Murphy's Multiverse

Category: Features

  • ‘Hawkeye’

    ‘Hawkeye’

    Premiere: November 24, 2021

    The Marvel Studios Disney+ series looks set to adapt Matt Fraction’s award-winning comic series and see Clint Barton become a mentor to Kate Bishop, a young and similarly unpowered hero and a member of the Young Avengers. Hawkeye will also reportedly give us a further look into Barton’s time as Ronin, which could possibly play out similarly to this Connecting Imaginary Dots piece I wrote a while back. A report by the Illuminerdi has indicated that the series will see the duo take on the Clown, a European assassin who caused them a lot of problems in the comics.

    Originally scheduled for Fall of 2021, production on the series was indefinitely delayed in January of 2020. Just one month later, Disney set September 28th as a tentative start of production but with all the COVID delays it looks like that date may have been pushed into October.

    In late September 2020, it was reported that Madame Masque would make an appearance in the show, further adding to the idea that Matt Fraction’s run will have a big influence on the series’ storyline. Around the same time, we learned of a casting call that seemed to validate an earlier piece of ours, regarding the possibility of Maya Lopez, aka Echo, making her MCU debut in the series.

    Some weeks later a casting sheet surfaced that stated that production was looking for someone to play an audiologist. That seemed to indicate that, in the show, Clint might have some trouble with his earing, something that further ties the show to the Matt Fraction run.

    Hailee Steinfeld was confirmed as being the choice to portray Kate Bishop by Murphy’s Multiverse on our December 2, 2020 report. The following day six more cast members were announced, including Vera Farmiga who will be playing Kate Bishop’s mother, Eleanor. Among the other names are Tony Dalton, who will portray Jack Duquense a.k.a. Swordsman, and Alaqua Cox will play Maya Lopez/Echo, a role we first reported here. Florence Pugh will also make an appearance, reprising her Black Widow character, Yelena Belova

    According to an Instagram post featuring Alaqua Cox, the series is set for a Fall release. This was later confirmed when, on July 29, the show’s premiere date was official announced to be November 24, 2021. Alongside the announcement, an exclusive first-look was released. Subsequent promotional material confirmed the return of Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton, a role she last played in Avengers: Endgame.

    Cast

    • Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
    • Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop
    • Vera Farmiga as Eleanor Bishop
    • Tony Dalton as Jack Duquense / Swordsman
    • Fra Fee as Kazi / Clown
    • Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
    • Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez / Echo
    • Zahn McLarnon as William Lopez / Crazy Horse
    • Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin
    • Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton
    • Brian d’Arcy James as Derek Bishop
    • *Unknown actress as Madame Masque

    (* indicates RUMORED additions to the cast)

    Promotional Material

  • REVIEW: ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ is The Perfect Launch Title for PS5

    REVIEW: ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ is The Perfect Launch Title for PS5

    The following review does not contain any spoilers, so it is safe to read if you have not yet played the game.

     

    Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020) picks up sometime after the events of its predecessor, Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018). It tells the story of Miles Morales, a young kid who is trying to learn and adapt to his new powers, which he picked up during the events of the first game, under the tutelage of Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man. When Peter Parker has to leave New York, he leaves Miles in charge as “New York’s Only Spider-Man”. This promise gives leeway to the main events in the story where Miles gets caught in the middle of a fierce power struggle that threatens his home, his family, and his friends, and he must rise up and take on the mantle of what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

     

    The first big takeaway that I want to emphasize is that, storywise, this game is VASTLY DIFFERENT from its predecessor. And that’s a great thing.

    When we were first introduced to this world back in 2018, we met a much older and mature Spider-Man. His story felt so much larger than life, with iconic villains, and where the stakes could never have been higher for our favorite web-slinger. Now, the new game’s story feels so much more grounded as it focused more on the human aspect of the person behind the mask rather than the responsibilities of the hero. In the first game, you’ll notice that sometimes Peter’s web-swinging was nearly perfect. He calculates his moves precisely. In this game, Miles’s swinging has a lot more “flailing” and isn’t as graceful as Peter’s, but it’s certainly a whole lot more creative. It has an incredible uniqueness to it that emphasizes how Miles is learning to be his version of Spider-Man.

