The Mandalorian is going to fundamentally change the Star Wars universe — and not just because it’s the very first live-action Star Wars television show.
According to The New York Times, The Mandalorian contains a “Star Wars universe spoiler” so big that Disney is going all-out to keep it a secret. While critics will receiver full screeners for other Disney+ original series, the first episode of The Mandalorian won’t be available in its entirety until November 12, when Disney+ launches for the general public, in an attempt to keep the plot twist under wraps.
As a workaround, Entertainment Weekly reports that critics have seen a half-hour compilation of clips from the show, which have been carefully selected to avoid spoilers. So far, the reviews are excellent.
The Mandalorian‘s galaxy-changing revelation isn’t the only mystery surrounding the series, either. Earlier, the official Star Wars Twitter account revealed a new set of posters featuring The Mandalorian‘s main cast, including one character that hasn’t been shown in any of The Mandalorian‘s other promotional materials.
The posters offer our best looks yet at Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, a former rebel who’s become a mercenary after the end of the Galactic Civil War, and IG-11, a deadly assassin droid. They also feature striking new shots of Pablo Pascal’s armor-clad Mandalorian and Carl Weathers as Greef Carga, leader of a local bounty hunter guild.
The fifth poster, however, has someone new: A grizzled alien sporting goggles. Many fans assume that the creature, which is known in the Star Wars world as an ugnaught, is the character played by three-time Academy Award nominee Nick Nolte, who has been officially announced as part of The Mandalorian‘s cast but who hasn’t appeared in his regular, human form in any trailers or TV spots.
The Mandalorian is the flagship launch title for Disney+, Disney’s brand new streaming service. In addition to The Mandalorian, Disney is prepping two other live-action Star Wars shows for Disney+, a revival of the award-winning animated series The Clone Wars, and a number of behind-the-scenes documentaries. Original series based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Pixar films are also in-production for the service, which will come with a deep library full of Disney’s older movies and television shows.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.