‘The Mandalorian’ Stunt Double Brendan Wayne Teases What’s To Come In Season 3
A recent in-depth interview with Brendan Wayne, one of three actors who bring the titular hero of The Mandalorian to life, has hinted at what audiences can expect from the back half of the third season.
Talking to the Star Wars Sessions podcast (hat tip r/StarWarsLeaks), Brendan Wayne discussed a number of key points about what’s in store for viewers with the remaining four episodes. For starters, the fifth episode of the third season of The Mandalorian will be taking a slightly different approach from previous ones, as Wayne explained that the series will be exploring a different sort of genre for its next chapter:
“So they try to give you something to different work with in [this show], and this season was no exception, and you’ll see it in the next episode. You’re gonna see something very different than you’ve seen in its presentation, and so it’s amazing.”
And as far as the episodes ahead go, Wayne explained that his favorite in the season hasn’t aired yet, and he also hyped up the finale:
“For different reasons, different episodes have a lot of meaning, whether it’s the enjoyment of the cast that came in for this episode, or the director I get to work with, or the story point I get to uphold in this moment. I don’t think I’ve had my favorite [episode air] yet… There are some things that happen in the final episode that are pretty epic.”
Shifting the focus to directors, Wayne singled out his excitement to work with Bryce Dallas Howard once again, recounting a personal tale of how much the character of the Mandalorian means to him and his fellow actors in the role (Pedro Pascal and Lateef Crowder), and how she was able to help him stay on target even during a bad day:
“I did get to work with Bryce again, and that is one of the highlights, always… As a creator, as a fan of her pedigree, as a fan of the work I’ve been able to [reach] that she’s brought me to, working with Bryce is one of my favorite things in the world. And I think that a couple of days that we worked together, I might’ve been less than happy with something else that was going on, on another unit, on another episode – I stopped taking pride in it, but I do take a lot of dignity in wanting to tell Mando’s story, and wanting it to be honest and not shortcut so we can do this and that or whatever. It matters to me, he matters to me – his creed, his physicality, my acting within it, even though Pedro’s gonna voice over anything that I’m doing – those things matter to me. If you’re gonna take the time to hire me and pay me, I want to do what we’ve done from the beginning, and Lateef and I working together, and when he doesn’t feel safe… He and I take responsibility for Mando, and what he’s doing, and it means a lot to us. So I was in a hot place, and Bryce, all she has to do is smile and it’ll change your world. You can’t help but be like ‘Okay, I gotta make a choice – I can fight the fact that she wants to create and live in somewhere where I’m not, or I can participate and go for a ride.’ And her episode is gonna be a ride, bro!”
He was also impressed by how first-time Star Wars director Lee Isaac Chung was able to go from working on independent films to a bigger-budget production like The Mandalorian:
“But then I worked with Isaac, and his style of working is 100%, he knows what he wants when he walks in, and he doesn’t mess with it unless it’s not what he wants. He very much understood the pre-vis that we had, and that’s what he was expecting, and that’s the story he was trying to tell… The way he worked was so confident, and he understood what he wanted, and he got it, and he didn’t dilly-dally, and it was really impressive because this is his first time in something so CGI-based… And he was able to translate that, I thought, incredibly well into a 30-minute piece.”
When asked about one of his favorite scenes, Wayne gave a spoiler-free overview of what he liked about an upcoming scene between Bo-Katan Kryze and Din Djarin:
“There’s a scene coming up with Bo and Mando, and it is – I don’t know which version they chose, as far as what was going back and forth between us, but I think it’s going to… I had a great time doing that, and it was a lot of varying emotions came here and there, and this, there’s just such a really cool quality that I felt that I was able to play around in as an actor – which most of the time you’re not aware of it, you’re in the moment and you go – but there’s something about that, and the do-si-do that we had, while physical and verbal, was super-intense, and I think it’s gonna be really cool. I think you’re gonna enjoy it.”
Wayne also revealed that George Lucas continued his trend of set visits for each season of The Mandalorian with this latest batch of episodes:
“I think his influence happens well before he gets to set, most of the time, every once in a while, but I think he’s very comfortable with Dave [Filoni] and now Jon [Favreau], I’m sure, because – I mean, how could you not be at this point? But yeah, he came in Season 1, Season 2, Season 3.”
When talking about the future, Wayne explained that he has an idea of what the fourth season of The Mandalorian is going to look like narratively, while he also noted that samurai and wuxia films were a distinct inspiration for the Ahsoka series:
“I can tell you this – [The Mandalorian] Season 4, if I can go back, I would 100% would look forward to it. Not because of me, but just in general. I’ve heard the arc of it, and I know [Jon] is done writing it, for Season 4. Ahsoka, I know what Dave’s vision looks like, and we know that he loves the Samurai… End result, it’s gonna be beautiful, the way – God, I really don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up and they don’t feel the same way I do, but – it’s like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the way that it hit me, the majesty, the tapestries, and the beautiful kind of, there was always this kind of billowing feel of movement, the samurai feel. I really do feel that that’s the presence Rosario as Ahsoka, and the presence of her, and the way she took to this role, and the way she attacked her physically, and the way her stunt doubles and everybody involved… Ahsoka is gonna have a flow and beauty that I cannot wait to see.”
Lastly, Wayne had some interesting words to say about Boba Fett, which some might interpret as a tease for his possible return in The Mandalorian season 3:
“[Boba Fett is the] best kind of friend you can ever have, you know you can count on the guy when you need him, and sometimes you don’t even know you need him and he comes.”
As mentioned earlier, you can find Brendan Wayne’s musings in the interview in the full podcast.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian season 3 has four episodes left, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays on Disney Plus. Both of the previously released seasons of the show, alongside the spin-off Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett, are available to watch exclusively on the streaming service.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