     

    “Where We Come From”.

    In Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020), Miles is still trying to learn the ropes of being Spider-Man, while trying to adjust to his new life in Harlem, with his mom and his friend, Ganke at his side. As you play the game, you’ll get to meet a lot of people, especially while roaming the streets of Harlem. Something I absolutely loved in this game was the sense of inclusivity that this game developed around the community of Harlem. As a Puerto Rican, I felt such a deeper connection to this game in particular because it made me feel proud of my heritage and displayed that sense of warmth and community that we are known for. With the blending of cultures and inclusivity of characters with different backgrounds and ethnicities (and even disabilities), the game takes its time to flesh the world around Miles. And as you play the game, you will start to become emotionally invested with these people, and sometimes, with that emotional investment, you can feel the weight of Miles on his shoulders as he has to take up this new mantle.

     

     

    THE PHOTO MODE!

    The photo mode in this game is absolutely fantastic. It’s so fantastic, that every single image that’s in this article is an image I took while in Photo Mode for the game. (DON’T WORRY. I TRIED VERY HARD TO PICK IMAGES THAT DON’T INCLUDE SPOILERS). I mainly used the Classic and Into the Spider-Verse suit, but there are a lot of incredible suits to choose from as well. There are a lot more creative options that people can use in this game to enhance their images; adding light options, changing suits within the photo mode, and a lot more filters and frames. And if you are fortunate enough to play this game in “Performance Mode” on the PS5, well, the images speak for themselves:

     

    I also created this video to showcase the incredible detail and quality that this game has, which you can observe below:

    https://twitter.com/SuperheroTheor1/status/1327287155585146881?s=20

    Later on, I’ll be making a Photo Mode article, displaying its qualities and showing off some more pictures so stay tuned!

    THE VILLAINS

    While there are certainly a lot fewer antagonists in this game compared to the first one, they certainly do not disappoint. The Tinkerer was the perfect first antagonist for Miles. I cannot get into much detail about ALL of the villains without delving into spoiler territory, but they were certainly one of my favorite parts of this game and did something very few villains do, which is to morally doubt the gamer into believing what’s right and what’s wrong.

     

    CONCLUSION: The Perfect Launch Title for PS5 & THE PERFECT GROUNDED SPIDER-MAN STORY (10/10)

     

    Needless to say, this game and its story truly understood the essence of what it means to be Spider-Man, the meaning behind “With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility”, and truly captured the essence of community and the importance of family. All nicely wrapped with the theme of Christmas on top. The inclusivity that this game presented and the way this game emotionally invests the gamer into the story and its characters is top tier and something that supersedes that of the original game. And while the original game might have made the player feel larger than life with the iconic character, this game lets the player breathe and plays an incredible grounded story within a world with an incredible amount of lore, with more room to expand and grow.

  • What to Watch While You Wait for WandaVision

    What to Watch While You Wait for WandaVision

    It’s finally official: WandaVision will make its Disney+ debut on January 15, 2021. Even though Disney recently announced it would come out a bit earlier, this slight delay will ensure things are 100% ready to go on time. As someone who pays close attention to the buzz around MCU projects, a sentiment I’ve noticed from the general public and even hardcore Marvel fans towards WandaVision is one of intrigue, but confusion. This isn’t just the first Disney+ MCU series, it’s also the first to explore the world of classic TV shows, and from the trailers and clips alone, the plot isn’t really clear (heck, if you throw in the tidbits we’ve gotten from the Marvel crew and scoopers, it’s still pretty murky).

    Superpowers and sitcoms aren’t elements that sound like they would mesh well on paper, but while we may not have seen a genre bend quite like this before – especially within a major franchise – there are a few shows and movies out there that may be able to give us a taste of what can happen when the two mix together. So while you’re waiting for WandaVision to begin, check out these other projects with similar genre crossover!

