Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian (2020–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - Making of Season 2 - full transcript

Yeah. Well, we're starting where...

You get up and he comes, you know, back.

All right, guys and girls. Good morning!

Welcome to season two of Huckleberry.

Welcome back! Yes.

Welcome back,
or welcome for the first time.

I'm Kim. I'm the First AD...

Season two! Yeah!

That's great.

- What's your name?
- My name's Kayden.

- Like Hayden?
- Of course.



All right, here we go.
Lock it up, please.

Welcome,
everybody, back to the show.

We're gonna have
a lot of beats of fighting

with a lot of characters
running in from different places,

a lot of choreography going on...

Take a couple of steps,
and then lean into it.

Season two...
You're walking into a world.

They're bringing these characters to life.

Feels really exciting, it's electric.

For season two,
what everyone is after,

but what is important to me
is making people care,

to create new things,
and to introduce new characters,

and to go to new planets,

while preserving all of
this incredible nostalgia that we have



for every aspect of Star Wars
that people wanna see.

I think we all like this aesthetic
more for Boba Fett.

- Right.
- That's what we know him as.

In season one, once you've set up,
"This is what the show is,"

you're always open
to have a little more fun,

and yet still deepen the whole experience
for the character and the viewer.

- That really winds up.
- Winds up really well.

Maybe I'm in here?

You're just curious about the small tip.

Clear the hole.

Can everybody see me good enough? Okay.

So, the scene starts...

This is coming after a few establishing
shots of the spaceship flying around,

so this is at Hangar 35,
which is, I think, a few hangars down

from where the Millennium Falcon
used to get gassed up.

It's good.

That was good.

Of course, as you know, with Amy,
we might get off road a little bit.

Let's be prepared for that.

Encourage creativity.

For episode one,

I loved working with Jon as a director.

He knows what he wants,
he loves working with the actors...

He backs off, you back off,
it doesn't jump off at that point.

At that point, you're looking
what the hell's going on, and I love...

- So this is where you get the Leone stuff.
- Exactly.

Camera pushes in, you see the bombs,
you see the head moving around...

This is as close as we can get
without him getting able to do it,

so it looks like, if he moved or let go,

it would run off,
and the thing would go under.

He knows to tell stories.

He understands bigger picture,

which usually you get people
who get caught up in moments

and hope that this thing falls together.

Waiting...

That's the actors' job.

We gotta catch our moments.

He catches the story.

The first season,
I wanted to make sure that I was available

to oversee the whole show
as an executive producer,

but I always wanted to sit in the chair
and be able to just interface directly,

and try things
that may have been too ambitious

for somebody who didn't know
the show as well as I did,

so I was able to throw myself
a lot of curveballs.

Just gonna...

The krayt dragon
is a great example of Jon

once again taking something from
the original films that's obscure,

and then elevating it
to be this big centerpiece.

So, taking something we only glimpsed
as bones in New Hope,

and fleshing it out, and making it
into the big, bad creature of episode one

and then Doug's group
did an amazing job of designing the thing

and figuring out what does this thing
look like when it's in its prime?

It was a huge challenge,
'cause Jon raised the bar

in terms of design.

He challenged us
to really come up with a spectacle

that would fit within the box
of what we were given.

We saw skeletons of it.
It was just the head and the neck.

How do we extrapolate that
to create our dragon?

And one of the fun design ideas was that,

"Okay, maybe as it evolves,
it actually grows limbs,

"and so, the older it gets,
the more limbs it has."

That, then, gave us the license
to really expand on that.

"Let's push the scale,
let's push the drama,

"let's go for the scope in the spectacle
of what Jon was writing

"and see where the boundaries were."

The dragon actually came out
to be pretty big when Jon approved it.

It was 150 feet.

And then, once Jon got in there
and started to look at layout shots,

it grew even bigger.

When we started
looking at him in the environment,

he didn't really look that imposing,

so we just started scaling him up,

and he became 600 feet long,
and Jon said, "That looks right."

And then,
from an animation standpoint,

how is it pushing itself
through the earth?

So we came up with a scheme where
it's liquefying the sand around it

with some kind of
sound wave or something,

so that it can swim through the sand.

