The wait is finally over. Disney Plus’s flagship series The Mandalorian has returned for its third season, almost two and a half years since the stirring conclusion to season two, but as wonderful it is to see The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (affectionately known as Baby Yoda to the masses) back together, there are certainly some questions that remain as to how we got here.
After all, the last we saw the pair in The Mandalorian Chapter 16: The Rescue, they were saying their heartfelt goodbyes, as Grogu went off to train with Luke Skywalker, leaving the dangerous world of Din Djarin forever.
While those only following the core series may be left confused, those following the expanded Star Wars Universe know that The Book of Boba Fett, the 2021 series also spearheaded by Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, included key developments in the series core story, with the final three episodes of Boba Fett serving as what I refer to as The Mandalorian season 2.5.
For Jon Favreau, the answer is simple: For The Mandalorian to feel satisfying, one of the most important moment in its story had to happen outside the core series.
So how did that come about, why does he feel that way, and is this how the Mandalorian story will continue to be told long into the future? To find out, read my latest conversation with Jon Favreau as we discuss the craft that went into the telling of one of the world’s most popular continuing stories.
Jon Favreau on the reunion of Grogu and The Mandalorian in The Book of Boba Fett
As excited as I am for season 3, I’m really curious how we ended up with what felt like Mandalorian season 2.5 at the end of The Book of Boba Fett. Was that always the plan, because you didn’t want to include that story to start your season 3 arc, or did it come about for other reasons, or other conversations within Lucasfilm?
No, no, I take full responsibility for everything people like or don’t like in this show. There’s no outside pressure on me from the studio, Lucasfilm, Disney, anyone.
There’s pressure from within on whether or not something feels right. We challenge each other on whether something feels like it’s authentic to Star Wars, if it feels like it’s consistent with things that came before.
A lot of what you’re seeing is us embracing the complications that come with the choices that we make in our storytelling.
How so?
For example, we established in this show that that Mandalorians, don’t remove their helmets, and then, but then in Clone Wars, everybody’s helmets are coming off all the time. Instead of running from that, or sweeping that under the rug, it became inspiration for storylines, and character interactions. And as you start to set those things up and play them out, there are certain inevitable things that start to happen. Also having The Mandalorian as the caretaker for a Jedi with their checkered past as cultures.
All of these are leading to these situations and obstacles that have to be overcome and give us a lot of dramatic inspiration.
As far as your point about Mando 2.5, I think that’s a fair assessment. Maybe I took a page out of my experience with Marvel. But it seems that audiences are really savvy now. And they communicate with one another. And there’s lots of ways to get background, if there’s any confusion, and also the fact that everything sits side by side on Disney Plus, you could just reference episodes if you want to. And we’ll do recaps as well.
But as I was exploring them being separated, it became clear to me that the nature of the show would have been very unsatisfying, because both of the characters were in a state of imbalance without the other. And, and I think you had to see it sink in on them. We didn’t want to just hit reset.
Telling the story there allowed us to break like a novel would, to get away and check in on characters. And so now they’ve spent years apart, and now as we rejoin them, we get all of the character development that comes from that separation, but yet, we don’t have to spend all the screen time watching each of them pining over feeling somehow unsatisfied in their lives, and we see them being restored by their reunification.
You’ve written season four. How far into the future have you mapped out beyond there? Do you see Mando popping up here and there, following the structure you set with Book of Boba Fett, or do you have a different sort of end game planned you’re working towards?
Well, I have certain images and thoughts about where things are going deep into the future. But I wouldn’t say that it’s a roadmap that I could tell you every step that gets you there, but Dave Filoni and I do a lot of talking about this stuff. And also remember Dave works for Lucasfilm. So he has backstage views into all the other projects, not just the ones that we’re doing, like Ashoka and Skeleton Crew, and Mandalorian and Acolyte and all the other all the other projects that are going on.
So a lot of it is ,how do you make one unified Star Wars reality in which all of them don’t work with one another, and still complement one another? You could have tremendous variation, like Andor is very different from Clone Wars, but they all sit in the same, they all deal with the same underlying reality. So that takes a lot of planning.
As far as Mandalorian goes, we really take it one season at a time as far as the specifics. But there’s also a lot of interplay as we’re bringing bigger chess pieces onto the board. And we have to make sure that the reality even if it’s just a backdrop for all the shows, has to feel like there, it’s consistent.
Can’t wait to see it all develop. It’s great talking to you again.
You too!
Watch The Mandalorian season 3 premiere now on Disney Plus Arabia here.