It’s only been on for eight episodes, but the global consensus about the Star Wars live action series The Mandalorian is that it’s one of the best shows in the past decade. The few people who weren’t riveted as soon as Mando busted into a shady bar on the edge of the galaxy were definitely drawn in by the revelation of baby Yoda, and it’s safe to say that every viewer of the series is itching to get more of this fantastic space western.
But since there will be no more Mando on the menu for at least a few months, we all have to make do with what we’ve got. Here are 10 possible TV show options that any fan of The Mandalorian is pretty much guaranteed to enjoy.
Misfits
The Mandalorian has allowed us to explore the novelty of babies with superpowers. And Misfits gives Mandalorian fans a glimpse into what Mando’s reality might be once baby Yoda becomes teenage Yoda.
This quirky UK series about teenage failures and weirdos with superpowers is one of the best “super-anti-hero” shows ever made. Although the series ended ended seven years ago it still feels as hip and fresh today as it did when it first came out, and in the interim since it’s original run there hasn’t been another TV show like it. Any Mando fan is bound to enjoy it.
Firefly
The lamentations for the premature end of Firefly haven’t stopped yet, so it seems safe to say that they probably never will. But this short lived Joss Whedon series has had an endless afterlife for a very good reason. Simply put, it’s a freaking amazing show.
Much like The Mandalorian, Firefly is a space western, and it also involves the main crew constantly being on the run from the shady government organization that will do anything it can to find and recover it’s asset (in this instance, said asset is River Tam, and super genius psychic who was basically driven insane by said government organization).
Watchmen
The Mandalorian has done a great job of capturing the fun fantasy of the Star Wars universe while integrating some of the seedier underbellies of the Star Wars world into it’s narrative.
And while Watchmen is a TV show that pretty much lives and breathes in the seedier underbelly of things, it is the kind of series that Mandalorian fans are probably going to enjoy.
And Watchmen is an interesting parallel for The Mandalorian, because while the show takes place in the universe of the graphic novel Watchmen it’s an entirely different story from the original source material.
Stranger Things
Kids with superpowers on a TV show can be a pretty hard sell, and it takes some talented writers to make those wunderkinds seem entertaining instead of annoying. Obviously The Mandalorian has mastered this art, and Stranger Things has undoubtedly mastered it as well.
There is something about Star Wars that always makes everyone feel like a kid again, and that kind of nostalgia is what fuels Stranger Things more than anything else. That sentimentality for an era that has long gone past is what inspired the Duffer brothers when creating Stranger Things, so anyone who loved The Mandalorian is pretty much guaranteed to love this too.
The Expanse
Of course the mystical aspects of Star Wars are what make the series stand out from a lot of other science fiction films and TV shows. And The Mandalorian is certainly exploring the more mystical side of Star Wars with baby Yoda, but it is also doing a lot with the more realistic aspects of day to day living (at least realistic for one of the strongest bounty hunters in the universe) in a galaxy where space travel is possible.
And The Expanse exists in very much the same realm, it’s a science fiction series about space travel and all of the social and political issues that go along with it.
The Witcher
It seems like it’s almost kismet that The Witcher and The Mandalorian came out around the same time, because in a lot of ways both shows seem like the alternate universe versions of each other.
The Mandalorian is obviously more of a space opera western in the same vein as traditional Star Wars, and The Witcher feels like the medieval fantasy western iteration of the same idea.
Both shows are about exceptional dudes who spend their lives as lone rangers, but once they get pulled into the greater dramas going on around them they reluctantly get emotionally involved with the people they meet.
Westworld
The Mandalorian is undeniably a science fiction series, however it’s pretty much impossible to deny that the show also draws an enormous amount of creative inspiration from classic Western movies and shows.
Another series that pretty seamlessly blends the concepts of science fiction and Westerns is the HBO hit series Westworld. The show is about a hyper-realistic theme park filled with androids that initially appear to be nothing more than machines, but that slowly gain sentience over time. It’s a little more high-concept than The Mandalorian, but it’s still right up the alley of any Mandalorian fans.
The Clone Wars
Animated TV shows have come a long way in recent years, but in the minds of most a cartoon is something for kids. That is demonstrably false when it comes to The Clone Wars, the animated series based on the titular Star Wars Clone Wars.
This series fills in a lot of the gaps for the prequel trilogy, and more importantly for Mando fans it provides a lot of mythology and story context that will illuminate many of the Easter eggs found throughout The Mandalorian. And if the season finale of The Mandalorian is anything to go by, the canon revealed in the animated shows will be pretty important.
Star Wars: Rebels
So in the same vein as The Clone Wars, the animated series Star Wars: Rebels is a very adult cartoon that offers a ton of interesting information that is already very important to The Mandalorian as well.
Both The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels hold key information about the season finale of The Mandalorian. More specifically, the entire history of the Darksaber has already been explained in Clone Wars and Rebels. Clearly any Star Wars fans would enjoy Rebels in it’s own right, but catching up on the series may give some vital hints and context for where The Mandalorian is going.
Battlestar Galactica
Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of The Mandalorian or not. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if you’re a fan of sci-fi or not. If you’ve never seen the absolute TV epic series Battlestar Galactica before, then that is a problem that needs to be rectified as quickly as possible.
After the 12 colonies of Kobol (the solar system that houses the entirety of the human race) are destroyed by the ultra-religious androids that humankind has turned it’s back on, the titular battlestar Galactica becomes the last, best hope of the now nearly extinct humans, and even after the apocalypse this interstellar war has only just begun.
