The first trailer for The Mandalorian has arrived and it teases a gritty, dark, albeit sun-drenched, world not seen in the Star Wars universe since 2016's Rogue One. Longtime Star Wars watchers have no doubt learned to temper any optimism stemming from promising trailers with caution. After all, if The Mandalorian series turns out to be totally unrecognizable -- especially in tone -- to the 96-second teaser, it won't be the first time that fans have felt sandbagged.
Both The Phantom Menace and The Last Jedi were preceded by trailers that featured a much more sincere and mature sensibility than that of the actual movies. Even The Force Awakens' first trailer displayed a sinister and ominous atmosphere that wasn't exactly matched by the film itself. And while Rogue One thankfully remained true to the tone of its trailer, the clip featured scenes that never appeared in the actual movie.
This debut trailer for The Mandalorian also poses a potential problem for the movie industry as a whole. Namely, if the teaser is an accurate representation of the show's production values, will viewers lose interest in the theater experience? The trailer looks like its advertising a movie, as opposed to a television show. The 8-episode series' reported $120 million production budget shows in the trailer; that's the same amount typically spent on big-budget live-action features without star-studded casts. Fortunately, Star Wars has enough drawing power that high-profile and high-priced actors are unnecessary so most of the money can be applied to the visuals. But movies typically run two hours and change while these 8 episodes would presumably run 8 hours. So did we only see footage of the first episode? And if so, do the other seven look just as good? If the answer to the latter is yes, The Mandalorian certainly looks as though it'll make up for Solo and also bodes well for future Star Wars releases.
The Mandalorian debuts on the Disney+ streaming service on the same day that the platform launches -- November 12.
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