Disney+ Releases Sneak Peek at Season Two of Pedro Pascal’s “The Mandalorian”

Pedro Pascal is ready to blast off…

Disney+ offered a special sneak peek at season two of The Mandalorian, starring the 45-year-old Chilean actor as the title character, during ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian

The spot, which aired during halftime of the game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, reveals a bit more detail of the plot for the new season, with The Mandalorian (Pascal) now seemingly on a mission to return The Child (aka Baby Yoda) “to his kind” while also searching out other Mandalorians who can help him.

“Wherever I go, he goes,” Mando says about his charge.

The upcoming season follows the successful Season 1 of the first live-action Star Wars spinoff series, which scored 15 Emmy nominations including for Outstanding Drama Series, and won seven. Shooting had already wrapped on the second season before the coronavirus-related production shutdown in mid-March. Work is already underway on Season 3.

The new season of the Lucasfilm-produced returns Pascal as The Mandalorian, aka Din Djarin, and The Child who continue to attempt to evade ruthless Imperial Remnant officer Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). Gina Carano and Carl Weathers also return from Season 1, with cast newcomers including Rosario Dawson (reportedly as Ahsoka Tano), Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, Katee Sackhoff, Michael Biehn and Timothy Olyphant among others.

Directors for the new season include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez.

Season 2 of the series will debut on Disney’s streaming platform next Friday, October 30.

Disney+ to Premiere Season 2 of Pedro Pascal’s “The Mandalorian” in October

Pedro Pascal is heading back to space next month…

Disney+ will launch the second season of The Mandalorian, starring the 45-year-old Chilean actor as the title character, on Friday, October 30.

Pedro Pascal, The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian, set five years after the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi, follows a bounty hunter (Pascal), who is protecting a highly coveted Jedi-powered being, simply called The Child, from falling into the hands of the villainous Imperial Empire. The bounty hunter is from the same rogue warrior class as legacy Star Wars character Jango Fett.

In addition to Pascal, the series also stars Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi and Ming-Na Wen.

New faces for Season 2 include Rosario Dawson, Michael Biehn and a recurring Bill Burr.

Shooting had already wrapped on the second season before the coronavirus-related production shutdown in mid-March. And work is already underway on Season 3.

The series is nominated for 15 Primetime Emmy awards, including outstanding drama series.

Robert Rodriguez Directing Season Two of Disney+’s “The Mandalorian”

Robert Rodriguezis heading to a galaxy far, far away…

The 51-year-old Mexican American director/producer will serve as the director for Season 2 of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.

Robert Rodriguez

The Sin City and Spy Kidsfilmmaker tweeted a photo of himself with “the biggest star in the universe,” aka Baby Yoda.

“I am truly humbled to say I now have had the very rare privilege of directing the biggest star in the universe,” Rodriguez tweeted.

Production on the sophomore season of the Star Warsspinoff series already has wrapped. 

Among the new faces for Season 2 are Rosario DawsonMichael Biehnand a recurring Bill Burr. They join returning stars including Pedro Pascalin the title role, Gina CaranoGiancarlo EspositoEmily SwallowCarl WeathersOmid AbtahiWerner Herzog,Nick NolteJulia Jonesand Ming-Na Wen.

The live-action interstellar bounty hunter series premiered on November 12 on Disney+, the day the streaming service launched. Insiders have hinted that several established characters from the Skywalker saga’s feature films mythology will make appearances during the show’s sophomore season.

Season 2 of The Mandalorianwill premiere in the fall, but work already has begunon Season 3.

Cris Cyborg Signs with Bellator MMA 

Cristiane Justino is taking her fight elsewhere…

The 34-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist, better known as Cris Cyborg, has signed with Bellator MMA after a three-year run with the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC).

Cris Cyborg

One of the best women’s fighters in the history of the sport is now under a multiyear, multi-bout contract with Bellator, promotion president Scott Coker announced via Twitter. Coker wrote that it was the biggest contract ever given to a women’s MMA fighter.

Cyborg accompanied Bellator’s announcement with a video message to her fans on Facebook.

“My goal is to become the only female fighter to hold four different major titles in the same division,” said Cyborg, who has already held the women’s featherweight title in the UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC.

The final fight on Cyborg’s UFC contract came against Felicia Spencer at UFC 240 in July, a bout Cyborg won via unanimous decision. 

The fighter and UFC president Dana Whitehave had a long history of butting heads, and White said in the aftermath of that bout the UFC was out of the Cyborg business. The UFC waived its 90-day exclusive negotiating window with the Brazilian knockout artist, making her a free agent.

