Lucasfilm appears to have crafted the new Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian, out of its canceled video game, Star Wars: 1313. Production has begun on Jon Favreau’s live action series, which is set to be one of the first shows exclusive to Disney’s own streaming service.
The Iron Man and The Jungle Book director will write and produce the series, which takes place in the thirty year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. A brief synopsis has revealed that the show will follow a lone character, who operates far outside the New Republic.
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The concept of a live-action Star Wars show is exciting for fans. This is not due to its novelty, but also due to the rumors that the show will explore the Mandalorians and their empire. The prospect of learning more about that infamous warrior race is an appealing one. However, the concept of this new serial won’t be breaking new ground altogether, since it has roots in a discarded Star Wars project.
- This Page: Star Wars 1313 and the Mandalorian Design
- Page 2: Could 1313's Story Also be Repurposed For The Mandalorian?
What Was Star Wars 1313?
Star Wars 1313 has gained something of a cult notoriety among gamers and film fans. The game was officially announced by LucasArts at E3 2012. There are scant details available concerning its plot and characters, so it has retained that rare level of mystery and intrigue.
Stylistically, 1313 was purported to hew closely to the Uncharted series as a third person adventure/shooter. It also took reference from the popular Star Wars: Bounty Hunter game, with a variety of weapons and gadgets at the player’s disposal. However, like Star Wars: Republic Commando, it was due to have a grittier, more mature tone than other Star Wars properties. Most of this is evident in 1313’s short trailer, which follows two mercenaries on a trafficking ship, who are forced to defend themselves from a gang of pirates. As their descent into the bowels of Coruscant becomes increasingly disastrous, the adult-orientated focus is clear, as is the game’s impressive level of detail.
As promising as Star Wars 1313 looked, it soon met its fate when Disney acquired LucasArts’ parent company, Lucasfilm, in late 2012. The Mouse House withdrew from the gaming industry, ceased LucasArts’ development of new games and licensed properties out to third parties. Though 1313 is still officially described as being “on hold,” it’s effectively been cancelled. The game's trademark was not renewed in 2014, and given that so much time has elapsed since then, very few expect any more progress to be made. Yet some aspects of Star Wars 1313 have seemingly survived.
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The Design is Extremely Similar
From both 1313’s trailer and The Mandalorian’s singular still, one similarity is immediately clear: the identity of the lead is a mystery. We’re still speculating over which man will wear the mask in The Mandalorian (more on that later), but 1313’s protagonist is crucial to this discussion. Indeed, at some point mid-game, players would eventually discover that the protagonist of 1313 was none other than a young Boba Fett.
Considering that neither of the two leads glimpsed in 1313’s teaser resemble Fett, the infamous bounty hunter would presumably appear at some other point in the story. Be that as it may, Fett’s presence pinpoints another parallel between the two projects: its design.
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Of course, Star Wars aficionados will know that the familiar design of Mandalorian armor is not exclusive to Boba Fett. But even a cursory glance at both 1313’s concept art betrays the striking resemblance that it shares with The Mandalorian’s lead character. The two images showcase suits that serve almost as midway points between Jango and Boba’s distinctive regalia. Though they retain that iconic Mandalorian helmet, neither of these armors are as bulky as these other popular costumes. The two of them are missing a section of their chest plates, favor the same finger-less glove design, and feature a rifle slung over the left shoulder.
Plus there’s also something notable about the settings of the two projects. The Mandalorian showcases the sort of dirty thoroughfare that appears on the prominent Star Wars planet Tatooine. The serial’s fictional locales have not been directly revealed as of yet. The synopsis states that they are “the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.” Now that we think about it, that’s a fitting description of Tatootine. Curiouser still, the footwear on 1313’s concept art seems well suited for a sandy planet. Furthermore, the game was actually rumored to visit the home world of Luke and Anakin Skywalker at some stage. So does this suggest that various plot-lines and scenarios that were conceived of for 1313 will appear in The Mandalorian as well?
Page 2: Could 1313's Story Also be Repurposed For The Mandalorian?
