Entertainment Weekly got a first look at the upcoming second season of "The Mandalorian," which will debut on Disney+ in October. The coverage is included in this month's "Fall TV Preview" edition of the magazine.

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• Rosario Dawson will join the series in Season 2 as Jedi apostate Ahsoka Tano, who was introduced in the animated "Clone Wars" series.
• Temuera Morrison has also been tapped to play a clone trooper, or potentially Boba Fett, the cloned son of his character Jango Fett from the "Star Wars" prequels.
• Katee Sackhoff will debut as a live-action version of Bo-Katan Kryze, another animated "Clone Wars" character.
• Michael Biehn and Timothy Olyphant will also join the series in undisclosed roles.
• Creator Jon Favreau indicated that Season 2 will connect the events of "The Mandalorian" to "a larger story in the world," making the individual episodes "less isolated."

According to data from Sensor Tower, downloads of the Disney+ app rose by 68% over the Labor Day weekend, likely inspired in part by the digital release of the "Mulan" remake on the platform. The app was installed about 890,000 times over the past three days.

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• In addition to the base $7/month Disney+ subscription fee, access to streams of "Mulan" costs an additional $30.
• The theatrical release of "Mulan" was canceled in many countries, including the U.S., due to the pandemic.
• This is the first film that Disney has released in this fashion on Disney+ at this price point.
• "Mulan" will become available to stream without an additional fee on Disney+ in December.
• The film includes a controversial "thank you" in the credits to government entities in Xinjiang, China, the site of alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims.

WEEKLY CALENDAR

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER: Documentary featuring filmmaker Craig Foster, about the special relationship he forged with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest. [Netflix]

RECORD OF YOUTH: Romantic drama series from South Korea set in the world of fashion photography and modeling. "Parasite" actor Park So-dam co-stars. [Netflix]

MADAGASCAR: A LITTLE WILD: New animated series for kids spun off from the "Madagascar" movie franchise. It features the four main characters from the films -- Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo -- as kids together in the Central Park Zoo. [Hulu and Peacock]

WHEN WE WALK: Filmmaker Jason DaSilva chronicles his experiences living with Primary Progressive Mulitple Sclerosis in this 2020 documentary feature. It picks up six years after his film "When I Walk," which covered his diagnosis. [Sundance Now]

ROLL THE TAPE: Debut series in which hosts Treavor Scales, Christine Williamson, and Gary Striewski look with fresh eyes -- and tongues firmly planted in cheek -- at classic footage from the ESPN archives. [ESPN+]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

CURIOUS GEORGE: GO WEST, GO WILD: In this original animated feature -- the fifth film based on the classic kids' book series -- George and the Man in the Yellow Hat spend a relaxing weekend on a farm, until all of the animals accidentally escape. [Peacock]

AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR: The 12th season of the reality competition series debuted on Monday night on NBC, and hits Hulu and Peacock on Tuesday. Everyday men and women from across the U.S. face off on a notoriously challenging obstacle course. [Hulu and Peacock]

STARBEAM: The Netflix Jr. animated series for young kids -- about an 8-year-old who transforms into a superhero -- returns for a second season. [Netflix]

#ALIVE: Zombie thriller from South Korea, about a couple (Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-hye) who try to survive by isolating themselves in an apartment complex. [Netflix]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told The Wall Street Journal that the company's staff will continue to work from home until the "majority" are vaccinated against COVID-19. Hastings also referred to remote work as "a pure negative" which provides no positive benefits for the company.

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• Given current timelines for vaccine development, it seems likely that Netflix employees will continue to work from home until well in 2021.
• Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have all indicated that they will likely encourage employees to return starting in July 2021.
• Hastings did suggest that some employees may continue to work remotely for at least one day out of a five day work week, even after the pandemic.

HBO's new docuseries about NXIVM, a self-improvement and multi-level marketing company that has been accused of operating as a cult, patiently takes its time. A lot of shows would open with some of the most shocking and tantalizing accusations made against the organization, or at least tip the viewer off that this story is going to end with the organization's founder, Keith Raniere, being convicted in federal court on charges such as sex trafficking and racketeering. After all, the first episode of "Tiger King" doesn't hold back on the fact that Joe Exotic currently resides in a federal penitentiary, following his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot. 

Instead, early episodes of "The Vow" make the group seem, if not exactly inviting, then at least largely well-intentioned. We meet various people who were seeking some kind of guidance or answers in their lives, and hear them describe how training under Raniere and his co-founder, Nancy Salzman, generally made them feel better. One particularly passionate advocate is Mark Vicente, the filmmaker best known for the 2004 documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know?!," who joined NXIVM in 2005 and became one of its most passionate adherents and instructors...

Netflix released a final trailer for the Ryan Murphy-produced "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" prequel series "Ratched." Sarah Paulson stars in the drama series as the infamous nurse from Ken Kesey's novel, who was played by Louise Fletcher in the 1975 film adaptation. 

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• The new series focuses on an earlier point in Nurse Ratched's career, and explains the origin of her casual cruelty, as seen in "Cuckoo's Nest."
• It's set in a mental institution in the 1940s.
• Producer Murphy and Paulson have previously collaborated on the series "American Horror Story" and "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson."
• "Ratched" will premiere on Netflix on September 18.

"Titans" vet Alan Ritchson will take on the title role for Amazon's "Jack Reacher" series, based on the novels by Lee Child. Ritchson plays Hawk/Hank Hall on "Titans," and has also appeared on Spike TV's "Blue Mountain State" and its movie spin-off, "The Rise of Thadland."

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• At 6'4" and 235 pounds, Ritchson is a reasonable physical match for Jack Reacher, who is described by Child as 6'5" and 250 pounds.
• Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher in the 2012 film of the same name and its 2016 sequel, "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back."
• The character is a U.S. Army vet who now travels the country and investigates suspicious activity.
• The first season of the series will be based on the first novel in the Reacher series, "The Killing Floor."

Adult Swim canceled the long-running adult animated series "The Venture Bros.," prompting a search for a new platform. The series -- a parody of '60s pulp fiction tropes -- ran for 7 seasons on Adult Swim.

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• Creator Christopher McCulloch (who uses the pseudonym Jackson Publick), announced the cancellation on Twitter, adding that work was already underway on Season 8 scripts.
• In a statement, Adult Swim said that they hope to "find another way to continue the Venture Bros. story."
• According to Variety, there have been discussions about reviving the series on HBO Max.

The U.K. drama series "Doc Martin," which airs on ITV in Britain and streams on Acorn TV in the U.S., will end after its upcoming tenth season. The final run of episodes will enter production in early 2021.

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• Martin Clunes stars as a grumpy general practitioner with poor bedside manner and a distaste for blood in the idyllic Cornwall town of Portwenn.
• Regular cast members Caroline Catz, Dame Eileen Atkins, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom, John Marquez, Jessica Ransom, and Selina Cadell will all return for the final season.
• The show has aired on ITV since 2004.

QUICK HITS

• Streaming chess matches have become a popular new destination on Twitch.
• Tyler Perry produced four complete seasons of television at his Atlanta studios in the last 2 months, including 19 episodes of "Bruh" in just four days.
• Britbox will add a slate of classic British sci-fi -- including "Blake's 7," "Quatermass and The Pit," "The Avengers," and various "Doctor Who" films -- starting on September 10.
• A decline in conventional commercials has encouraged The Coca-Cola Company to explore new kinds of relationships with streaming platforms.
• Conga tapped into insights from tech-forward business leaders in order to create this fact-packed report: The State of Digital Document Transformation.*

*This is sponsored content