Chapter 1: The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian Chapter 1 is the pilot episode of the live-action series The Mandalorian. It premiered on November 12, 2019, exclusively on Disney+.

Official description
A Mandalorian bounty hunter tracks a target for a well-paying client.

Plot summary
After the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a Mandalorian bounty hunter accepts an under-the-table job from an enigmatic client with Imperial connections, who demands he travel to the desert world Arvala-7 and find a fifty-year-old target. While the client is indifferent to the target's well-being, his colleague Doctor Pershing insists the target be brought back alive. The Mandalorian receives a bar of beskar steel as a down payment, which he brings to an armorer and has crafted into a pauldron. After travelling to Arvala-7, he is saved from two blurrg by a vapor farmer named Kuiil. The Mandalorian is then helped again by Kuiil by showing him the encampment of the criminals inhabiting the planet, the target's location. Kuiil warns him, however, that previous bounty hunters who attempted to travel there died. Upon reaching the location, the Mandalorian reluctantly teams up with bounty hunter droid IG-11 to clear the facility and find the bounty, which is an infant belonging to the same species as Yoda. When IG-11 attempts to terminate the infant, the Mandalorian shoots and destroys the droid before taking the infant.

Release
The episode's musical score by Ludwig Göransson was released digitally the same day as the episode itself.

Reception
The episode currently holds a 88% Fresh rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge said that the episode isn't only a great start for the series, but the best proof that the Star Wars universe can lead to compelling content that isn't geared toward children or needing to feature Luke Skywalker to attract the viewer's attention. Charlie Ridgely of ComicBook.com rated the episode 4 out of 5, praising the series' darker and grittier take of the galaxy and Pedro Pascal's performance.