The Mandalorian will depict the beginnings of the First Order

The Star Wars universe has become increasingly connected since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, with everything from the movies to the animated shows to the comics and new books released since 2015’s The Force Awakens helping to tell one story: the Skywalker Saga. And that connectivity will continue when The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action Star Wars series, drops on Disney+ November 12.

The show is set five years after The Return of the Jedi but before the rise of the First Order, the tyrannical organization our heroes are dealing with in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, the one led by the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director Dave Filoni explained how The Mandalorian will fit into the larger story. “This doesn’t turn into a good guy universe because you blew up two Death Stars,” he said. “You get that the Rebels won and they’re trying to establish a Republic, but there’s no way that could have set in for everybody all at once. You have in a Western where you’re out on the frontier and there might be Washington and they might have some marshals, but sometimes good luck finding one.”

Indeed, it does look like The Mandalorian will take some cues from classic Westerns:

So where does Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian fit into all of this? He’s a mercenary type, but Pascal himself has said that he ultimately “wants to do the right thing,” so maybe he’ll bring some justice to the Outer Rim.

Back to the First Order, creator/showrunner Jon Favreau shed more light on how it could rise from the ashes of the Empire. “Also, what could happen in the 30 years between celebrating the defeat of the Empire and then the First Order?” he asked “You come in on Episode VII, [the First Order are] not just starting out. They’re pretty far along. So somehow, things weren’t necessarily managed as well as they could have been if [the galaxy] ended up in hot water again like that.”

The Mandalorian. Moff Gideon. Lucasfilm/Disney

To find answers, we might look to a character named Moff Gideon, played by Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito. Once a governor for the Empire, Gideon is left leaderless after its fall, and rules his corner of the galaxy with his own private army of Death Troopers. Might he end up being a founding father of the First Order? And if so, where is he in the sequel trilogy?

I guess we’ll just have to wait until November 12, when The Mandalorian drops on Diseny+, to find out!

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