Giancarlo Esposito might play some of the most iconic and nuanced villains across various franchises, but in real life he seems like a pretty nice guy.
The actor portrays the role of Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, an officer in the Galactic Empire who’s made it his mission to track down Mando and The Child. And in his opinion, The Mandalorian is exactly the kind of show we need right now, one that exemplifies the journey of a true hero.
During an interview with Variety, the actor discussed the relevance of the Star Wars series, particularly given the current state of the world. And among other things, he emphasized the importance of experiencing a hero’s journey in these unprecedented times as the world faces the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“The Mandalorian’s iconic. It’s a hero’s journey, it’s a hero’s story, and people need heroes right now. We don’t have heroes that we can look up to, so we gotta be each other’s heroes,” Esposito said. “So that’s what Mandalorian does for us. It allows us to stand up and see an example of someone just doing his duty in service to someone else and the journey.”
Esposito also expressed his excitement for season 2 of the show, promising a “power-packed” run for the series. He even teased some aspects of his character’s nature and abilities, which could include Force powers.
The star, who played businessman and drug kingpin Gus Fring on Breaking Bad, has made a name for himself portraying memorable antagonists. In the near future we’ll see him play similar roles on the Amazon Prime show The Boys and in the next installment of Ubisoft’s Far Cry video game series.
The Mandalorian isn’t the only show in the Star Wars universe that will focus on a batch of unlikely heroes, though. The animated series The Clone Wars is getting a new spinoff called The Bad Batch much to the delight of fans, which will follow the adventures of an experimental squad of clone troopers. And joining the series on Disney Plus will be the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, though it may have hit some new production roadblocks recently.