Looks like Disney is willing to make some bold moves on its forthcoming streaming platform. The studio announced more casting news today for its Star Wars series The Mandalorian, which will be available exclusively on Disney+, and just try to image the chemistry of this ensemble: Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, and Werner Herzog are joining the already in-place lineup of Pedro Pascal, Nick Nolte, and Gina Carano. That’s Gus Fring, an MMA champion, Oberyn Martell, Apollo Creed, a Nick Nolte, and a Werner Herzog all in the same place at the same time. The directors lineup for the series is pretty eclectic, too, with Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Rick Famuyiwa all helming episodes, among others.
The Mandalorian will be the first live-action Star Wars series to date, and it’s being written and executive produced by Jon Favreau. The story falls between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the sinister First Order, and centers on a “lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy,†who will be played by Pascal. (As in he’s the gunfighter, not the galaxy.) The Mandalorians are a warrior people from the aptly named planet Mandalore, and they have a history of fighting the Jedi. This is just one of the Saga offshoots in the works at Disney, though, with CEO Bob Iger saying in February of this year, “We are developing not just one, but a few Star Wars series specifically for the Disney direct-to-consumer app.†Within that stable is a Rogue One prequel series starring Diego Luna as his rebel spy character, Cassian Andor, and the studio also has Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss working on a new Star Wars film trilogy for Disney+. No moonstone will be left unturned on any planet within the SW extended universe.