There’s a lot to love in the gritty world of The Mandalorian. In preparation for Season 2, premiering October 30, Bounty Hunting Highlights will explore our favorite moments, both big and small, from the stunning, Emmy Award-winning, live-action Star Wars series now streaming on Disney+. Watch along, for the first time or as part of your own rewatch, and tell us about your favorite moments in the comments!
It’s impossible to discern what emotion is playing across the face of the masked Mandalorian as he traverses icy Outer Rim wastelands, collecting stacks of carbonite-encased quarries to eke out a living in a lawless galaxy. His even tone is humorless, the no-nonsense sound of a hunter who is running short on patience. But even without removing his sacred helmet, there are moments in the first chapter of The Mandalorian that suggest there’s more here than meets the T-visor.
In celebration of the much-anticipated second season of the Star Wars live-action series, available only on Disney+, we’re going back to the beginning! Here are six of our favorite moments from the premiere episode, with it’s haunting score, evocative of the hardscrabble galactic frontier at the center of the story.
1. That cantina fight.
Not since Obi-Wan Kenobi skillfully sliced off Ponda Baba’s arm to settle a dispute in the Mos Eisley cantina has a mysterious warrior made such a jaw-dropping entrance in such a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Cool, calm, and collected, the Mandalorian swaggers into the Outer Rim pub as if he doesn’t have a care in the galaxy. But when he’s pulled into the fray, his weaponized gadgetry and refined predatory instincts make him a formidable opponent who swiftly settles the score, including cleaving one hapless Quarren in half.
2. A hidden carbon freezing block.
Far from the hulking machinery utilized on Cloud City, the Mandalorian’s carbon freezing block is like a portable crypt, tucked away in the lower decks of the Razor Crest, perfect for preserving troublesome quarries on the fly. And judging from his collection of frozen bounties, business is good.
3. “I like those odds.”
The stormtroopers have him four to one, but the masked warrior isn’t intimidated by these raggedy remains of the Galactic Empire.
4. The sequence in the Armorer’s workshop.
Visual storytelling at its finest! As the Mandalorian waits patiently for his new beskar pauldron, its creation is a meditation on his future taking shape in the skilled hands of the Armorer, while echoes of the past are reflected in his helmet’s T-visor.
5. The arrival of IG-11.
Speaking of killer droids, an assassin droid with a strict sense of protocol, IG-11’s spindly frame seems almost friendly when he first appears on the horizon. But with blasters drawn, his lower half spinning to create a unique loping gait, and his self destruct mechanism always ready to be activated as soon as the odds turn against him, you wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of this droid’s blasters.
6. That ending.
The big reveal — the Child — in the last few moments completely shifts the tone of the story, an emotional end cap that leaves us anxious for the next chapter. It’s a cliffhanger in the grandest tradition of Western serials, and we definitely came back the next week for more.
New season starts streaming Oct. 30. Catch up on Season 1 now.
Associate Editor Kristin Baver is a writer, host of This Week! In Star Wars and The Star Wars Show Book Club, and all-around sci-fi nerd who always has just one more question in an inexhaustible list of curiosities. Sometimes she blurts out “It’s a trap!” even when it’s not. Do you know a fan who’s most impressive? Hop on Twitter and tell @KristinBaver all about them.
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