Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

We're in kind of a unique situation in the Star Wars galaxy

where we're part of something bigger,

but we're also carving out our own story that follows these characters.

The first season of The Mandalorian was really about

just these simple stories

that were gonna be about a bounty of the week.

I can bring you in warm...

Or I can bring you in cold.

The events of season two started to come together

and I think for Jon and Dave, that really started to ricochet

in terms of where that could go for season three.

We introduced a lot of new characters,

or, a lot of them are legacy characters, in the second season.

And each one of them had their own trajectory.

The Darksaber. It belongs to you.

She can't take it.

It must be won in battle.

By seeing how those characters interacted

and what was going on

in the Star Wars galaxy at that time post-war,

there were certain things that started to unfold in a very organic way.

Taking all the work I had done with Mandalorians

and bringing it together with all the work

Jon and things he had imagined about Mandalorians

were finding the way between the two things.

And along the way, we met other fantastic storytellers

like Rick Famuyiwa, who became a part of our team,

Noah Kloor, who became a part of our team

and added depth and dimension to everything we were doing.

Kathy Kennedy, ever since, you know, bringing Dave and I together

to collaborate on The Mandalorian in season one,

has helped us identify a lot of other great filmmakers to work with.

So now, it's just not one or two people's vision

of how these people come together, it's a group of us.

And our galaxy's getting bigger and more fuller

than it's ever been before.

The storytelling is not just about good story well told,

it is also about pushing the medium of filmmaking forward.

That is thrilling.

And every single season, Jon ups the ante.

It's just been an absolute joy to come to work

and really to ask myself a question,

which has become a part of my mantra now, "What am I gonna learn today?"

You know, between Rick and Jon and Dave and Bryce

and whomever else is working on a given day,

you can learn something from them, and I steal it all.

I felt so good about that, I wanna do it again.

The founding spirit, I think, of the first season

was the idea of these talented directors, in their own right

coming in to the show and bringing their points of view and vision

but still having that point of view sort of fit under the overarching umbrella

of how Jon and Dave have seen the world from the beginning.

And so, I think as each season has gone on,

there's been these new voices that have come in.

I was a director on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

among a couple of other things.

I think they had the feeling that someone who'd worked in animation

and sort of had a background

in dealing with the kind of previsualization that you do

in storyboards and in a lot of the phases of animation

might be a good fit for the way this process rolls out.

I think your look has to come all the way around and not stay there.

So it comes back to the front?

Yeah, back to the front,

because then we'll catch you in a nice profile.

I've been a Star Wars fan since, really since the first movie came out.

So hearing about the possibility of being part of the show felt unreal.

I was editing my film Minari in 2019

and my editor was telling me,

"You have to watch this show called Mandalorian."

And it became the show that I was going to.

I was just talking to my agents and I said,

"If there's anyway I can talk to Jon Favreau,

"I'd love to just say hello to him and then ask him for a job."

Lo and behold, they were able to get a hold of Jon.

He had seen my film. He said that he enjoyed it.

And we had a wonderful conversation.

And I basically told him I would love to do this show if it's possible.

And he told me, "Okay, we'll have you."

It just really blew my mind and got me so excited about coming in here.

You would barrel roll as you are approaching the planet.

- Okay. - We'll see.

Okay. Beautiful.

When I got the call to do Mandalorian, I delved into it.

Obviously, I had heard about the Volume.

And it felt like a chance to try something that I hadn't tried before.

Anything we can do to make it feel like it's a shot about Baby?

Cool.

With this guy kind of come flying at us through frame.

I think my background in cinematography absolutely informs my work as a director.

I think with my heart,

I feel with my heart, I shoot with my heart.

Our currency is empathy and is emotion.

And that translates whether it's physically

and technically through the lens

or working with an actor and making them feel something.

The Empire set out to punish us.

To wipe away our memory.

This experience has been really eye-opening from me.

Because I'm somebody who spent

the better part of at least a couple decades

thinking a grounded drama had to be a literal grounded drama.

And then to realize, thanks to The Mandalorian

that you drop anything that one can relate to

into a world and it's still grounded.

And it's still relatable and it's still emotional.

There's a challenge inherent in this series

when it comes to relationships

because our main character is wearing a helmet the entire time.

And so, I think that so much of what is being explored thematically

has to do with intimacy, vulnerability and kind of the mask

that we put over that.

Allowing a helmet or a mask to be the face of a character,

that's something I really associate with the original trilogy growing up.

You think of Darth Vader.

You think of the droids, you think of C-3PO or you think of R2-D2.

Behave yourself, R2. You're going to get us into trouble.

I really wanted to take on the challenge.

And Dave and I discussed this a lot.

"Can we have a show where somebody,

"where your lead character's face is hidden?"

By balancing that character out with Grogu,

you have this bifurcated lead.

Which is a very human, vulnerable, empathetic, soulful little child

and then you have this character who has lived life and done many things...

You can only imagine what challenges and adventures this guy has faced.

It was the combination of these characters that became the heart and soul.

And we knew that we had to work our way to that inevitable separation a few times.

And then this season was about bringing them back together again.

A Mandalorian has to understand maps and know their way around.

That way, you'll never be lost.

When we start season three,

he's squarely faced with the ramifications of the decision

he made in season two where he took off his helmet

in order to help The Child.

All right, pal.

It's time to go.

Don't be afraid.

There are repercussions that happen because of that.

You have removed your helmet.

What's worse, you did so of your own free will.

You are no longer Mandalorian.

And then the, sort of, exploration of that opens up our world

into many different points of view on what it means to be Mandalorian.

And what does it mean to be The Mandalorian.

Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the Purge.

Where were you then?

Bo in many respects this season is also The Mandalorian.

'Cause it's so much about her story and her journey

and her, sort of, initial ideas of going back

and bringing her people back together

that got derailed after she lost the Darksaber.

I am here to join you.

There's nothing left to join.

What of your plans to retake Mandalore?

When I returned without the Darksaber, my forces melted away.

She earned her stripes in adventures that we've all seen.

From nobility and she's been part of Death Watch.

She's existed in many different contexts.

And she's also a character where there's room for development.

Not all Mandalorians are bounty hunters.

Some of us serve a higher purpose.

She believes in the Darksaber.

But the Darksaber alone isn't gonna make you a great leader

just 'cause you hold a weapon.

She has to want to be this leader and she has to have belief in herself.

She was a character that had not completed her life's journey

of where she was going to land as far as her identity.

And that's very rich for opportunity for storytelling.

Without that blade, she's a pretender to the throne.

Within this season, we are really getting to experience

a full journey and a full performance

where Katee can just absolutely bring, not only her incredible talent and her all

but this knowledge and experience that she has

because she's played this character for over a decade.

You succeeded where many have failed.

I've learned from the best, including you.

I wish I was good at something other than war.

When Dave first approached me

to play Bo-Katan in Clone Wars,

it was really just taking who he had created

and translating his vision vocally on to the screen.

Go on. I can handle this.

When the idea came up for me to play her in live-action,

I really had to stop and think about it.

Because I had absolutely zero idea

what she looked like not animated.

So I really had to learn the character all over again

and translate that into movement.

In the way that she used her mouth and the way that she walked and stood

and really start it all over again.

Which was hard. Harder than I thought.

I was part of the royal family.

I took the Creed and was showered with gifts.

But the rituals were all just theater for our subjects.

They loved watching the princess recite the Mandalorian tenets

as her father looked on proudly.

Such a heart-warming spectacle.

We didn't know how season three was gonna wrap up,

but we knew that we were gonna have to go to Mandalore at some point.