A new Disney Gallery documentary, Star Wars: The Mandalorian – Making of Season 2, dropped on Disney+ Christmas Day. It offered so much!
Director Jon Favreau was more directly involved in Season 2. This especially made a difference if that’s why characters from the shows and original trilogy were in the season.
A graffiti painter drew Star Wars images on the walls he was supposed to decorate for a scene. This shows the extent of the fandoms even of those responsible for making The Mandalorian.
At one point, executive producer Dave Filoni advocated for ‘what Greedo says’ to Favreau. It was a good indicator of how much Filoni looks to bring that sweet Star Wars DNA into The Mandalorian.
Ice spiders were indeed based on Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. It’s thrilling to see concepts for previous Star Wars productions be used in others later.
Bryce Dallas Howard directed the episode in The Heiress where Bo-Katan Kryze becomes a live-action character. Howard talked about being excited about the prospect of Katee Sackhoff being in The Mandalorian when seeing Bo-Katan in the script. I was with many, many Star Wars fans in being excited about Sackhoff playing the character after voicing her!
The Mandalorian crew got to be kids again for Season 2
Bryce Dallas Howard talked about how the crew were like 6-year-olds in their backyard when making The Heiress. It doesn’t get old to hear comments like these.
Pedro Pascal, who plays protagonist Din Djarin in The Mandalorian, was impressed with Carl Weathers bringing action to the episode The Siege as its director. The best action of the season, aside from a certain scene in the finale The Rescue, was in The Siege. (A particular speeder bike chase comes to mind.)
Dave Filoni said he intentionally didn’t bring Ahsoka Tano into Season 1 because he didn’t want to “mess it up.” But mess it up he didn’t in Season 2, in The Jedi. Filoni had a Clone Wars shirt on while directing The Jedi. I love how he displays his fandom while being a filmmaker. The Jedi was based on Akira Kurosawa films. Time to watch one of those! Bringing in Ahsoka, however, also served the purpose of revealing Grogu’s name. I can’t help but think that Ahsoka was also brought into The Mandalorian to introduce her in live-action form in preparation for her own announced Disney+ show.
The costume designer said actors feel like they are in Star Wars once they are in costume. Dressing the part would do it!
So have they dropped a number of episodes in favour of one long episode for season 2 of the making of? Felt a bit rushed if that was the case. It does say its ep1 season 2 though. Hmm