    1. Pleasantville

    This Gary Ross-directed film from 1998 doesn’t feature any superheroes but does star future web-slinger Tobey Maguire along with Reese Witherspoon. The two play a pair of teenage siblings who become trapped in the (fictional) 1950’s sitcom Pleasantville thanks to an oddball TV repairman played by the late Don Knotts. The movie is all about how the influences our two leads bring into the idyllic world of Pleasantville cause things to change from black-and-white to colored…both figuratively and literally, as the sitcom’s characters slowly change in this manner as they are exposed to more complex and even “scandalous” concepts.

    As seen in WandaVision‘s trailer, the show will also start off as a black-and-white show which later changes to color. While we don’t yet know what exactly will cause the switch, it’s possible the concept could be based within a similar symbolism of things getting more colorful as the times change and become more complicated. And as we here on Murphy’s Multiverse have discussed aplenty, WandaVision’s sitcom world is more than likely created by Wanda herself as a way of escaping the trauma and grief of her true reality.

    The idea of outsiders entering into this sitcom world also looks as though it will be explored in WandaVision, as we briefly see Monica Rambeau be seemingly shot out of it and (back) into the real world in the trailer. And there may very well be even more similarities between the film and Disney+ series, so Pleasantville is definitely worth a watch before WandaVision begins.

    2. The Twilight Zone: “A World of His Own”

    The Season 1 finale of the original run of the classic anthology series The Twilight Zone premiered in 1960 and is about a man who can make anyone materialize at his will by describing them into a mysterious dictation machine (and disappear by cutting that section of the tape out and burning it in the fireplace). It takes place in what was supposed to be a typical American middle-class household at the time and plays around with domestic life-based dynamics. The screenplay was penned by Richard Matheson, who also wrote many other science fiction and horror-based stories including the novel I Am Legend and the book and screenplay for the film adaptation of The Shrinking Man.

    The Twilight Zone is not a sitcom, nor is this episode set up like one, but the idea of the power to create and destroy people out of thin air is something explored in some of the Marvel comic runs WandaVision is taking inspiration from and will probably come up in the series itself. It will likely be the explanation as to how Vision, who died (twice) in Avengers: Infinity War, is somehow alive in this series, and in the comics is how he and Wanda’s twins (seen briefly in the trailer) come to be.

    How might they react if (when?) they discover they’re simply the creations of Wanda’s mind? “A World of His Own” may give us an idea as to how things could play out if this is the case in WandaVision, or at the very least may provide insight into how this power may affect Wanda herself.

    3. Too Many Cooks

    This short film first aired during Cartoon Network’s late night block “Adult Swim” back in 2014 and quickly gained a cult following online. It starts out like the intro for a typical 1990’s-era sitcom, but soon begins to take some strange and dark turns. To say any more would either give everything away or make the project sound even more confusing, but you can watch the full 11-minute video for yourself below. (Thanks, Adult Swim YouTube channel!)

    While Too Many Cooks mixes the sitcom with pretty much every other genre except superheroes, the trajectory of things starting out quaint and charming and growing more and more bizarre and unsettling as it goes on looks much like how WandaVision is expected to play out. There are lots of strange little happenings and easter egg-esque things in the background of Too Many Cooks, much like WandaVision looks like it will have with MCU stories of the past as well as old sitcoms.

    Of course, WandaVision will have much more time to dive into the concept of “sitcom gone wrong” but Too Many Cooks, perhaps more than any other piece of media out there, will probably provide a good taste of the tone the series will take. And if so, we’re in for quite the ride this winter.

    In addition to watching the projects listed above, check out our list of comic elements that will likely play out somehow in WandaVision for some pre-show reading recommendations!

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Latest Episode May Have Set Up The Third Season’s Arc

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Latest Episode May Have Set Up The Third Season’s Arc

    The Mandalorian just expanded their world once more, with the latest episode introducing some familiar faces. You can read more on it by checking out  João Pinto‘s latest entry by clicking here. He already covered most of the episode, so I want to take a look at what it may say about the future. Not too long ago, we got the reveal that Disney+ show’s third season was already entering production. What stood out, it was going to have the working title “Buccaneer” during production. The moment we read this news, we probably all had the same thought as Skyler Shuler did when he shared the news.

