'The Mandalorian' Will Show How The First Order Rose To Power In The 'Star Wars' Galaxy

We're a little more than two months away from the release of The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars TV series, and since this is going to be a big deal for the nascent Disney+ streaming service, we expect the promotional cycle to ramp up considerably over the new several weeks.

It's already begun: the first trailer debuted at D23 not long ago, and now showrunner Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni have given a new interview in which they revealed that the series will explore how The First Order gained power in the galaxy in the wake of the fall of the Empire.

We knew The Mandalorian takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, which places it about twenty years before the events of The Force Awakens. Between those movies, the Empire falls and is replaced by The First Order, and in a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Favreau and Filoni explained that the new show will partially explain how that happened. As Filoni puts it:

"This doesn't turn into a good guy universe because you blew up two Death Stars. 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."

Favreau chimed in with a tease of his own:

"What could happen in the 30 years between celebrating the defeat of the Empire and then the First Order? 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."

Could we see an appearance from Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke in The Mandalorian? Snoke was clearly a driving force (no pun intended) behind this burgeoning organization, so it would make a lot of sense to learn more about him and his history in this show.

There's also an opportunity to introduce some surprising elements into this series that longtime Star Wars fans may not see coming: EW says The Mandalorian "plans to use elements from across the Skywalker saga films, The Clone Wars and other animated series and the Extended Universe in its storytelling." The Extended Universe aspect is fascinating to me – how much will the writers mine from that abandoned material and incorporate into the ongoing Star Wars canon? We'll start finding out when The Mandalorian debuts on Disney+ on November 12, 2019.