MANDO STRIKES BACK

The fearless bounty hunter and ‘Baby Yoda’ return for more intergalactic adventures

- RICHARD MCCLURE.

There was plenty of pressure on writer and producer Jon Favreau while he was filming the first season of The Mandalorian last year.

Not only was he in charge of making the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV series, but he was pinning his hopes on the main character who only briefly revealed his face and a small green puppet that didn’t speak.

‘We had a guy in a mask, and we had a puppet,’ says Favreau, 54. ‘At its core, we knew it was a gamble.’

It was a gamble that paid off enormously. The Mandalorian was greeted with rave reviews, drew a huge audience to streaming service Disney+, and earned 15 Emmy nominations – a unique achievement for a sci-fi series.

The show also made a cult figure of green-skinned alien the Child, an infant belonging to the same species as Star Wars character Yoda – and who was quickly dubbed ‘Baby Yoda’ by fans (see panel, below right).

RESCUER

The first season followed bounty hunter Din Djarin, AKA Mando (Pedro Pascal), an orphan raised by Mandalorian warriors, as he carried out an assignment for a sinister customer – known only as the Client (Werner Herzog) – to bring him the Child in return for a large sum of money.

Mando successfully carried out his mission, but after becoming attached to the adorable, big-eared creature, he bravely returned to rescue the child from the clutches of the Client and his Stormtrooper bodyguards.