    As last time, keep in mind there are some mild spoilers in this article, so only continue at your own risk.

     

    Western films were the inspiration for the show’s initial direction. It wouldn’t be too surprising for them to diversify the genre as the show continues to grow. This way, it won’t become stale and can be reinvented to bring in a new audience. The latest episode teased the potential direction as we met Bo-Katan and her small team of Mandalorians. We get more insight into how Din’s creed is different from those that lived on Mandalore. It gave us some insight into how Mandalorian traditions have changed over the years especially after many wondered last season why Din couldn’t take off his helmet. It offered a lot more lore to finally connect The Mandalorian, The Clone Wars, and Rebels.

    What makes this episode stands out is how it already played around with new concepts. We spend some time in this episode at sea, where Din gets betrayed by his new captain. Just like previous episodes, this creates a visual connection to the main meat of the story after he is rescued by the previously-mentioned fellow Mandalorians, who he has been looking for throughout the season. The episode then takes that context to build the connection to the main focus of the Mandalorians hijacking a ship. If you combine this with the Mandalore history that got teased early on, it creates a potential set-up for where the series heads in its third season.

    I believe the third season will continue the arc set-up in this episode. Bo-Katan is aiming to retrieve the Darksaber so she can return to her home planet as their leader. She seems to be aware of Moff Gideon, so she might ask for his support in this mission. It would expand the cast to include a new ragtag team of Mandalorians that help Din and the Child on their quest. He becomes conflicted with the teachings of his creed while also fulfilling his mission. We might get our first live-action visit of Mandalore after they set out on their travels taking down one Empire ship after another. His own story will parallel with that of the Child, who is also on the search for his home.

    Source: DisInsider

  • ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ CHAPTER 11: Welcome to the STAR WARS Cinematic Universe

    ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ CHAPTER 11: Welcome to the STAR WARS Cinematic Universe

    There are times when expectations can make certain moments pale in comparison with what was initially envisioned. Even though The Mandalorian‘s storyline was leading to this (with trailer footage helping connect the dots) CHapter 11 managed to surpass what we expected of not only the moment in question but also improve the idea behind the show itself.

    Even though we’ve already had several connections to other Star Wars events and characters through the previous ten episodes, this chapter felt like a pivotal point for the franchise. It was reminiscent of the post-credit scene of the first Iron Man when Nick Fury shows up at Tony’s Malibu mansion to say: “Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe; you just don’t know it yet.”. From that moment on, everyone knew things would change, not only for the Iron Man movies but for the idea of what we now know as the MCU could grow into one day. And that’s what Chapter 11 might mean for the Star Wars live-action universe going forward.

    We already had a fairly prominent character introduced in The Clone Wars (and later appearing on Rebels) show up in a live-action project in Saw Gerrera. He even cameoed in the game Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order. But the level of connectivity this episode brings to overarching storylines from other media that haven’t yet been completely disclosed, the weight of the characters now introduced in the overall Star Wars lore, the way it shifts the focus from the movies and the boundaries they set on themselves to what we could now be getting through Disney+ is a whole new ballgame

    What’s also of notice is the way the minds behind The Mandalorian managed to make it all seem so effortless, in a way, validating the choices made and the possibilities ahead. The idea of introducing characters with a massive backstory to new audiences might seem daunting to say the least, but they understood that there was no need for an exposition dump, where the audience had to endure a 5-minute crash course in 10 years of Star Wars content. Everything flowed naturally, with the interactions not being more than they had to be, making this one of the series’ best episodes yet in terms of pacing. Another hurdle surpassed was the consistency in taking cartoon characters and bringing them to live-action. There was no need to make things more grounded or more flashy. Trusting the source material was enough for everything to work, and the respect shown for it was palpable. If the series and, its future spin-offs, manage to keep the introduction of characters coming in from other corners of the universe so efficient, really adding to the story and then leaving the show equipped to lead their own show, the future is bright.

    By hitting it out of the park in more ways than one, Chapter 11 has shown the way for what Season 2 could end up becoming, with the certainty that what got achieved in this episode can and will be a focal point of what Star Wars can aspire to accomplish in the coming years. Long live (this) Star Wars.

