‘The Mandalorian’ – Season Two – ‘The Marshal’
Disney+’s The Mandalorian is back, and long time Star Wars fans will be salivating with excitement as to this new season which finds our titular character, Din Djarin, tasked to search out and return The Child (Baby Yoda) to its people and this first episode proves why The Mandalorian is the most epic piece of television out there.
Finding our titular bounty hunter, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) searching the galaxy for former Mandalorian’s in a bid to return The Child to its own kind, we see him returning to the desert planet of Tatooine and series creator and director Jon Favreau brings us up close and personal to the fabled Star Wars planet like never before. While Tatooine was a crucial part of the Star Wars mythos it’s never been explored in such depth or detail as it is in ‘The Marshal’. Not only do we learn more about its ecology and landscape, but Favreau takes us into the very heart of the planet and we spend considerable time with both the Tusken Raiders and Jawas in this episode.
Beautifully shot in a quintessential and classic 16:9 aspect ration, Favreau brings in George Lucas’ original Western film influences with the ‘The Marshal’, and fans of the classic American genre will be very pleased with what they see here. Key to this first episode of season two is Djarin’s search for fellow Mandalorian’s and this leads him to the presence of the Marshal of Mos Pelgo, Cobb Vance….who just happens to sport the scarred up armour of the legendary Boba Fett. Portraying Vance is noted actor Timothy Olyphant who from his work in Deadwood, Justified and Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood has made a career of playing solidly stoic cowboys and he again does a terrific job of portraying Tattoine lawman Cobb Vance here.
Favreau does something interesting here with ‘The Marshal’ and makes it an episode that’s very much a “men on a mission” kind of storyline as Djarin and Vance go monster hunting in a bid to destroy a terrifying creature in the form of the Krayt Dragon, a sand cruising behemoth that threatens not only Vance’s town of Mos Pelgo but also the Tusken’s Bedouin tribe as well. Twists and turns play out along the way and trust me when I say that you’ll be on the edge of your seat the whole time in this ‘Moby Dick’ space hunt. Favreau’s team again brings alive some amazing visuals and you get the feeling of an epic scale that is akin to classics such as The Searchers and Laurence of Arabia with the images that are brought to the screen.
‘The Marshal’ also expands out even more of The Mandalorian’s new galactic setting and mythos and long time Star Wars fans will love the mentions of everything from Sarlacc Pits to the presence of C3-PO graffiti and further mentions of the fall of the Death Star, and it’s significance amongst the outer rims. There’s so much to dissect within this first episode and this level of detail is sure to pull long time fans, along with new Star Wars inductees even further into the mythos. Plus there’s a very special guest appearance from a long time Star Wars fan favourite that is sure to make audiences cheer with delight.
The Mandalorian is back and more exciting than ever and as we get more into this story it is only likely to grow cooler and more engaging, and this first episode of Season Two sets us up for some very exciting things to come.
The Mandalorian streams every Friday on Disney+
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
