The Mandalorian

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About

The Mandalorian is an American space-opera television series set in the Star Wars universe. Premiering in November 2019 on Disney+, the show takes place five years after the film Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi and follows a lone gunfighter, who is a member of the in-universe Mandalorian race. It is the first live-action Star Wars television series.

History

On November 9th, 2017, The Hollywood Reporter^[1] reported that a Star Wars television series for Disney's then-unnamed streaming service was in development by Disney and Lucasfilm. Several months later, Disney^[2] announced that Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau would be writing and producing the series. In a statement, the director said, "If you told me at 11 years old that I would be getting to tell stories in the Star Wars universe, I wouldn’t have believed you. I can’t wait to embark upon this exciting adventure." On August 5th, 2018, the New York Times^[3] reported that Disney would be spending more than $100 million on the series, allotting about $10 million per episode.

On October 3rd, 2019, Jon Favreau posted an image of the show's opening crawl on Instagram. The post received more than 67,000 likes (shown below, left). The following day, the director posted an image of the main character that appeared similar to Boba Fett. The post received more than 108,000 likes in less than one year (shown below, right).

On July 12th, 2019, Favreau told Collider^[4] that he had already begun work on season two of the series. He said:

I keep getting pulled deeper into the orbit of Disney, but fortunately, the stuff that Disney’s working on is the stuff that I love. I wanted to do a Star Wars TV show like The Mandalorian and pitched it to them and they were very open to it. I even wrote four episodes before I even was hired to do it because I was excited as a fan to see what these stories might be and see if they were interested in doing what I was interested in, which they were. And I was actually writing Season 2 this morning before I came here.

On September 15th, 2020, the official Star Wars YouTube^[5] channel uploaded the official season two trailer for the show, receiving over 13.8 million views, 460,000 likes and 30,000 comments in roughly two months (seen below).

On October 30th, 2020, the second season of The Mandalorian was released on Disney+ with "Chapter 9: The Marshal," which kicked off another eight-episode season through December 18th.

Reception

The first season of The Mandalorian was received with largely positive reception from both critics and users. On Rotten Tomatoes,^[6] the show averaged a 93 percent approval rating, and on Metacritic,^[7] it received a 70 out of 100. Halfway through the release of the second season, The Mandalorian averaged a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes^[8] and a 76 our of 100 on Metacritic.^[9]

Online Presence

In November 2018, after the show was announced and in production, The Mandalorian official accounts on social media were created. On Twitter,^[10] the official account accumulated over 417,000 followers in two years, and on Instagram,^[11] the account accumulated over 1 million followers in roughly the same amount of time.

There are numerous fan communities revolved around the series online, including the international fan page themandaloriannet on Facebook,^[12] which has accumulated over 238,000 likes and 246,000 followers in two years since it was created on October 6th, 2018. On Reddit, /r/TheManalorianTV^[13] is the dedicated subreddit for the show where users post memes, discussion threads, fan art and more. Created on January 7th, 2019, the subreddit accumulated over 236,000 members in just under two years.

On December 23rd, 2019, Redditor^[14] TheAbcool uploaded the most-upvoted post on the subreddit depicting the cast of the show and received over 48,700 upvotes, 787 comments and a silver Reddit award in six months (shown below).

Controversies

Gina Carano Mandalorian Anti-mask Posts

Gina Carano Mandalorian Anti-mask Posts refers to a series of tweets made by actor Gina Carano, best known for her role as Cara Dune on the Disney+ Star Wars television series The Mandalorian. In her social media posts, Carano used memes that denounce the use of face masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Carano's opinions sparked a backlash by fans of her work, calling on Disney to remove her from The Mandalorian cast.

Baby Yoda / Grogu

Baby Yoda, also known as Yiddle and later revealed to be actually named Grogu, is a character introduced on the Disney+ television series The Mandalorian. Grogu is an infant alien sharing the specicies of the Star Wars character Yoda.

I Will Initiate Self-Destruct

"I Will Initiate Self-Destruct" is a memorable quote uttered by the character IG-11 on the American Star Wars television series The Mandalorian.

I Like Those Odds

"I Like Those Odds" is a memorable quote uttered by the title character on the American science fiction television series The Mandalorian. The meme has been used to express feelings of not being phased by danger.

This Is the Way

"This Is the Way" is a catchphrase from the Disney+ Star Wars television series The Mandalorian. On The Mandalorian, the phrase is a mantra used among the Mandalorian people. The phrase inspired a series of memes among fans of the series.

I Gotta Get One of Those

"I Gotta Get One of Those" is a quote said by The Mandalorian television series main protagonist the Mandalorian upon seeing a member of the enclave using a jetpack. Online, an image macro based on the scene gained popularity as a meme, often used in reference to objects of desire.

I Would Like to See the Baby

"I Would Like to See the Baby" is a memorable quote uttered by the character The Client on the Disney+ Star Wars television series The Mandalorian. Screenshots of the character saying the line has been used to describe the desire to see something cute or, as in the case with the series, see the character Baby Yoda.

Tomboy Mandalorian

Tomboy Mandalorian refers to a fan-made large-breasted tomboy character Rahab created by artist @DeputyRustArt loosely based on a female Mandalorian character from The Mandalorian television series. As the fan art became viral, multiple Twitter artists contributed their versions of the character in mid-November 2020.

Admiral Jeff Blue-Jeans

Admiral Jeff Blue-Jeans is a nickname given to a person wearing blue jeans and a green t-shirt who unintentionally appears in the background of The Mandalorian episode. Following the viral spread of a screencap highlighting the mistake, the person in the frame became the subject of jokes and memes.