First Impressions: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Mando and Cub exploding out of the wreckage of the Halcyon seems unusually on the nose for Disney.
I am positive this movie didn’t exist last week. As far as I can tell the “artwork” was an AI image slapped together by an intern and crammed into the announcement on the official Star Wars website.
Normally, this big of a movie would have the groundwork carefully laid. There would be leaks to reliable shills about this new project. Then it would be formally announced to great fanfare at Star Wars Celebration, with Pedro Pascal coming out on stage to say how delighted he is to be appearing in this movie rather than not appearing at all in the TV series.
None of that happened.
Just a quick announcement that this is happening and it’s now the lead project for LucasFilm and everybody is just happy as a pig in shit to be part of it.
Why is this happening?
Bob Iger was in a panic when he approved this as near as I tell. He’s going into a shareholder meeting in April that will decide if his rule of Disney will be coming to an end or not. He needed to get the Rey movie off the radar because it has turned into yet another Kathleen Kennedy disaster.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was at best a negligent hire. She had no credentials at all to be directing an epic motion picture. Let alone a summer tentpole. Her comments last week got some people digging for kill quotes and their mining struck gold.
There is a general view in Hollywood that Favreau is Bob Iger’s go-to guy. Favreau always struck me as more of a Bravo Male than an Alpha. He’s one of the world’s natural best friends. While he has been pissed at Disney in the past he has shown a willingness to take one for the team when asked… By Bob Iger.
He hadn’t wanted to do CG Lion King but Iger talked him into it and it did an utterly ludicrous $1.66 Billion.
There has as of this writing been no new filing in the UK which means either this thing is being shot in California OR the Rey movie just got kicked out of its filming slot at Shinfield Studios.
Pedro Pascal is going to be in England pretty much all next year for his current shooting commitments. And while he doesn’t like being on the set of Mando, well we aren’t talking TV anymore. He’ll be able to show up long enough to take the helmet off.
As for how much freedom Jon Favreau will have? We’ll know for sure if Gina Carano joins the cast.
Bottomline: This entire project is a spur-of-the-moment desperation movie by Disney.
That’s in for my first impressions. I have to start power-binging Echo because those bastards at Disney dropped it on D+ all at once.