  • Star Wars’ ‘THE MANDALORIAN’: Who is Bo-Katan?

    Star Wars’ ‘THE MANDALORIAN’: Who is Bo-Katan?

    Ahead of The Mandalorian’s season 2, we give quick introductions to characters that have yet to debut on a live-action Star Wars project, but that most likely will show up on the Disney+ hit series in the coming weeks.

    During the Clone Wars, Mandalore, the homeworld of the Mandalorians, was ruled by Duchess Sarine Kryze, Bo-Katan’s sister. Not happy with her sister’s pacifist beliefs, she decides to join Pre Vizsla, the governor of Mandalore’s moon Concordia, and his Death Watch, that sought control of their planet to restore Mandalore’s warrior heritage. By doing so, and since Pre Vizsla had also made a pact with Darth Maul, she ended up helping to set in motion the events that lead to her sister’s demise.

    After Vizsla managed to successfully assume control of Mandalore, he turned on Maul, which leads to a death duel between the two. With Maul emerging victorious, killing Vizla, he would now be wielding the Madalore symbol of power: The Darksaber. Refusing to accept an outsider ruling over Mandalore, she escaped, but her sister, a close friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, was murdered by Maul as he tried to lure his nemesis to deal with him once and for all. Bo-Katan manages to help Kenobi escape and then turned to both him and Ahsoka Tano for help in defeating Maul, their common enemy, and the Mandalorians that were still loyal to him. They eventually get behind her and support Bo-Katan’s Mandalorian forces as they regain control of Mandalore’s capital city, Sundari. The Republic took control over Mandalore to ensure a peaceful transition of power, but with the rise of Emperor Palpatine and by refusing to follow the Galactic Empire, Bo-Katan lost her position as Regent of Mandalore.

    A couple of decades later, while wielding the Darksaber once again, alongside rebel and fellow Mandalorian Sabine Wren she was able to destroy an Arc Pulse Generator, an Imperial weapon that managed to incinerate whoever was wearing an armor made out of beskar. She regained the trust of several of Mandalore’s clans, uniting them under a single banner. After the Great Purge, that saw the Empire coming into conflict with the Mandalorians, stripping them of their beskar, Moff Gideon managed to take possession of the Darksaber, and Bo-Katan’s fate remains unclear.

     

    For more details regarding The Mandalorian season two aswell as other Star Wars projects, check out the dedicated feature focused on the future of the Star Wars Universe.

  • ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 11 Primer

    ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 11 Primer

    We can all agree that Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian, “The Passenger”, left us with something to look forward to. The episode left some unfinished business between Din Djarin and his new friend, the lovely frog lady. According to our frog lady, the eggs that she has are the last of her line and she needs them to hatch, so she made the Mandalorian promise to deliver her eggs so they can hatch safely. As we know, the Mandalorian doesn’t make promises he won’t keep, so we can probably think that he will deliver the eggs to where they have to go: the estuary moon of Trask.

    The trailer that was released on September 15th definitely left some hints to the next episode including the one above which is probably one of the first shots of Chapter 11: the Razor Crest limping towards what appears to be a water planet (we know they are headed to an estuary moon, so yeah, a water planet). If we watch closely in the trailer, at exactly 45 seconds there is a frog man standing next to our frog lady. Who could this be you ask? It’s almost a sure to be frog lady’s husband! This means that the eggs have a good chance of being fertilized and hatching (unless Baby Yoda eats more of them!). Also the trailer shows a mysterious lady standing near the docks before vanishing. This character, played by Sasha Banks, and at this point, there seem to be two leading candidates for who she’s playing: Sabine Wren (who was first introduced in the show Star Wars Rebels) or Bo-Katan (who first appeared in Clone Wars Season 4). We have no evidence backing up which one she is playing but both Sabine Wren and Banks both have colorful hair, so maybe this is a clue. It is very much of an “out there” guess, but it still could be.

