Disney’s live-action Star Wars series will be called ‘The Mandalorian’

Jon Favreau, the writer, executive producer and showrunner for Disney’s live-action Star Wars series, has finally revealed details about the show, plus a title: The Mandalorian. Taking to his Instagram account, Favreau made the announcement in true Star Wars fashion: with an opening crawl.

"After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic…."

Early rumors had the story following the rise of Mandalore and its people, some three years after the death of Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, but Favreau’s official description makes it sound more like a western.

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Disney seems to have set the wheels of this story in motion back in 2015 with a book called Star Wars: Aftermath, the first in a trilogy of new canon novels by author Chuck Wendig. Each book has interlude chapters with interesting side stories that eventually connect to the overall plot of the trilogy. In Aftermath, a former slave named Cobb Vanth acquires a chest of Mandalorian armor — described as “pocked and pitted and streaked with scars” — from a group of Jawas on Tatooine. The armor sounds like it matches that worn by famed Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, last seen being digested by a Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi, wouldn’t you say?

In the following two books, Vanth, wearing the Mandalorian armor and using a carbine rifle (the same weapon made famous by Boba Fett) helps defend a settlement on Tatooine called Freetown from a crime syndicate, styling himself a self-appointed lawman. Tatooine is located in the Outer Rim, which is definitely “in the outer reaches of the galaxy.” So as you can see, there’s a strong case to be made for Favreau telling Cobb Vanth’s story in his show.

If that’s the case, it spells certain doom for Boba Fett. Sorry, folks: it looks like the most feared bounty hunter in all the galaxy was killed by a blundering Han Solo who knocked him into the belly of the Sarlacc while still blind from carbon sickness, whatever fan theories and extended universe books have had to say about it. Some guys have all the luck.

Anyway, who could be playing the title role in The Mandalorian? Rumors began swirling on Monday that former Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell) was a contender. Could Pascal be portraying Cobb Vanth? I guess we’ll have to wait until 2019, when Disney’s streaming service goes live, to find out.

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