It's all, you know, hidden.

It's all sleight of hand
because we never see the full dragon,

it's always hidden,

and it's kind of like the shark in Jaws.

The less you reveal of it,
the better it is,

the more mysterious,
powerful the design is.

We're at the entrance,
right now, of the Volume,

and as I write things
and we design environments,

I try to think of what we could
try different in this space.

We've done exteriors, we've done caverns,
we've done ice tunnels...

We've used it for a lot. Here
was an opportunity to try something

that was an underground arena
that would've been prohibitive to build.

Season two, technically,
the Volume changed, it became bigger.

It's about a hundred feet long
and 22 feet tall.

We had phenomenal new
color management science from ILM

in regards to the way the pixels
were being driven to the screen.

I'm basically moving
the entire sky world around

to find a better composition in frame.

We also could shoot
much more lower light scenes,

much darker scenes, which was phenomenal.

Wanna look at the artwork here?

- Absolutely.
- Yeah.

I drew that one up there.

My son watched me.
My son was in here painting, too. He's 18.

What?

I'm like...
He's said, "You've done this before, Dad."

- I'm like... "I don't know."
- Oh, yeah.

I really loved the exterior,
because the artist, David Choe,

he started off doing graffiti art,

and he asked me,
"How come there's no graffiti?"

There was in animation.

And I said, "There could be,

"and I'm getting ready to direct one,
you wanna come down?"

And so, David Choe painted
all the exteriors on the set.

He said that
it was about layering, right?

- Yeah.
- Graffiti's about layering.

You don't wanna make it like a mural.
You want it to look like...

- generations of graffiti.
- Right.

I like the level of nerdiness
we've put into this.

Yes.

We left a lot of the low graffiti
for the Jawas...

'cause they can't reach that high.

That's a living piece of art.

It's for me to live out
all my childhood fantasies,

and just... I mean, it's a win-win,

and Jon stole me in for a second
as an alien.

Did a little bit of a trench

so that you can
snip it down below level,

and then when you do
your cavel over it, it just...

- So that way, you know?
- Yeah.

You're not building on a hump.

- You're building in a valley.
- Yes, yes.

One nice, big thing the production did

was they opened up a little room for us,

so that we can actually build
a lot of stuff here on site.

Kind of opening up
that old ILM creature shop again

to build the Star Wars aliens.

The director, Dave, and Jon,
input comes from all three,

and then we go and we try and interpret
that into the best form that we can

for a makeup that might fit a person,
or work well as a makeup.

Being one of the departments
that deal with practical elements,

we're always kind of making sure that
what we do blends in with the background,

especially having the Volume,
so we have a visual that we can match,

and making sure
that our textures and everything

match with the costumes
and all that stuff,

so you get to see
that really cool mixture.

You're gonna see.
They're about to come in.

They're two Gamorreans.

So, I don't know if you know Star Wars,
but they're green pig guys

that are in here fighting to the death.
This is, like, deathmatch, all right?

So, all you guys, I know
that rehearsal was kind of weird,

'cause you had nothing to act against,

but on the day, there's gonna be
two pig guys in here fighting,

so use that to feed off your energy.

And again, this is really about you guys
in here all day, today and tomorrow.

So really, really good energy.

First team's gonna come in
and shoot this thing, all right?

On this episode, we discussed all styles
of fighting from all over the galaxy.

The pig guys have a certain style,
they're really, you know,

not the most finessed
or beautiful movement,

but they were strong and a little clumsy.

They're a little leaner,
the fighting Gamorreans

as opposed to the heftier Gamorrean guards
from Jabba's palace.

We made them a Gamorrean axe.

So this is an aluminum...
It's a hollow fighting axe,

and then we added
a couple of little details,

so it has electricity,
so when they're fighting,

you can see sparks.

I like the idea of people
just watching

a Muay Thai fighter-fight club type thing
or a gambling venue,

where he was visiting, like, a mob boss.

Because with Star Wars,
you can lean into different genres.

We've had Western, Samurai,

a little bit of heist,
a little bit of war movie.

And in this one, I want to feel
a little bit more gangster movie.

If I can locate other Mandalorians,
they can help guide me.

I'm told you know where to find them.

