‘The Mandalorian’ Cast and Crew Talk Grogu, Cloning, and Having Fun on Set; New TV Spot Released
In their 20-page coverage of The Mandalorian season 3, Empire Magazine revealed some interesting bits about the making of the show through their interviews with the people behind it (via r/StarWarsLeaks). The focus was mainly on Grogu, the adorable character that took over the world in late 2019 and whom we learned more about in season 2.
For instance, we were told in Chapter 13 the character’s name when Ahsoka read it off her mind. Favreau explained how he used this moment to further explore the rules of Force-using:
“It was a fun opportunity to add more dimension and history to the character, having somebody Force sensitive actually read [the name] from him — and also explaining why he was able to do what he did, and making sure that the rules around the Force were consistent with what George had originally conceived.”
Rick Famuyiwa, who was promoted to executive producer on the third season and also directed two episodes, explained that he, much like many people in the audience, was slightly confused when he first heard the name, but ultimately it grew up on him:
“Jon said that he was gonna name him, and I was like, ‘Alright, what’s the name?’ He said, ‘Grogu.’ And I was like [tentatively] ‘Okay…’ It didn’t quite roll off the tongue — it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I’m not even quite sure where it came from! I still don’t know. At the time, I was like, ‘It’s different!’ That’s the way you could say it without saying it. But after a while, it grew on me.”
A lot is still unclear about the character. An interesting question that has been brought up here and there is whether or not he’s a clone of Yoda. Favreau clarified to Empire that this is not the case, while teasing that the new season might continue to explore the concept of cloning:
“We knew it wasn’t Yoda — anybody who knows the timeframe [five years after Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi] knows that it can’t be him. Is it a clone? There’s a lot of cloning going on. But he’s his own person, with his own history.”
Filoni also admitted that he didn’t know the character would become such a large part of pop culture, adding that the first one to say as much was Werner Herzog:
“I didn’t know it would be this thing. The person that always seemed to know was Werner Herzog. He clocked it right at the start.”
At the end of The Book of Boba Fett, we had the reunion between Din Djarin and Grogu; Pedro Pascal was very moved by this moment, as he explained:
“What was so clever was that Mando and Grogu were physically reunited [in the finale] in a moment of such adventure and action. The word for it in Spanish is ‘prisa’ — there isn’t much time [for the reunion], and there was just so much going on in that moment that it was impossible to stop and be precious, but it still felt precious. It was part of this really incredible climax of action.”
Amy Sedaris also dropped by to light up the place, sharing some behind-the-scenes stories about how complicated it is for her (and Pedro Pascal) to read Star Wars dialogue. Interestingly enough, she hints that she may have shared some time on set with Pascal, though it’s unclear whether this was on season 3 or any of the previous seasons:
“Memorising the lines is the hard part for me because I don’t understand what I’m saying. David [Filoni] and Favreau will explain it to me, but that doesn’t really help because I just don’t get it.
[Pedro and I] would make each other laugh because we would finally get through this monologue and then just crack up because we can’t even believe that we had to say it.”
She also expanded on how Jon Favreau likes to casually puzzle her with some unexpected directions:
“Favreau will always throw something at me, like I have to speak ‘Frog’. And I’m like, ‘What does a frog sound like?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know,’ and he’ll walk away. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ That happens to me every season. Like the Jawas, I have to start speaking to them. But that’s what makes it fun.”
Sedaris is also aware of the overall mixed reception to her character, which she fully embraces:
“You either like Peli or you don’t, meaning you like me or you don’t. But it doesn’t bother me if somebody doesn’t, because diehard fans have got this thing in their head. If somebody has something negative to say about me, it just makes me laugh.”
In other Mandalorian news, a new TV spot appeared on social media on Monday, including two new shots from the third season:
New Scene Footage ! The Mandalorian Season 3 Promo Spot . #StarWars #TheMandalorian pic.twitter.com/jMoe1hbzgX
— Zcure1 (@Zcure1) February 20, 2023
Showrunner Jon Favreau also reiterated in a recent interview that the fourth season of the show is already written, which means it could go into production as soon as this year. That will depend on the schedules, of course, as another spin-off series codenamed “Ghost Track 17” is also reportedly in the works — this could be either the working title of the fourth season, or a separate project from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. An announcement should be made this April during Star Wars Celebration.
Meanwhile, The Mandalorian returns with its third season on March 1. We’re very close now.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
