Director Jon Favreau knew he had a responsibility as director to bring Star Wars back to theaters for the first time in seven years.
“People care so much about Star Wars,” Favreau told Variety. “Star Wars has been around for 49 years, we’re approaching our 50th anniversary, and it continues to exist because people care about it and people emotionally connect with it.”
“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” takes place after the events of both “The Mandalorian” Season 3 and “Ahsoka” Season 1. The Mandalorian known as Din Djarin (voiced by Pedro Pascal, with much of the physical acting by Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne) and his sidekick Grogu now work as bounty hunters for the newly established New Republic.
Favreau, who co-wrote the script with Dave Figlioni, wastes no time before drawing the audience into the action. The movie begins with Din Djarin and Grogu aboard an AT-RT (all-terrain reconnaissance transport) launching an attack on another unnamed Mandalorian Imperial general. As the villain takes refuge inside the AT-AT, Din Djarin boards the AT-AT and a chase ensues as he attempts to capture the villain.
It was also one of the biggest sequences to pull off.
Favreau explained that he wanted to give Lateef Crowder a chance to shine. Crowder, an expert in martial arts and the Brazilian martial art capoeira, has been working on The Mandalorian with Favreau from the beginning. Favreau said he sat down with Crowder and said, “Let’s design something that takes full advantage of your talents and abilities. Let’s choreograph something as a performer and let the camera do it.”
Shooting a feature film gave Favreau the time he needed to fully construct the sequence. His creative team also built “the inside back of the walker that moves and rocks as if it’s rolling around inside something.” They also created a head that moves and sways so that Din Djarin’s perspective changes as he approaches his neck. Favreau says, “On every level, we leaned into something more difficult than what we could do, and then it gets thrown away like an action sequence in John Wick.”
This sequence allowed everyone to shine. “For the first time, these are the artists who designed what the inside of the AT-AT looks like in live action. We’ve seen it in video games and other things. The new Snowtrooper costume is a combination of what we see beneath the veil that we’ve never seen before,” Favreau says. This crazy percussive sound is so heart-pounding that everyone who has been with us since the beginning has been able to take it to the next level. ”
Favreau pointed out that the scenes, which appear as one continuous shot, are very realistic and not stitched together by the magic of editing. The action is so immersive that the fact that there was only one sequence wasn’t entirely noticeable, which is exactly what he intended. “I shouldn’t notice, but I feel it.”
AT-AT Walker
lucas film
Favreau says that even though the fight scenes were difficult, casting legendary director Martin Scorsese for a cameo in the film was a “painless process.”
In the film, Scorsese plays the voice of a food truck vendor with four furry arms. Favreau, who also played the Ardenian chef Rio Durant in Solo: A Star Wars Story, joked, “They have the same last name, so they might be related.”
Marvel casting director Sarah Finn joined the cast of The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the two brainstormed names. Some ideas came from Werner Herzog, others from Scorsese.
Favreau had his doubts. “Why would he think that?”
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy offered to give Scorsese a call. “She called him and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah,'” Favreau says. That was it. ”
Looking back on the interaction, Favreau says having Scorsese record his lines was a “dream come true.” Scorsese improvised his own songs. he says: “To be able to sit down with one of my idols and work out a scene to make him laugh…”
Favreau said the animators leaned into the sequence and “just leaned into it. It’s some of my favorite animation in this movie.”
He hopes viewers will join him, whether they’re watching for the first time or are already fans of the series. “When I think about Space Mountain as I’m getting off, tears stream to my ears. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time riding it or if you’ve been there many times, you want to ride it, but you want to take people who haven’t been there before. That’s what Star Wars was like for me when I was a kid. There’s something fun about sharing something with other people and turning it into something you think it could be.” ”
He goes on to say, “Star Wars is a raw experience, and that’s what I want to express if I can.”
Because it was shot for Imax, there were fewer guardrails in place. “We can say, what haven’t we done before? And what can this Imax aspect ratio do for us?”
He was playing around with aspect ratios in Season 2 of The Mandalorian: Chapter 9: The Marshalls. For the Krayt Dragon sequence, we used an Imax 4:3 aspect ratio.
Favreau said that with Imax on board as an early partner on the film, he considered how Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler used the format. He says, “If you go to a movie theater, it’s a unique experience where you can feel the energy of the people around you and watch the movie and it’s a very immersive experience.” He continues: “If you frame it properly, like Chris and Ryan, your image is centered and your peripheral vision is occupied by what’s happening above and to the side.”
To get the most out of this format, Favreau took great care in selecting the images on screen. “We’ve developed some software for Apple Vision Pro that makes the images we’re shooting look like an Imax theater, and we can see that when making framing decisions.” He continued, “I don’t think audiences need to understand this when they walk in. They should just walk in saying they want to see a Star Wars movie.” They should be able to follow that behavior. ”