"You know, it's really uncouth
to talk business immediately.

"Just enjoy the entertainment, okay?

"This is one of the best in my stable."

From my stable, on... In my stable.

"In my stable" or "from my stable"?

But I like you being
the high status mob boss,

even if you don't do
the character of Don Corleone.

I'll try it.

The attitude of,

"Hey, hey!
Not business first, let's enjoy the meal."

Okay, all right.

All right.
Or let me just... Let me just do...

Let me try something else.

- All right.
- All right.

"I am told that you can lead me
to others of my kind."

"Hey, hey! It's uncouth
to talk business immediately.

"Just enjoy the entertainment.

"This is one of the best in my stable."

Good, reset one more time.

I really like how the episode came out.

I love that we were able
to bring part of Star Wars history

to the screen in a new way.

It was fun interacting
directly with the actors

in a way that I don't always
get the opportunity to,

when other directors are working.

But, honestly,
I did miss the collaboration.

And I was very happy to have Sam Hargrave
working with me on second unit.

Because I think part of what's fun

about the experience of making
The Mandalorian is that it's a team.

It's a team of creative people
working together.

So, as much as I enjoy directing,
I enjoy just as much, if not more,

when I'm working with other directors.

Maclunkey.

It's something Greedo says, though.
"Maclunkey."

Yeah, but if it's curtains,
if it means...

If "Maclunkey" means a lot of things.

- You want the Mando to say "Maclunkey"?
- Yes.

Should he? When he shoots the light out.

- He says, "Mando, don't leave me here."
- Maclunkey.

Come on.

When you say it out loud... You can't.

Episode 202.

It is when we really put the Child
through a lot of intense situations.

It is maybe the most intense episode
of the season,

which I am proud of.

As we walk past sort of a dark room...

Yeah, 'cause actually when we were
looking at the footage,

you were saying you wanted
a little more shadow

to make it feel like
there's only one way out.

- A little more horror movie.
- Okay.

Jon wanted to create an ice planet
that was distinct, so it wasn't like Hoth.

And we started to figure out,
"How do we do that?"

Because the minute you do a snow planet,
people are gonna think it's Hoth.

And so, we decided that,
"Maybe this is kind of a glacier planet.

"It's a different quality of ice."

Can you technically come lower,
or is the...

The second episode,
I think was great to work with Peyton,

because he has so much imagination,

and it was one of those episodes
where the script was short,

it allowed for a lot of room
for discovery,

and he really embraced it.

And it took a director like him
to breathe extra life into this thing

and expand upon
what was already on the page.

John first showed me the script,
and I read it,

and there was a description,
"Ice spiders."

It struck me in a great way,
because it felt pulpy.

It felt like a pulp serial.

It really struck me, like,

"Okay, this is tonally the origin
of the original Star Wars.

"This is what George Lucas
was influenced by."

And it just felt right.

When we started talking about the design,

it keyed off of this design

Ralph McQuarrie
had done for Empire Strikes Back.

I grew up
enjoying Ralph's designs so much.

And he designed so many creatures
that were never really used,

and one of them was specifically
the spider that lived on Dagobah.

And it was such a beautiful design,
it was white.

To me, it always
kind of evoked the idea

that this creature should live
in a cold environment.

And so we thought, "Well,
maybe we should try to bring that creature

"and put it on this planet
as an ice spider."

It's really a fun creature to do,

because we get to see it
through its entire life cycle.

We see the egg, and then we see sort of

the small, medium,
and large size hatched spiders,

and then, of course, the big boss
mama spider at the end.

Peyton has a great sensibility for humor
that leavens a sequence like that.

And to me,
that's the hallmark of Star Wars action,

is that it's not just grim.

It's leavened here and there
with a funny line of dialogue,

or a funny bit of action, or something,
and I feel like that was...

That note was hit hard
in that sequence.

The bulk of this episode is a guy
in a helmet, a puppet, and a frog lady,

who is an actor, Misty Rosas,

and she is in this Legacy frog costume,

and it's a practical costume
and a practical mask,

with some CG embellishments,
but, you know,

you're going a long time without
seeing a human face in this episode,

and that thrilled me.
'Cause that felt really Star Wars.