    Arlyn’s Assumptions

    Depending on how things go with Banks’ character, there are quite a few possibilities as to how thing could go. If Banks’s character is the “bad guy of the week”, she might kill the frog people while attacking Mando, leaving Djarin to deliver the eggs and keep his promise to keep them safe. We’ve also seen Djarin and the Child come across many helpful strangers along the way, so it’s possible she will help the Mandalorian on his journey to find others of Baby Yoda’s kind.  Will Banks’s strange, new character turn out to be friend or foe? What it will be? We’ll find out tomorrow when Chapter 11 streams on Disney Plus!

     

     

     

     

     

  • Jordan Peele’s Untitled Project May Be a Remake of ‘The People Under The Stairs’

    Jordan Peele’s Untitled Project May Be a Remake of ‘The People Under The Stairs’

    We just ran the exclusive on Jordan Peele‘s next thriller, which will focus on a young man living on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Giving it some thought, it slowly dawned on us that there was one more project that the acclaimed director is currently working on. Empire revealed that he was going to be producing a remake of The People Under the Stairs. The original film was released in 1991 with Wes Craven as the director. It focused on a young resident named Poindexter Williams, who lived in the L.A. ghetto. He breaks into the house of his former landlord, who evicted his family from their apartment. There they discover a dark secret that will put their lives on the line.

    Now, the only real connection we have between these projects is their location. We reported that the protagonist lives on the outskirts of the city, but there were no details or even a film title. So, if he started as a producer on the remake, he may have decided to use the concept to match a project he was working on. In his Business Insider interview from 2017, he already teased having four different projects planned out. He planned to release them throughout the next decade, so there is a chance he had a concept that was similar enough to The People Under the Stairs that he took over the project. It isn’t much to go on, but it is an interesting coincidence that he would produce and direct films that take place in Los Angeles. The lack of title may be an indication that it may just be inspired by the original rather than a direct remake. Peele might add a new twist to the original to adapt it to current social issues. Whatever it may end up being, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out as this project nears production.

    Source: Empire, Deadline, Business Insider

  • STAR WARS: Who is Doctor Aphra?

    STAR WARS: Who is Doctor Aphra?

    Chelli Lona Aphra is a character that was first introduced in Darth Vader #3 back in 2015, a series that is set in the period between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. She is a rogue, morally dubious archeologist that was apprehended and recruited (against her will) by Darth Vader, as he intended to gather a few resources of his own, unbeknown to the Emperor. She was then teamed up with two droids, 0-0-0 (Triple-Zero) and BT-1 (Beetee) that can only be classified as the evil versions of both C-3PO and R2-D2. Even after swearing allegiance to the Dark Lord of the Sith, Aprha was always trying to escape his grasp, and every mission she was sent on became a chance of doing just that.

    While trying to rescue Darth Vader after the rebellion managed to crash his ship on Vrogas Vas, Chelli is captured by Princess Leia, Han, and Luke, and taken aboard the Millenium Falcon as she is taken to Sunspot Prison. The prison is then raided and Princess Leia, alongside Sana Starros, ends up needing Aphra’s help to escape. This wasn’t the last time she crossed paths with some of the heroes of the Rebellion as she, later on, ended up partnering with Luke Skywalker as they found themselves in Ktath’atn, The Screaming Citadel, home of a Queen that’s highly evocative of Bram Stoker’s take on vampires. After Darth Vader decided she was no longer of use, he killed her…or so he thought. Aphra managed to escape but above all was successful in making Vader thing she had indeed died, which prevented him from following her any further.

    Through her following endeavors, she developed a very, shall we say, complicated relationship with an Imperial Captain named Magna Tolvan. Aphra and Tolvan found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, but there was an obvious connection between the two of them from the start. Magna had trouble dealing with Chelli’s more carefree personality and her constant romantic innuendos, as she tried maintaining the usual stoicism the Empire seems to imprint its operatives with. After a long cat-and-mouse game, both finally succumbed to their feelings towards each other and kissed for the first time in the middle of battle.

