Back in October,
The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau posted some
photos of George Lucas on the set of Disney's upcoming live-action series. At the time, it was thought that Lucas dropped by to wish Favreau a happy birthday, but it sounds like the original Star Wars creator may have had a bit more influence on the series than anyone had originally thought.
Giancarlo Esposito, whose role in
The Mandalorian is still unknown, recently spoke to Collider, and during the interview mentioned that Lucas had actually worked with Favreau on
The Mandalorian.
“I’ve got a great costume. We got great set pieces. I’m not giving anything away because [Jon Favreau] is an artist, truly an artist. [He was] working with George Lucas on this particular piece and making it a piece that we can really relate to now in our world that we’re in. Besides the fact that there are so many Star Wars fans out there that really don’t get enough of this, finally we have a [Star Wars] piece that for the first time ever is shot outside of a London studio.”
Lucas has often consulted with
Star Wars directors in the past, but it sounds like he and Favreau worked fairly closely in coming up with the story for
The Mandalorian. In praising Favreau's willingness to work with brilliant directors from around the world, Esposito briefly mentioned that Favreau also worked with Lucas to create the series.
“Well you know what’s cool about Mandalorian is you figure a guy who wrote it, who figured it out with George Lucas, would direct every episode. That would be all ego, right? He has amassed some incredible directors from different parts of the planet to give their take on an episode. I find that to be so phenomenal because then we have new and fresh ideas every single episode, coming into this show, that reflect the fans—because the directors are also fans. They’re from Australia, from England, from wherever you are, it reflects their take of their people on how they saw the original and how they’re going to do it as well. So you get new, fresh energy into a piece that is already energetic because of all the stuff that’s going on on the screen, because of all the technology that they’ve worked out. This is going to be a fantastic show.”
As Collider notes, Lucas was developing a live-action
Star Wars television series prior to selling Lucasfilm to Disney. That series obviously never came to light, but it's possible that some of his ideas could've made their way into
The Mandalorian.
Elsewhere in the interview, Eposito talked about technology Favreau has used in creating
The Mandalorian. The actor specifically mentioned working in a "Volume," a giant empty room filled with blue screens and tracking cameras, and
The Mandalorian VFX team equipping it with a new technology that allowed for the use of physical sets within the space.
“Jon Favreau’s brilliant. Technically, this show has a new technology [that’s] never really [been] refined as much as it is right now. We’re in a place called The Volume, where we do most of our acting, where set pieces are brought in, where we can control the physical atmosphere of what is projected on the walls and control how gravity is; you get a feeling that gravity is being played with. This is a show that’s gonna be really fantastic.”
A panel for
The Mandalorian was held at Star Wars Celebration earlier this month. Shown during the panel was a behind-the-scenes sizzle reel that highlighted the making of the series along with a sneak peek of the show itself - neither of which have been released online by Disney or Lucasfilm (thoughyou can find some off-screne recordings on YouTube). Still, to fully appreciate what Jon Favreau is creating with
The Mandalorian, you might just want to wait for the high quality versions to be released.
The Mandalorian will be available at the launch of Disney+ on November 12, 2019.