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Saturday, August 24, 2019

Force in Focus: The Mandalorian & Rise of Skywalker D23 Trailers

Disney held their annual "D23" convention this weekend (basically, Comic-Con for Disney), during which they unveiled trailers for both The Mandalorian, the upcoming Disney+ series set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and The Rise of Skywalker (though I'm not sure if this footage constitutes an official trailer - whatever that entails - or if it's just supposed to be a bit of D23-specific footage). Here are five things that caught my attention/got me excited from each.

Spoilers below, obviously.

First up, The Mandalorian.

Stormtrooper Warnings


The trailer opens with shots of Stormtrooper heads (and/or helmets) on spears, loaded images that gain even more meaning when considering that the original Stormtroopers were all "descendants" of a Mandalorian.

Moff Gideon


That's the name, we've learned, of the character being played by Giancarlo Esposito, and if there's anyone born to play an Imperial Moff, especially one forced into warlordism in order to maintain his grip on power due to the collapse of the institutional structures that previously enforced his power, it's Giancarlo Esposito.

Western 


Much like Solo before it, the scenes in this trailer are drenched in imagery and tropes taken from Westerns, and I love it when Star Wars embraces this particular element of its DNA.

IG-88!


Yes, I know, that's not technically IG-88 in the trailer (apparently, it's a different droid names IG-11), but still, in the wake of Triple Zero & K-2SO, it's good to see Star Wars' original murder droid (it's model, anyway) in action at last.

Bounty Hunting


The titular Mandalorian in this trailer alone is more effective and does more cool stuff with his armor than Boba Fett in all of cinematic appearances combined.

The Rise of Skywalker 


The Whole Alphabet


In terms of Classic Trilogy designs, the Sequel era has mostly showcased X-wings and little else, which is why it's great to see A-wing and B-wing profiles amongst the vehicles popping out of hyperspace.

Star Destroyer Fleet


Similarly, Star Wars has a history of trying to top itself in terms of making the bigger, better ship, but as the shot of massed Star Detroyers shows, sometimes quantity is more impressive than quality.

Lightsaber Battle 


It looks like we'll get at least one more proper lightsaber duel before the saga ends (after the Last Jedi duels which were both pretty great but did different things than than the straight-forward lightsaber-on-lightsaber combat).

You Probably Don't Recognize Me Because of the Red Eyes


After the previous trailer showcased, briefly, a more action-orientated Threepio, here we see Threepio with red eyes, suggesting a change in personality. Shades of the comics' Triple Zero!

Double Blade Redux 


Everyone's talking about the closing shot of a hooded Rey unfolding a double-bladed lightsaber, rightly so (however much this is likely a tease or Force vision and not something that will happen within the context of the film as presented), as it's pretty cool. But I also love how the closing music of the trailer is a slower, minor key version of Rey's usually-bouncing theme, aurally underlining the closing image. I hope that variation on the theme shows up somewhere in the film score.

1 comment:


  1. Agreed on the Western element as well as the cool factor(s) of seeing that IG model and Rey’s lightsaber move.

    // You Probably Don't Recognize Me Because of the Red Eyes //

    XD

    ReplyDelete

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