Mandalorian running thread

Apparently, now there are official names to eras in Star Wars canon? I'm still going to call the prequels the prequels, not the Fall of the Jedi era movies.

 

The fuck is The Bad Batch?

 

One of the shows in development by favreau

 

It is an upcoming animated series for Disney+. The Bad Batch is a group of clone troopers that were introduced on Clone Wars. They are all clones of Jango Fett, but each had some sort of abnormality. Think refugees of a corny animated action series from the 90s and you'll get the idea.

 

Hmmm ... I could become intrigued based on voice casting.

 

Never watched Clone Wars, tho.

 

Casting rumors passed along to me by a fellow Star Wars fanatic, both involving actors from the MCU

Robert Downey, Jr. as Grand Admiral Thrawn. We know Thrawn is coming in live-action. He was a character created by author Timothy Zahn in the Legends books, then brought into the current canon as a villain on the animated Star Wars: Rebels. Ahsoka Tano's entire mission during her appearance on The Mandalorian is her pursuit of Thrawn.

The second one is a bit more far-fetched, but I'll share anyway. It has Karen Gillan playing Mara Jade. Gillan plays Nebula in the MCU movies. In the Legends books, Mara Jade was a former assassin for Emperor Palpatine who was turned to the light side by Luke Skywalker. She became a Jedi and married him. This is tied into a theory that the Disney+ shows will essentially ignore the last three movies and bring in more characters from the Legends novels. I'm not sure I buy that one, but I'd certainly love to see it.

 

I haven’t read the Zahn books in decades, but Gillan seems like an excellent choice for Mara Jade. I don’t think of Thrawn when I see Downey, but he’s a good enough actor to pull it off, I suppose. I find it a little more suspect than the Gillan rumor, if only because of the salary he would command to be, essentially, a tangential character like Moff Gideon.

 

Karen Gillan is an inspired choice for Mara Jade. Maara Jade, too. (Inside book joke)

 

If they really are going to bring in Mara Jade, they need to recast Luke. The CGI trick was fine for a short appearance, but if they are going to expand his role in the shows, they need to move on to a new actor.

The most solid part of the Downey rumor is that it seems like a lock that Thrawn will appear on the shows, probably Ahsoka. I'm not sure we will really be seeing Mara Jade.

 

I just seriously doubt Downey is going to take a TV role as a secondary character and Disney isn’t going to pay him the kind of money necessary to make him consider it. It makes no sense.

He’s the biggest star working right now. Every second he spends on set for Ahsoka is less time spent making $80M per film (which, incidentally, is practically the entire budget for Season 1 of The Mandalorian). Hell, he made $10 million for like two scenes in Homecoming.

 

Thrawn is probably going to be the big bad for Ahsoka and beyond, but you may be right. I just hope he finds something better to do than Doolittle.