The first The Mandalorian Season 2 images have arrived, hot on the heels of the news that the hit Disney+ series will return this October. Once again executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are calling the shots, and while the story of the first-ever live-action Star Wars series’ second season is under wraps, the end of Season 1 set up a pretty epic hunt. Giancarlo Esposito made his debut as Moff Gideon, seemingly the primary antagonist of the series who also wields a Darksaber, which is an ancient artifact in Mandalorian culture.
Esposito is nowhere to be found in these first images, however. Instead the focus is on the show’s heroes – or Baby Yoda and Friends. The Child is back, yes, and thankfully doesn’t look like he’s aged much in the time since Season 1 ended. We can see him palling around with Pedro Pascal’s titular gunslinger, who’s joined on his journey by friends he made during Season 1 including Gina Carano’s mercenary Cara Dune and Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga, leader of the bounty hunter guild who kind of steered The Mandalorian’s actions in Season 1.
But while the story is under wraps, Favreau and Filoni told EW (which debuted the images) that the scope of The Mandalorian expands in Season 2:
“The new season is about introducing a larger story in the world,” says Favreau, who notes the show will expand beyond Mando-centric tales. “The stories become less isolated, yet each episode has its own flavor, and hopefully we’re bringing a lot more scope to the show.” Adds Filoni, “Everything gets bigger, the stakes get higher, but also the personal story between the Child and the Mandalorian develops in a way I think people will enjoy.”
Favreau even says the show might follow different characters and storylines in the vein of Game of Thrones as it progresses, instead of keeping everything focused on The Mandalorian the entire time.
Indeed, there was a reason for Season 1’s simplicity. Filoni notes in the EW piece that telling a simple story made The Mandalorian palatable to non-Star Wars fans, but the show also needed to keep things grounded as Favreau and Co. could make sure the technology that made the show possible worked. In order to make a live-action Star Wars series cost-effective, they developed a technology that could render VFX backgrounds and environments in real-time, allowing the performers to film most of their scenes on a soundstage in a circular LED-wall-surrounded environment called “The Volume.” They were literally inventing this technology as they went, but now that it’s established and evolving, Favreau and Filoni can get more ambitious with the stories they’re telling.
Check out the first The Mandalorian Season 2 images below via EW. The new season premieres on Disney+ on October 30th. For more on the series, check out our interview with Esposito about his role.