    Doctor Aphra is probably the first major queer Star Wars character and the fact that she’s also of Asian heritage (is there is such a thing in the Star Wars universe), so the possibility of bringing her character to a more mainstream medium was always seen as an incredible opportunity in terms of representation. Star Wars was always about accepting that what makes us different is what makes us, as a community, stronger. The Empire has always been focused on uniformity and monotony but the good guys have always been about diversity and difference. Different races, different species, different beliefs coming together for the common goal. Getting Chelli Aphra on a live-action Star Wars project would be not only an intelligent and progressive move, it would be the right one.

  • ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 10: Filoni and Favreau Pull No Punches About Their Plodding Pace

    ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Chapter 10: Filoni and Favreau Pull No Punches About Their Plodding Pace

    Before I watched a minute of Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian, I had already read a couple of messages and seen enough Twitter comments to know presume that the episode was going to move a bit slowly. Then, less than 10 minutes into the episode, the characters themselves made it clear. To me the conversation between Peli Motto and Din Djarin about how to best transport those eggs was more than instructions on how to move those eggs; to me it was a message from the show’s creatives that this show is going to move slowly and that they believe that slow-moving pace is the best way to develop their baby. And those eggs…they’re not just eggs.

     

    The Mandalorian' Season 2 Opener: A Favorite 'Star Wars' Character Makes A Cameo – Recap – Deadline

    Traveling sub-light is a bit dicey these days…

    As our own, talented Joao Pinto wrote here, The Mandalorian goes against the grain by refusing its viewers the instant gratification that we’ve become used to. Creators Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have a story to tell in this world but they have repeatedly proven that they are in no hurry to tell it. Their deliberate and restrained pace has caused some frustrations for fans, but they don’t seem too rattled by it, as this episode seems to prove. Favreau is playing with ideas that are in the same sandbox that George Lucas built in 1976. We’ve spent a lot of time on Tatooine exploring and expanding that “rock” that Luke Skywalker himself couldn’t wait to escape and I think that’s telling. Favreau’s growth as a story teller over his career has been nothing short of remarkable and now he’s doing something that many mature story tellers have done over the years: finding value in things that others have overlooked.

    As for Filoni, we already know he’s probably the world’s biggest Star Wars fan and that pretty much nobody alive loves their job as much as he does but there’s more to the story there, too. Filoni has LIVED Star Wars not just as a fan but as one of its most prolific creators. Dating back to his work on Clone Wars, Filoni has spent thousands of hours developing and curating the universe that Lucas built and, in that time, has developed a love affair with the most minute of details. The pair of them working together on this show was never going to go any other way.

    Their partnership dates back to The Clone Wars where Favreau voiced Pre Vizsla and first wielded the Darksaber, an artifact we saw reemerge in Season 1 of The Mandalorian, and as someone who is currently watching The Clone Wars as a companion to The Mandalorian, it seems evident to me that Filoni and Favreau are still exploring themes and ideas they first tinkered with over a decade ago. If you think they’re going slow now, stop and think about that: in some cases they’re still telling a story that began in 2008 and they are in no rush to get to the last chapter.

    Moving fast is the only thing keeping me safe…

    Once the realization above sinks in, it’s much easier to sit back and enjoy The Mandalorian for what it is: the live-action Star Wars version of Kung Fu with Din Djarin out fighting for justice, protecting the underdog but, most of all, walking the Earth (ok, the galaxy) all while avoiding all those other bounty hunters out to get him. While Kung Fu was a martial arts Western, The Mandalorian is a sci-fi Western. Westerns are a lot of things: they’re nostalgic, exist on the border of civilization and wilderness and, most of all, typically move at an almost glacial pace. For this reason, their popularity has waned over the last 30-40 years despite a handful of very well-made Western films. Filoni and Favreau know this. They know that modern fans have the “I wanna go fast” mindset of Ricky Bobby, but if you paid attention to this episode, they told us all loud and clear that they’re going to continue telling this story their way and continue the homage to Akira Kurosawa that Lucas began in 1976. They believe in the long game, a game they’ve not only been setting up episode by episode but before that and they are going to continue narrating this tale in that way because just like those frog eggs, story telling like this is becoming more rare by the minute but, by taking proper care of the story, by avoiding the urge to jump into hyperspace, they believe they’ll save what’s almost a lost art of storytelling.