Can you come even further this way?

Come this way for me, Misty.

When you read it, it's
"How are we gonna create sort of

"a dimensional character
out of this frog lady?"

And Misty brings this performance level
to this character that's unbelievable.

The way that she embodied
the creature,just as she did with Kuiil

is just remarkably sensitive.

And immediately, you love this character.

Misty is a superstar.

It's absolutely heartbreaking

the way that she creates
a compelling little frog lady.

The physical language
that she's able to demonstrate,

that kind of performance
is exactly what makes

things like that work
in the world of Star Wars.

That is our digital version
of Frog Lady taking over

when she breaks into frog mode
and starts leaping.

Number one, we want it to
feel credible and real that,

you know, she could leap such a distance.

But also the sloppiness of it.

We needed her sliding around on the ice,

and bumping into things,
rather than just being a clean

sort of athletic leaping through frame.

That took a little while to get right.

That character provides
these momentsthat are comedic,

and then also
some really frightening moments.

But the big, central story

is the story of The Mandalorian
and the Child.

Like, that's gotta be the emotional core.

And the fact that that could also include

some other smaller players
in the universe,

in this thing is...
That's exciting.

It was fulfilling for me.

No. No!

Working with Bryce,
she's such a positive person.

It's very infectious working with her,

because that kind of energy spreads

not only to the actors,
but also to the crew.

And she's very inclusive.

And so, all of us felt
a real sense of authorship

in helping make her episode spectacular.

The way that Bryce was able
to lead the set,

with so much warmth,
and so much specificity,

you really feel that from her.

You feel experience.

Felt like something
that she was always meant to do.

- Misty and John, do you guys understand?
- Yeah.

Kind of, the spots.
So it's... You meet here, you hug,

Misty turns around,
you take a beat to look at it.

A lot of my episode
takes place on the planet Trask.

That's a largely water-based planet,

where there's lots of Mon Calamari
and Quarren.

Thank you, everybody.
Rehearsal's up.

I think the thing
that was very challenging this year

was the Trask boat.

We shot it static,
but it had to be a moving ship.

Shot on stage, with water,
with wind, all kinds of effects on there.

And we ended up having to build
in a 15 by 15 tank.

I usually get with
the visual effects team,

plan on seeing what the pre-vis
was gonna be like.

And then we see what it needs.

It was interesting to try to figure out

how to shoot it to make it look
totally real. Because you can't just say,

"The visual effects
will make it look real."

You wanna shoot it in a manner in which

you would actually
have to shoot it if it was real.

And then the audience
believes that it's real.

And so, for instance,
one of the first shots

that we were working with
was a crane shot.

And Jon quickly identified,

you wouldn't be able
to get a crane out there in the ocean.

You'd have to be
shooting on sticks.

Like, we shouldn't do stuff
that you couldn't actually do,

if this was a real environment.

That's something that he encourages
with all of the filmmakers,

so that the filmmaking stays grounded.

This is Mon Calamari.
It's for episode 203.

This is Frank Ippolito inside.
He is the craftsman,

and the costumes are authentic wools
that we've over dyed

and stained and aged.

And also, it's in a galaxy far, far away.
So, for me, everything is vintage.

Which means nothing's futuristic.

Everything is visiting the old world.

With season two,
I would say, it's twice as big.

We're also shooting two full units
at the same time,

with, you know, amazing directors
on both units,

so you wanna give everybody 1,000%.

What I do is,
I surround myself with an amazing crew,

that any challenge that comes up, we meet.
We have to meet.

They trust us.

Jon and Dave trust the people they hired
in the different positions.

And we work very closely together
with props, and special effects,

and production design, so that we're all
on kind of the same page.

I think that that's what helps
to not get overwhelmed

by the massivity of everything.

Oh, it's good, isn't it?

It's a great recipe.

Dave Filoni created
a character named Bo-Katan.

And Bo-Katan was voiced by Katee Sackhoff

in Clone Wars, in Rebels,

and when I first read my script,

when I saw Bo-Katan, I was like,

"Oh, my gosh, that's Katee Sackhoff.
Is it gonna be Katee Sackhoff?"

It was so thrilling to get to bring
that character to life with Katee.

