That’s no moon; it’s a heaping helping of news about Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars TV show! A new report from a trustworthy source claims that the Mandalorians will be the focus of Favreau’s $100 million series for Disney‘s untitled streaming service that launches in 2019. This report comes via Making Star Wars‘ Jason Ward, who has an excellent track record for this sort of thing, and cites anonymous sources who believe the series will focus on Mandalore after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi. It’s important to note that Ward himself describes this development as a rumor not yet confirmed by Lucasfilm, so take this with a Crait-sized grain of salt.
When we spoke to Favreau back in May at the Solo: A Star Wars Story premiere, he broke down the basics about his Star Wars series for us.
The timing of Favreau’s series aligns with Ward’s report: seven years after the Battle of Yavin places this series about three years after Return of the Jedi, and a focus on Mandalore would make a ton of sense based on other recent Star Wars news. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that The Clone Wars will get another 12 episode season in order to give the show the proper ending that it deserved but never received. Among the events covered by these final episodes is the Siege of Mandalore, one of the final battles of the Clone Wars before “The Senate” himself, Emperor Palpatine, issued Order 66, which led to the systematic murder of the Jedi.
How or if the Siege of Mandalore will play into Favreau’s Star Wars show remains to be seen, but we know from Star Wars Rebels that Mandalore is an Outer Rim world often on the brink of collapse. It is split between factions who either want to forge a lasting peace or retain the ancient Mandalorian legacy as warriors and sworn enemies of the Jedi. Fast forward to three years after the Empire fell apart, and a world like Mandalore could very well still be figuring out its way forward following the death of the Emperor.
Disney’s streaming service supposedly launches sometime in late 2019, so we won’t find out if the Mandalorian rumor is legitimate or not until at least the first of the year. Here’s hoping that we’ll at least see some Mandalorians disintegrating stuff now that Darth Vader isn’t around to forbid it.
What do you think of this rumor? What do you hope to see from Favreau’s Star Wars series? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Disney/Lucasfilm