‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Trailer Breakdown
The first trailer for season two of The Mandalorian dropped this morning. Now that everyone has sufficiently recovered, it’s time to take a deep dive into every shot. This is the way.
The new trailer opens with a gorgeous shot of the Razor Crest drifting in some kind of distress over a gas giant planet, toward a smaller, bluer one. The payload bay doors are open in this shot.
Next, we see the Mandalorian and The Child enter an industrialized city at night. The Armorer, in voice-over, says “Show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction.”
The Armorer continues, saying “You must reunite it with its own kind.”
The next shot cuts to a Tusken Raider on a Bantha (!) on what is likely Tatooine. The Razor Crest is flying in the background. The Mandalorian asks, “Where?” The Armorer answers, saying “This you must determine.”
Establishing that this season will take place in many different locales, the next one we see is that of an ice planet. Early speculation is that it could be Hoth or Ilum, but it’s a big galaxy.
We get several shots on this snow planet in this sequence, including with The Child.
The Armorer continues, saying “The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called Jedi.” What could be a damaged Razor Crest is in the background.
The Mandalorian encounters what looks like a small fishing village on this planet.
There he sees a mysterious woman in red, who eagle-eyed fans have identified as professional WWE wrestler Sasha Banks. It’s unclear who she is playing, but Banks did confirm via her official Instagram account that it is indeed her.
The Mandalorian says “You expect me to search the galaxy and deliver this creature to a race of enemy sorcerers?” which is maybe the best description of the Jedi ever.
The Armorer keeps it real in her reply: “This is the way.”
The Mandalorian and The Child take a rare sight in Star Wars – a boat – into cold waters.
It appears some of the crew might be Quarren.
In perhaps the most thrilling sequence of the trailer, we see a pair of New Republic X-wings – maybe – flanking either side of the Razor Crest.
They give chase down into the cloud layer of a planet – is this how the ship is damaged in the opening shot?
The trailer curs back to a desert planet, where we see the Mandalorian on a speeder.
We check in with some old friends – Cara Dune and Greef Karga. They appear to be in the same town they were in at the end of last season on the planet Nevarro.
We get a big reminder of why it’s so important that Din Djarin (Mando) find where The Child belongs – the remnant forces of the Empire are still on his tail. We see TIE fighters taking off from the desert planet. The models are the same as the one Moff Gideon arrived in during season 1.
Stormtroopers (clean this time!) running through the corridor of what may be a Star Destroyer…
And Scout troopers on speeder bikes on what seems to be the ice planet.
We next see a shot of Din emerging from water in some kind of drain, with a grate above him. If it is Din Djarin in this shot, it looks like he is wearing something other than his traditional armor, or at least something that appears furry over it.
A mysterious voice says “You know this is no place for a child” as the Mandalorian launches into battle with his jet pack.
Back in the industrial city, Mando shoots at a poor guy hanging upside down from a lamp post. Hard to tell if he’s trying to free him or just having some fun.
More shots of Mando on the ice planet. It seems he and The Child are stranded here.
Next, we get a dramatic shot of the Razor Crest going through a fiery, violent re-entry into a planet’s atmosphere. This is never really anything we see in Star Wars, so it indicates some kind of trouble and likely follows the opening shot of the trailer.
The Mandalorian says, “Wherever I go, he goes.”
The trailer cuts to a sequence in a boxing-like ring, where two alien fighters square off. One of them appears to be the Gamorrean creature teased in maquette form by Jon Favreau during filming.
Mando meets with a strange one-eyed alien at the fight which the trailer subtitles list as Gore Keresh. It doesn’t go well.
“So I’ve heard,” Gore Keresh says to Mando.
In the standout sequence of the entire trailer, the Mandalorian breaks out his ultimate equalizer – the ‘whistling birds.’ The Child knows how this goes down and hides inside his pram.
A great bit of sound design plays out over black as Mando does what he does best. We then cut back to him finishing off the last of the Keresh’s goons, who appears to be a Zabrak, with a dart.
“This is the way,” he says.
All in all, it’s a fantastic first look at the next season of The Mandalorian. His journey would seem to lead toward the nascent Jedi Order that Luke Skywalker would be creating in this time period. But as rumors have suggested, there is another Jedi – former Jedi – that he may encounter.
DARBY HARN is a novelist, freelance writer and podcaster. His novels include Ever The Hero, The Judgement of Valene, Nothing Ever Ends and A Country Of Eternal Light. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer and other venues.
