Star Wars The Mandalorian’s Hollywood Premiere focuses on the fans

Wednesday night in Los Angeles, stars Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Gina Carano, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Ming-Na Wen, and Julia Jones joined filmmakers Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Kathleen Kennedy for a walk down the red carpet where they greeted excited fans at the premiere screening and fan event for Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian. Disney CEO Bob Iger and series composer Ludwig Göransson was also on hand. 

After the red carpet moments the cast and directors had a Q&A session hosted by Entertainment Tonight’s Ash Crossen. We are able to share a few highlights of those with you here. 

The entire Q&A is available on the official Star Wars channel.

Fans in three remote locations were also treated to special screenings of the first three chapters (instead of episodes, since that could be confused with the Skywalker Saga movies, of which there are nine episodes). The Disney Blog was invited to attend the one in Orlando. 

The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm’s first-ever, live-action series, premiered November 12 on Disney+. New episodes will stream every Friday exclusively on Disney+, beginning with Chapter 2 today. 

While Disney and Lucasfilm asked us to refrain from sharing spoilers in our reviews, I can tell you how impressed I was with Chapter 2 – The Child. As you sometimes get in epic adventure series, there’s an episode where the Hero has to prove their metal against overwhelming odds. That was “The Child” for “The Mandalorian.” Speaking of the child, we learn something major about the little Yoda-like creature discovered at the end of Chapter 1 in this episode, I mean more than its supreme cuteness.

There’s a ton of great action in Chapter 2 and our hero does indeed learn some difficult, but important lessons. Meanwhile the little green child is amazingly cute. That’s actually a motion capture performance mixed with some puppetry. 

At first I was worried that the presence of The Child is classic fan service, and it may be true, but it’s the best kind of fan service. As the show goes on, I expect we’ll learn a lot more about The Child’s role in the Star Wars Galaxy. 

I can’t even tell you the best parts of Chapter 2 because they’re massive spoilers. But the audience laughed very loudly in multiple moments throughout and shouted in a mix of relief and satisfaction at another big moment. Let’s just say we hope that egg tasted good. 

Red Carpet and Q&A Photos

Below are more photos from the big Hollywood Premiere of Star Wars The Mandalorian:

Moderator Ash Crossan, Executive Producer Jon Favreau, Composer Ludwig Göransson, Executive Producer/Director Dave Filoni, Director Deborah Chow, Pedro Pascal, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Director Bryce Dallas Howard, Gina Carano and Werner Herzog speak onstage at the premiere of Lucasfilm’s first-ever, live-action series, “The Mandalorian,” at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on November 13, 2019. “The Mandalorian” streams exclusively on Disney+.  (at top)

(Photos by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney except where credited in caption)