Especially because
Katee has that expertise,

because she's been playing
the character for almost 10 years.

This is her first day
as Bo-Katan live action.

We've been animated Mandalorians before.

Never been
in the same place at the same time.

Never in the same place.

- But we've done a lot of scenes together.
- A ton.

Years ago,
when she first started, I said,

"You never know. This works out,
this could become live action one day."

And she's like, "Okay. Great, Dave.
That's great. I'm sure."

And so, when she showed up on set
and she's wearing the full outfit,

carrying her helmet,
she just looked at me like,

"I can't believe you said
this would happen, and it's happening."

I'm like, "I know. Isn't it cool?"

She's so great at playing
these type of gunslinger characters

and she just is Bo-Katan to me.

Mercedes, or she's known
as Sasha Banksin her wrestling career,

clearly her persona had a lot of flair,

and I thought
it's really good for this show

to have somebody playing a Mandalorian
who had all of that fierceness,

and the energy, and also physicality.

Because when you're
breaking a new character in,

that doesn't have any roots or history
in any of the other Star Wars media,

you wanna make a strong impression.

Because it was an episode about Mando
seeing other Mandalorians in action,

it was essential that
we delivered on that end.

Mando's here,
and you come over to Mando.

Have look at that
with the pattern fire in Lucas movement.

And then he's gonna be reaching
the classic Star Wars pew-pew battle.

- Then hide.
- Okay, let's see it.

- That's my only trying to get away from.
- Let's see.

Just an idea that was in my head,

but this might evolve
into something cooler.

If you see it and hate it,
we'll do it that way.

All right, good.

Fire, fire. Three, four.

Five.

If he sneaks in and shoots,
he's part of the crew.

So, I think...

- When they're shooting, he's not.
- Right.

We should try one that way.

- When he tries to sneak away?
- Pattern... He does.

When they go pattern fire,
and they rush in.

They all go, at the same time.

If he's with them,
he's part of that crew.

You wanna separate him from the crew?

He shouldn't be ready.

When they jump out,
they're a machine. He's not.

I have so much fun
on the set of Mandalorian.

It's just the most incredible group of

creatives, technicians, and performers,

and all of us are obsessed with Star Wars.

We're basically all
like six-year-olds in our backyard,

like, playing Star Wars with one another.

Like, the days on set
where I was having the most fun

was when it was just me, Jon, and Dave,
and it was just so great.

It was so much fun.

And if you can reach into your pocket,
and you're gonna leave some.

You're gonna pay the check. Yes, great.
Could she pay the check?

Sure.

'Cause ladies pay in my universe.

All right. You guys all prepared
for greatness? Let's do it, folks.

Even though you say "Hi"
to her early,

hold your reaction until she's here.

Right? So cameras can see you,
and then come back to her.

Let's try it one more time.

Carl Weathers came back
to act again as Greef Karga,

but also to direct episode four,
which is a rollicking adventure ride.

I think having that first season
under our belts gave us a sense of

the flow of the show,
and the flow of the stories.

The more I got into it,
the more I was able to

sort of wear my actor hat
when I'm in the scene

and still be aware of, wherever camera
was set, what we were seeing.

It's an incredible episode.

I'm so proud of Carl,

because what I was really struck with
was how great the action is.

Carl really understands action.

Working with him was awesome.
He added another take on it.

For stunt guys,
it's great to have a director

that has physicality
and knowledge of physicality in film.

Regarding the action
in particular,

that's something I've done
in front of the camera forever.

And then, of course, I was an athlete
before that, a professional athlete.

So I know how it feels to get hit,

and I know how it feels
when you're inside a scene,

and it's moving and doing certain things.

Bang. Camera goes here,
sees me come in.

Takes me to you guys.

So, you both look off
when I say, "No need."

Me and Carl
speak a special language, I feel.

We've both been action actors for a while,

and I just think that
he understands where I come from.

He is an artist to his core.

We're on the streets of Nevarro now,
rebuilt from season one.

Season two, we're starting out.
I think we're in week three.

As you can see, it's all refreshed.

Cara Dune and Greef Karga
have cleaned up the town.

Mando stops back here
to get his ship repaired

and helps 'em on a brief adventure.

