Giancarlo Esposito Explains How the Fallen Empire Fits Into Star Wars: The Mandalorian

The Star Wars saga will finally explore an era of the franchise that has yet to make it on screen. Decades have passed between the events of the Death Star’s destruction in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and the First Order’s rise in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Aside from small snippets in animated series, video games, comic books, and novels, there’s still a lot of fertile ground cover in this time period. And now Star Wars: The Mandalorian will finally give us our first in-depth look at the fall of the Imperial Empire when the series premieres on Disney+.

The Empire goes through some major changes during this time period, as the ashes of the regime evolve into the rise of the First Order. The fringes remain in The Mandalorian, including one leader played by Giancarlo Esposito.

The actor from The Boys and Breaking Bad recently spoke with IGN and teased how his character Moff Gideon, revealing new details about his role in the wake of the Empire’s absence.

“He certainly looks villainous, we don’t know. Could be, could be for good, could be for evil, could be the conqueror. Could be the savior. We all need order in our world, and this is an Empire that’s fallen, it has no order,” Esposito explained. “Moff Gideon’s very very intelligent, very knowledgeable. He’s very particular about his operation and what he does. He’s certainly rising.”

In this new era, the fallen Empire has a tenuous relationship with bounty hunters because there is no governing body. But Moff Gideon has still managed to improve his status in the galaxy.

“He was an Imperial soldier before the Empire fell. He uses all of what he’s learned and has been risen through the ranks because he has some sense of order. But yet, he can be cruel and he will not withstand fools. And he’s a traveler. He gets around and knows everything, and no one knows why.”

There is a lot of fertile ground to explore with The Mandalorian, and it’s likely that producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will have a lot of opportunities to shed new light on this interesting era in the Star Wars universe.

The Mandalorian is set to premiere on November 12th, alongside the launch of the Disney+ streaming service.