“What could happen in the 30 years between celebrating the defeat of the Empire and then the First Order?” Favreau, The Mandalorian creator, told Entertainment Weekly. “You come in on Episode VII, [and the First Order are] not just starting out. They’re pretty far along.”
“Pretty well equipped,” Filoni said.
Filoni’s previous experience, with animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars Resistance points to several ways The Mandalorian might flesh out the rise of the First Order. In The Clone Wars, bounty hunters like Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Embo and Bossk mixed with the Hutt crime family, robbed the Jedi temple and made assassination attempts on political leaders. Star Wars Rebels hewed closer to the fringes of Galactic society, as the crew of the Ghost runs guns and steals Imperial equipment across the Outer Rims Territories, where The Mandalorian is also set.
In The Mandalorian, the titular character, played by Pedro Pascal, joins forces with mercenaries like Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and fellow bounty hunters, including Greef Carga (Carl Weathers). The remnants of the broken Empire will be embodied in Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), a fallen Imperial governor whose double-edged obsession with order brings both benefits and violence.
“What’s most exciting to me is that I am very confident we did some things — and fans will see things — that have never been seen before,” Filoni said to EW.
Out-of-work stormtroopers will also make an appearance in The Mandalorian, illuminating a militant and dissatisfied faction of adrift soldiers, perhaps ready made for a rising First Order.
“This doesn’t turn into a good guy universe because you blew up two Death Stars,” Filoni said. “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 marshals, but sometimes good luck finding one.”
