GRAPHIC BY DENISE THUONG ALEX CASTRO
STAFF WRITER
The Mandalorian has premiered on Disney+, and fans think it is out of this world.
The hit space western show premiered exclusively on the new and rising video streaming platform Disney+. John Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilsonmany acted as the many creators, writers and showrunners. Set in the universe, the series takes place in the established Star Wars universe five years after the events of Return of the Jedi and follows a Manalorian as he travels across galaxies in high stakes adventures.
Following the collapse of The Empire at the hands of Luke Skywalker and company, the galaxy fell into disarray. Scoundrels and smugglers flooded the worlds as they raced to gain power and prestige in the wake of the Empire’s collapse. This created an unforgiving landscape into which the show opens.
Since its initial release on Nov. 12, the hit show has quickly overtaken its competitors as the most highly requested show on the platform. Within weekly episodes, The Mandalorian incorporates pre-existing material and utilizes the wildly popular Star Wars universe to propel itself to success. According to Parrot Analytics, the show has an audience demand score of about 100 million, surpassing Stranger Things for most demanded digital original as well as Saturday Night Live for overall demand.
One aspect of story telling the Lucas Films industry has never been short of is empathy and audience engagement. The Star Wars films are incredibly rich in detail and design choices that bring the diverse and invigorating worlds alive. Many examples of this can be seen in The Mandalorian as each scene contains intricately crafted props, costumes and various set pieces that attest to the director’s attention to detail.
Despite the relative shortness episodes, each installment contains innumerable amounts of references and allusions that hook the viewer’s attention. New fans can enjoy the action as well as the relatively independent story. More invested audience members are able to admire the dedication that the series displays relation to the original franchise.
To elaborate, by allowing the series to be enhanced by other material inside the canonical world, the audience can gain a wider range of information from small details. For instance, the show also pulls from references and topics from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated television show, as well as another popular show, Star Wars Rebels.
Essentially, by including multiple allusions, the producers of the show are able to appeal to a much larger audience by incorporating the beloved aspects of the Star Wars world, which allows the show to appeal to many different fan bases all while avoiding common cliches, a mistake many companies have made.
An example of this is the characterization. All of the show’s characters are “fleshed out,” somehow actualizing and expressing the depth of knowledge and ideas that they have, within an incredibly short time frame. By doing so, the show can be rid of blank or overly simplified stereotypes and cliches associated with two-dimensional emotions and feelings. Effectively, The Mandalorian provides characters with meaningful and compelling dialogue to allow the audience the perspective to gain a better comprehension of the series.
In reality, as seen throughout numerous instances in the series, even beloved and enjoyable characters who participate in bad deeds have depth and complexity to their philosophies. Aided by the overall western theme of the show, The Mandalorian pushes away from the norms of good versus evil. It embraces the complicated circumstances which surround the on-screen action, allowing them to build towards enlarging the persona of each character. In essence, there are no established “good” and “bad” sides, rather an intricate mix of perspective and morality which encourage viewers to discover their own opinions.
In addition, the series’ creators cater to the desires of their target audience, use the information to further the show and improve on the show’s plot. Intending to create a marketable platform, the producers allowed The Mandalorian to flourish and act as a figurehead for inspiring new consumers and supporters. For instance, one of the most anticipated toys this Christmas will undoubtedly be the plush toy Yoda, whose release date had been made closer due to overwhelming interest.
Furthermore, besides being commercially popular, the most impressive feat the producers had been able to achieve definitely had to be the massive amount of publicity attained within a small time frame. Within the week that the first episode came out, memes like Baby Yoda had flooded the internet, accompanied by waves of praise for the show.
In finality, The Mandalorian is a masterful work of art that successfully adds another layer of depth to the ever-expanding world of Gerorge Lucas.