It was so exciting to step into an episode
that gets back into a kind of ensemble

with characters that we've met
and actors that I've been with.

It was like being reunited with family.

Your ship's not lookin' too good.

I had a run-in
with the New Republic.

I love working with Gina.

I think that
with this very tough exterior,

there is such
a feeling and vulnerable person.

The way that she puts that into
Cara Dune's character, her backstory,

I think just makes you
not be able to look away.

Season one,
Cara Dune was very fresh

off of being kind of
just out on her own and alone.

She doesn't want anything
to do with anybody.

And then,
when we pick her up in season two,

we find, all right,
now she's establishing herself.

She started stepping up to the plate.

Things have changed a lot around here.

Cara Dune's character
is upgraded to a marshal.

And because of that, I wanted
her costume to reflect a higher station,

a higher responsibility.

So I upgraded her armor a little bit,

I gave her a new paint job.

It still has some cuts and bruises,

'cause she's a tough dame, and I love it,
and I wanted to make sure

I was respecting that as well.

She brings a lot to the table
in terms of the power.

I wanted to see more of her power
last season,

so this season you definitely get it.

She kicks people, headbutts people,
she uses more of what she's good at.

I really love directing.

That's been, you know, a passion
for a number of years now.

And the more I do it,
it's just the more of it I wanna do.

He'll make some more shots,
more shots offstage, right?

Because we can't cover that mountain.
Offstage we hear,

"What are you waiting for, an invitation?"

It's just being able to, you know,
capture the large strokes,

and then get the actors in there
to get some detail.

Whoo!

I just find Horatio funny, man.
He's just funny.

He's so quirky and so out there.

Did a wonderful job.

We're dealing with Star Wars,
and there is a level

of expertise, a level of awareness

about an audience that you have to have.

It's another bit of work
that I'm really proud of.

You have no idea
what's gonna come your way,

when you start out on this journey
of being a filmmaker.

But to have it come your way is like,
"Oh, thank you. Thank you."

Everything in this episode
is in the stage.

It is in the Volume or the stage.

But if you look at the story,

it happens entirely outside.

So, we're doing that
for various lighting reasons,

and because the Volume
will offer fantastic results.

But we have to get a sense of atmosphere,
of particles, to make,

I think, this feel like
we truly were in this location.

If you watch any Kurosawa film,
and the amount of wind that's blowing,

and the sensibility it's giving the story,
that's just something to consider,

that the environment itself should be
a big part of playing this story.

Episode five, Dave Filoni took us
on a magical journey

into a Kurosawa-esque samurai culture.

If you watch the great sword fights
like in Samurai, Toshiro Mifune,

any of them.
They're always measuring each other

- because one wrong move and that's deadly.
- Yeah.

Dave has got taste, he understands action,
performance, drama.

That episode is beautiful.

With Dave's episode, we really,
really start to get into nuance.

It is something that tonally
I found particularly artful.

And also amazing

to see him bring in an animated
character of his into live action.

It was incredibly important
to Dave Filoni in particular

that the audience
that has grown up with Ahsoka

felt like that what we did
in The Mandalorian

was respecting what had come before.

I intentionally did not do
anythingwith her in season one,

because I didn't wanna mess it up.

It's a character
that George and I created.

She's one of the first things
I ever drew for Clone Wars.

We cast Ashley Eckstein
to be the voice of the character,

and she brought such a great energy
to Ahsoka in the animated series.

People know this character.
They've watched her grow up,

and the challenge was to
take all of the elements we had

and evolve them
into this live action version.

So cool.

Ahsoka is such a defined

prominent character,

and Rosario is so brave, and I know how...

I mean, she's gonna just fill those shoes
with aplomb.

I think we'd just have the hood down
for this scene and this moment,

and she would've put it down off-screen.

Copy that.

When we do attacks and kills,

- you'll have it up then. It'll be cool.
- Okay.

Already coming out with it?

Already coming out
with the hood down.

I like losing that business.

This is so strong. Your face is so strong.
There you go.

There are moments when I just stare at her
and I'm just like,

"Wow, she just looks like..."

- She came alive?
- "...this thing I've drawn."