Could 1313's Story Also be Repurposed For The Mandalorian?
There are notable correlations that can be drawn between the premises of this discontinued Star Wars game, and Disney’s new TV show. In 1313, gamers would control the (initially) unknown human protagonist through the crime-ridden, subterranean level of Coruscant (designated 1313) during the early days of the Galactic Empire. This description matches The Mandalorian’s synopsis, with its reference to a hero navigating harsh, morally dubious terrains. Moreover, both 1313 and The Mandalorian occur at similar points within the Star Wars timeline, where new galactic governing systems are consolidating power in between the events of two trilogies. It may seem as if Star Wars: 1313 has been resurrected as The Mandalorian show, wholesale. But the situation is not as clean-cut as that.
Indeed, the notion of a live-action Star Wars television series expanding beyond the binary view of battling Jedi and Sith predates 1313. In 2005, George Lucas and his long-time collaborator on Star Wars, Rick McCallum, began development of Star Wars: Underworld. The show would, like 1313, take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It would heavily reference film-noir properties of the 1940s, with character-driven stories fleshing out the many criminal conspiracies at work within the galaxy at that time.
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The show would focus on new characters, although writer Stephen Scacia revealed that it would occasionally gesture towards the Original Trilogy in a significant way. Moreover, Underworld would have depicted the meeting of Han Solo and Chewbacca, the origins of Emperor Palpatine, and even dynamic action scenes involving Boba Fett and his jet pack.
Sadly, the makers of Underworld found it difficult to secure either a network, or the necessary budget, which left this project in a state of limbo. But Disney’s subsequent takeover did not destroy the show’s prospects as thoroughly as 1313 were. When Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm asked the head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, if Underworld’s scripts had been completely ejected in favor of all-new Star Wars material, she replied:
“No. No, interestingly enough, that’s an area we’ve spent a lot of time, reading through the material that [was] developed...And there was 1313 the game, [which] was….Unbelievable. So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at... and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.”
The fact that Kennedy mentioned 1313 when asked about Underworld is very telling, especially in terms of The Mandalorian’s tone and narrative. In short, it seems like the disparate ideas of 1313 and Underworld have been merged together to form the basis of the upcoming show.
Who Is The Man Beneath The Mandalorian Mask?
Readers should not assume that Boba Fett is the protagonist of The Mandalorian. Certainly, it would appear that, until recently at least, Lucasfilm had bigger plans for Jango’s unaltered clone. In May 2018, James Mangold was announced as the director of a Boba Fett solo movie. Unfortunately, since then it appears that the film has been cancelled, following Solo: A Star Wars Story’s disappointing box office. Despite this setback, it’s very unlikely that Lucasfilm would have commissioned a Boba Fett movie and TV show to be produced – or released – concurrently.
Nevertheless, the mystery of the titular Mandalorian’s identity remains. Of course, the protagonist could very well be a previously unseen character, to chart this new exploration of the Star Wars galaxy. Yet rumors are already pointing to it being one lesser-known character in the new Star Wars canon: the ex-slave Cobb Vanth.
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Vanth briefly appears in small anthological passages within Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy, which details his history. Freed from oppression after Jabba the Hutt’s demise, Vanth defends the settlement known as Freetown on Tatooine, protecting its inhabitants from those that would take advantage of the new power vacuum. The Aftermath series also hints that, in his role as a protector, Vanth dons Mandalorian armour which he purchased from a band of Jawas. It’s strongly implied that this equipment is Boba Fett's, which was salvaged from the Saarlac Pit.
At present, there’s no concrete evidence to suggest that Vanth is definitively the hero of The Mandalorian. However, the timeline, their premises – as well as Lucasfilm’s highly inclusive attitude towards every piece of canonical media – do match up. Whether Boba Fett returns or not – in The Mandalorian, or through a cameo on our cinema screens – is anyone’s guess at the moment. But for now, it is fascinating to acknowledge just how much Star Wars: 1313 and Star Wars: Underworld became the origins and influences behind The Mandalorian, before it hits arrives in the near future.
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Sources: Slashfilm, Den of Geek & SVG
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