From the opening images of the thus-far-unnamed protagonist walking across a windswept ice planet, the series looks like it takes place in the same universe as the films, and the effects, a combination of practical and digital imagery, can stand next to the features as well.

Disney+, the new streaming service that’s treating The Mandalorian as one of its anchors, has seemingly tried to answer that challenge by pouring money into the project. The first challenge, of course, comes in making a TV series that can match the production values of the feature films.

The Mandalorian is Star Wars’ first live-action TV series after years of false starts and stalled projects. There’s something lost in that process, but when the spin-offs work, there’s also something to be gained. Successful franchises abhor a vacuum, however, and that same quality has helped inspire a whole industry of spin-off novels, comics, games, and animated series to fill in all those intriguing blanks. The Empire Strikes Back, for instance, features a gathering of bounty hunters, all of whom look like they’ve accumulated a lifetime of stories living hard in some of the nastiest parts of the galaxy, stories the film leaves tantalizingly untold. Bizarre aliens and strange technology get only a few moments of screen time but have fueled the imaginations of viewers for decades. Part of the genius of the original Star Wars trilogy came from George Lucas’s decision to offer glimpses of a larger world and suggestions of who might live in it without providing much detail.

Season 1 chapter 1