Cyborg, who is No. 3 pound-for-pound among women in ESPN‘s MMA rankings, won the UFC women’s featherweight title by beating Tonya Evinger by third-round TKO at UFC 214 in July 2017. She dropped the belt to Amanda Nunes, also the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champ, at UFC 232 last December via first-round knockout. That defeat was Cyborg’s first in 13 years, since her pro MMA debut in 2005.

From 2005 until 2018, Cyborg was the most dominating and fearsome force in women’s mixed martial arts. Justino went undefeated and won 17 of 20 victories by finish. Cyborg has beaten the likes of Holly HolmMarloes Coenen and Gina Carano. Historically, she has also been one of the best-known women’s MMA fighters in the world, drawing solid numbers on television and pay-per-view.

“I have worked with countless athletes over my 30-plus years of promoting combat sports, but there is no one quite like Cyborg,” said Coker, who promoted Justino with Strikeforce. “Her ability to excite the crowd from the moment she makes her walk to the cage is special, and having had the pleasure of promoting several of her fights in the past, I am looking forward to the opportunity of promoting her once again. Cyborg is the most dominant female fighter in the history of the sport and she will be a perfect fit here at Bellator, where champion Julia Budd and the other women that make up best female featherweight division in the world have eagerly awaited her arrival.”

Cyborg was brought into the UFC in 2016 at a catchweight of 140 pounds. She had competed previously at 145 pounds, a more natural weight. The idea at the time was to set up a fight between Cyborg and Ronda Rousey, but it never materialized. Cyborg was too big to get down to Rousey’s 135-pound weight class and Rousey departed the UFC later in 2016.

Cyborg and the UFC had an embattled relationship even before Cyborg was under contract. In 2014, White infamously made fun of Cyborg for her appearance at an MMA awards show, saying she looked like male fighter Wanderlei Silva in a dress. Cyborg took it as White saying she looked like a man; White has said that he was making a comment on Cyborg’s past history with performance-enhancing drugs. Cyborg tested positive for a steroid and was stripped of her Strikeforce title in 2011.

After Nunes beat Cyborg last December, White repeatedly said Cyborg didn’t want a rematch, which Cyborg vehemently denied. Meanwhile, Cyborg said she felt the UFC never truly built out a women’s featherweight division in which she could compete, which was a valid criticism.

On Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show in July, Cyborg said she wanted a public apology from White as a condition of her re-signing with the UFC.

“Of course, he has to apologize,” Justino said. “I think he has family, he has kids. … I don’t know if he has a heart, but I think one thing he’s doing is not just touching me, because he doesn’t like me. He’s touching the people around me, he’s touching my family. It’s not right.”

The rocky relationship came to an end in earnest after UFC 240 when Cyborg’s team posted a doctored video online that inaccurately quoted White in subtitles while talking to Cyborg backstage in Edmonton, Alberta. Cyborg apologized on social media, but White said in an interview on the UFC’s YouTube channel that the promotion was done with Cyborg.

“I’m going to release her from her contract and I will not match any offers [she receives],” White said. “She is free and clear to go to Bellator or any of these other promotions and fight these easy fights she wants. Done. Done deal. I will literally, today, have my lawyer draft a letter to [Justino’s team saying] that she is free and clear.”

In the Bellator release announcing her signing, it makes note of the promotion’s healthy women’s featherweight division, including Budd, who has won 11 straight.

Boneta to Star in “In The Blood”

Diego Boneta has lined up his next big screen project…

The 21-year-old Mexican actor/singer, currently starring in MTV’s new series Underemployed, has been cast in the film In The Blood.

Diego Boneta

The John Stockwell-directed film centers on a woman who tries to track down her husband after he’s kidnapped while on their South American honeymoon.

Written by James Robert Johnson and Bennett Yellin, In The Blood stars former American Gladiator and Haywire actress Gina Carano as the wife Ava.

The Rock of Ages star will play Manny, a local who ends up joining Ava on her search.

Trejo In Talks to Star in “In the Blood”

Danny Trejo isn’t afraid to face-off against a fearless and formidable female force… At least on camera.

The 68-year-old Mexican American actor is currently in talks to join former-mixed-martial-artist-turned-action-star Gina Carano in the action thriller In the Blood, which is being directed by John Stockwell.

Danny Trejo

Designed as a starring vehicle for MMA champion Carano and her impressive strength, the film centers on a wife whose husband disappears while they are vacationing in the Caribbean. The grieving wife passionately and recklessly pursues the men she believes kidnapped and killed him.

Trejo, who is set to reprise his role as Machete in the sequel to the cult classic, will play a thug named Big Biz who will face off against Carano.

Principal photography on In the Blood is scheduled to begin November in Puerto Rico.