Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni Reflect on Their Time at Lucasfilm and the Creation of ‘The Mandalorian’
Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni know each other exceptionally well. So well that they even finish each other’s thoughts in an interview. That’s what 15 years of working history will give you. So how does this relate to their creative process on The Mandalorian? Their latest interview for StarWars.com holds many answers.
“We’re fortunate, you know… Between Jon and I, we get along like we’re playing with our old Kenner toys.”
It’s easy to see how much of their passion as Star Wars creatives and fans goes into what they do. With the new season of The Mandalorian now airing every Wednesday, we’re thrilled to see both new and old characters joining (or returning to) the Star Wars universe. One of those characters is the famous original trilogy background droid R5-D4. When Din Djarin and Grogu return to Tatooine, they’re greeted by none other than R5-D4.
“We’re in this time period post-Return of the Jedi, that in some ways we think of as all the way up to Episode VII [Star Wars: The Force Awakens]… You always move between big known things in the cinematic world and we plot those out. We discuss groups. We discuss characters. We discuss who should come into the story or who should not… And obviously, by the third season, we have a lot of people in play already.”
Favreau and Filoni work with whiteboards to figure everything out and to ensure they tell one cohesive story. This includes keeping things relevant with movie content and what happened after The Clone Wars and Rebels, and even including Legends content. And this, in turn, sparks ideas for their stories, such as the upcoming Ahsoka series and Skeleton Crew. Favreau elaborates:
“We have other stories that are taking place that we want to make sure are consistent. And Dave’s really the pivot point for all of it.”
On the creation of Grogu for The Mandalorian, Favreau goes deep into how important it was to keep “Baby Yoda” a secret from the public:
“You have a responsibility for Star Wars, to George [Lucas] and to Kathy [Kennedy] and to the people who brought me in… And the audience. They’re invested in these characters. And you have young people who are growing up with the characters and what they represent. You feel very protective of that, and trying to hold as high of a standard as you can. I think those moments — the Baby Yoda reveal was very organic to the story. And just the idea of surprising to make it a bit of a left turn to people’s expectations that this was going to be a guy runnin’ and gunnin’ through the galaxy. That was a nice twist. And I’m really happy that [everyone] supported us keeping that a secret. We put the audience experience first there.”
When coming up with the look of Grogu, Favreau is quick to point out how Grogu is cute but also ugly at the same time:
“He’s cute, but he’s a little ugly. He’s ugly-cute. He’s adorable because he’s not perfect. He’s got the cheeks, but he’s got like weird little pointy teeth and he’s got weird peach fuzz. In our design, when he looked too cute, he didn’t look right. We found that right balance.”
Filoni reminisces about the time spent with George Lucas and what he learned about telling a specific story:
“You know, George [Lucas] taught me, you’re telling the story you’re telling… And I think we’re incredibly lucky that people have responded the way they do. I learned a long time ago, people just don’t like this because you stick the name Star Wars on it. That’s not good enough. You have to care. You have to put a lot of work into it.”
Favreau and Filoni are oblivious to the effects of something as phenomenal as The Mandalorian. Filoni attributes this to having worked in the Star Wars universe for 15 years. He also attributes the show’s success to its fantastic crew, who spent long hours researching and finding suitable materials for the props and costumes.
“You know, Kathy Kennedy, she was adamant about the level of visual effects that this thing needed to have there. It has to be equal to a movie. Everybody invests in this. And so, you know, we are delivering something that we can be proud of and that we like as fans. At the end of the day, you can only make something that you really enjoy and hope that other people like it. But the response to Grogu, when people saw him and that was on a level that even though I’d been with Star Wars a while, I had never experienced anything like it. I think that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You’re lucky if you’re ever a part of something like that. If anything, it puts more pressure on you because you know how many eyes are watching this. The expectation has grown. But it’s a privilege to have that.”
The idea for the Darksaber came from Lucas, a rewrite after Favreau initially recorded a Clone Wars episode with dialogue for a vibroblade (remember that Favreau played Pre Vizsla in that show). He then went on to explain precisely how they incorporated the Darksaber into the story:
“George didn’t like the logic of vibroblade being able to parry a lightsaber, so he invented the Darksaber, and I had to read the whole monologue about how it was found in a Jedi Temple. And I was telling my wife, she’s like, ‘That’s the coolest thing in the world.’ And it became so cool that we ended up making a whole TV show about it. That whole idea and how profound that thing is, that Tarre Vizsla was both Mandalorian and Jedi, that implies so much because those were two diametrically opposed warring factions. So, what does that mean? These are the clues that we look for, these little anomalies and things that instead of shying away from, we sort of delve into and explore.”
Favreau discusses how everyone does their best to bring new and exciting things to the franchise in every episode:
“We like to have surprises… We like to have something revealed each episode. I like when everybody tries to see it at the same time and then talks about it and reacts to it, discusses it. Tries to guess what’s happening next. That’s part of the fun of the serialized storytelling. We want to make sure that each week a new piece of information comes out and that maybe things resolve in an unexpected way, but ways that feel justified and emotionally resonant and character-based. Look, we just hope that people enjoy this new set of stories. I certainly am enjoying doing what I’m doing here. Hopefully we can do it for a long time.”
Season 3 of The Mandalorian is currently airing on Disney Plus. You can check out our review of Chapter 19, The Convert, right here. Come back tomorrow for our discussion of Chapter 20, titled The Foundling.
Meet Julie Gray, a passionate pop culture writer from Aotearoa, New Zealand. A lifelong Star Wars fan, her love for the franchise runs deep, with Luke Skywalker being her all-time favourite character and Anakin Skywalker coming in as a close second. Her outlook on the Star Wars universe is simple yet powerful - "All Star Wars is good Star Wars", a true testament to her undying love for this iconic franchise.
