2019 is shaping up to be a massive year for Star Wars fans: We’re mere months away from the release of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film of the central Star Wars saga; EA has slated a brand new video game titled Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for a holiday debut; and The Mandalorian, the Jon Favreau-produced live-action Disney Plus series, is right on the horizon.
While all of these projects are shrouded in secrecy, it’s the cast of the latter project that seems to have taken most of the Internet by surprise. Sure, we have our modern action stars like Pedro Pascal and Gina Carano taking on the weight of the lead roles, but joining them are classic ‘80’s character actors like Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers and Nick Nolte. Even Taika Watiti, director of Thor: Ragnarok and everyone’s favorite Kronan warrior, is stepping into some pretty killer metallic shoes for the series.
But of all the names attached to the project, it’s probably Werner Herzog that has most people talking. The acclaimed German filmmaker is set to appear as a villain in the streaming series, but little is known beyond that.
When asked by AP Entertainment for any details on his character, Herzog revealed:
“I was invited by Jon Favreau — who started this whole series — to act. I looked at the screenplays and I had the feeling, although I know very little about Star Wars, I had the feeling yes, I could do it. It’s a character in whom you cannot trust. And I said yes, I can do that.”
Known primarily for his documentaries, Herzog has dabbled in genre movies over his 50+ years filmmaking. If you’re curious as to how the Nosferatu the Vampyre director felt about the process of shooting a blockbuster-level television series, he continued:
“Green screen, green screen everywhere, in the camera, motion control moving there. All of a sudden you have a phenomenal step forward. As an actor, you see the entire planet on which you are [standing]. You see the landscape, you see the formation. The camera could even be handheld and move in-between us, sees the same landscape, it’s not green screen and artificiality. It brings movie-making back where it should be. It’s phenomenal, [a] phenomenal achievement.”
Set in the years after the events of Return of the Jedi, The Mandalorian follows the adventures of a lone gunfighter in the Outer Rim beyond the New Republic. Influenced by the look and feel of Westerns, and featuring a wide array of talent both in front of and behind the camera, The Mandalorian seems to offer a fresh look on the Star Wars universe. We’ll find out for sure though when the series debuts November 12th on Disney Plus.