ample opportunity for physical performers to be forgotten. "Chapter 8: Redemption" continues to pay off many of the previous episodes’ adventures, but starts with a comedic scene between two Scout Troopers voiced by Adam Pally ( Happy Endings, The Mindy Project) and Jason Sudeikis ( Saturday Night Live, Olivia Wilde’s husband). It was frustrating for the two weeks where we got one-off Star Wars tales of the Mandalorian doing crime and not protecting The Child (Baby Yoda), but the season finale managed to successfully point the way forward and answer the questions the first season left hanging.
RISE OF THE MANDALORIANS MOVIE
Where the new movie feels like a serial for the majority of its runtime, hopping between fetch-quest and MacGuffin exposition, The Mandalorian took its time. Somewhat surprisingly, The Mandalorian beats Rise of Skywalker as a Star Wars treat. So far, The Rise of Skywalker hasn’t fallen by a large percentage in box office from week one to week two, so while the story of Rise’s legs is still being written, The Mandalorian gets to end its eight-episode season on its own terms. In case you missed the hub-bub last week, the final episode of the Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker, hit theaters to mixed reviews and an overall rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. The first season of The Mandalorian on Disney+ wrapped up just in time for 2019 to come to a close with a boatload of Star Wars discourse.
This story contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 1.