Jon Favreau, the showrunner of The Mandalorian, has discussed what it’s like working with Dave Filoni and how the show impacts the larger Star Wars canon.
The Mandalorian, set between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, is written and shepherded by Jon Favreau who works closely with Dave Filoni.
In a recent interview with the Writers Guild of America, Favreau has said working with Filoni is like having regular access to George Lucas himself. Describing the start of writing the show, he said: “I was paired up with somebody who I had collaborated with in the past, Dave Filoni. I’ve found, if you have a very good collaborator…even though I was actually writing the episodes, there were many, many hours of conversations, and I would show him things I was writing, and he was giving me a tremendous amount of feedback and helping guide me through the world of Star Wars. He had studied under George for I think a decade working on the animated shows, so I felt like I had a direct connection to the source code of this whole world with him.”
Favreau also discussed how he and Filoni look to tell The Mandalorian‘s story in the context of already existing Star Wars content: “We have a tremendous amount of freedom afforded to us because of the gap in time between the films. Dave Filoni and I are in constant discussion regarding how each story choice is impacted by, and would impact, existing Star Wars material.”
The Mandalorian is certainly doing an excellent job of building out this largely unexplored era of the Star Wars galaxy when the New Republic is growing and as the Imperial remnant is beginning to transition into the First Order.
As more seasons are produced, we should have a lot more context for the important events of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, while also getting to enjoy a fascinating, important story about Din Djarin and his fellow Mandalorians.
The Mandalorian season two sees the returning Pedro Pascal (Din Djarin), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), Bill Burr (Mayfield), and Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand) joined by the likes of Temuera Morrison (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones), Katee Sackhoff (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), Rosario Dawson (Daredevil), and WWE Superstar Sasha Banks.
