Here is a link to an edit I did of Din and Peli meeting again on Tatooine. Reducing the familiarity with the child and putting more of the focus on their history. Din clearly has a history with Tatooine (knowing Tuskin speak and has “spent much time there”. So I figured let’s just roll with it. I’m not usually a fan of off-screen history (Ch.6 the prisoner) but in this case, it is the only way I can see keeping most of the dialogue without cutting it completely or having to watch a side adventure episode (Ch.5 the gunslinger). I also trimmed a bit of the dialogue that seemed a bit bloated and unneeded.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hLIAY3DZzfeo-Uj73pvTqOCsWNZyXQ8M/view?usp=sharing
Looks good, but this episode was just as much, if not far more, of a side-adventure. It’s also an hour, of a hypocritical 2-2½ hour film.
Unless the plan is for Mando Episode II to be all the Tatooine footage to be one film… then you could stitch Chapters 9 and 5 together along with the eventual proper introduction to Boba Fett.
I’ve got it cut down to 34mins, so it could be the opening act of a 2-hour movie.
In terms of stitching it together with chapter 5… at the moment I don’t see how those two threads can seamlessly follow on from each other. That may change once we see chapter 10.
Similarly, The Gunslinger could serve as the opening act. Have some of his conversation from Chapter 9 setting up that he’s also looking for another Mandalorian, he finds work first, then after saving the Child she gives him the information on Mos Pelgo. Chapter 9 becomes the second act adventure. Cut in the Boba/Fennec tease during those sequences, and lead into a third act that properly introduces conflict with Boba.
A large part of this is my belief that Fennec is alive and that we won’t see Vanth again. So, from where I’m standing, it seems far more likely for the events of The Gunslinger to come back than anything beyond the armour itself from The Marshal to come back again. The big action sequence is fun, but it’s not likely to have any real bearing on the story.