Rosario's done all the research,
like, she knows the character,

but now she has to become it

in a way that's never happened before.

Her character was tricky
'cause it was walking that line

of finding her look
between human-realistic

and something that would satisfy
the fans for the Clone Wars graphic image.

I loved working with her.
You know, because there are nerves.

You wanna make sure
you get things right,

and there's a lot of, like, heavy thinking
that goes on, and so

she was able to really help me
kind of like, you know,

forget what I was doing and just have fun.

We get another scene together.

Yeah, I know, it's great. Yeah!

We wanted something slender,
something really elegant for her sabers.

Basically, it's a katana and a shoto.
We were also trying to work

with the technology that we needed
to talk to our lighting console.

So, with the batteries
and with the receivers,

all the different wireless gak
we had to put inside of it,

the saber kept getting bigger and bigger,
and Dave was just,

"No. It can't look like this."

We went through different iterations

where we basically ended up
slimming it down

and having to use an external battery

to get to what we needed,
so it looked correct.

- Stop.
- Yeah. As soon as we get 'em,

- we'll get 'em to you.
- Exciting.

- Looks good.
- What did you do today?

The big advance that we had
with lightsabers over the past few years,

of course, is getting
that interactive lighting

on the characters in the shots.

The DP can now frame based upon

where the light is in the scene
coming from the lightsaber,

so all of a sudden we can have
a really kind of moody scene,

Ahsoka coming through the trees,
and play her in silhouette

until she turns her lightsabers on
and it shapes her face.

If you're going low... Yeah!
You will go get more...

The lower you are, the more...

- That's good.
- Beautiful. Beautiful.

Rosario has this charisma and passion

about whatever it is she's doing,

- that she gets really into it.
- Up high.

She focuses a lot. She looks at you,
she really wants to know,

you're teaching her movements.
She's right behind you.

Another step,
left foot goes forward. Yeah.

And I come in... Hold it like this,
and then coming back up?

In trying to honor the old films,

he has to have that samurai feel,
it's based on them.

Slash. Slash.

Flowy movements. Flowing from one move
to another. Instead of...

You know, it was more flow from the sword,
so it was still samurai,

but it wasn't so clean.

- All right, we're gonna go again.
- When he says,

"I wished... I prefer if you took him."

- Have Grogu look up at Dad like, "Really?"
- Okay.

And then she's there talking,
and then have him look back to her.

But this little moment, if my dad said,
"I prefer if you took him."

You'd go,
"What're you talking about?"

Yeah. Not like shocking, but just like...

- No, but just kind of look... Yeah.
- Acknowledging each other.

I don't like bringing characters in
unless there's a real value to it.

So when I wrote the episode
with her in it this year,

it really was about
how can we learn this child's name?

Who would know these things?

Grogu and I can feel
each other's thoughts.

What's fascinating is,
she's the first character we've met

that really actually knew Yoda.

So, it's bringing back
all these memories and things

that aren't unlike
what the viewer experienced as well

when they saw the Child
for the first time.

I learned so much making that episode,
you know,

and I hope to bring that
to future episodes.

Never stop learning.

That's the way of the Jedi,
never stopped learning.

You wanna hold him?
You wanna hold the baby?

- No. You're being mean.
- There you go.

- Aw! I'm gonna die!
- This is it. Hold on a second.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's your great-great-great grandfather.

It is.

Robert Rodriguez, like,
blew my mind.

I worked with you for a day

and you changed my perspective
on the universe.

He's so chill. You know,
he brings his guitar, he hangs out.

But you know, in his head, it's non-stop.

What I think is so cool
about Robert,

is to bring his danger and grit
into an episode

and usher in an iconic character.

There wasn't anybody better than Robert
to bring that in.

Everybody loves Boba.
He's a great character,

and it's about authenticity
and at times connectivity

to other parts of Star Wars we know,
when it makes sense

and where should that character appear?
Probably in this show.

Do you think
they all know it's a prediction,

- are they gonna know it's Boba?
- Oh, yeah.

Right... Instantly.

But the debate will be,
they'll say, "No, that's..."

- Mando?
- "Mando." And then they'll be like,

"No, that's a Boba Fett sound,
they're messing with us."

But they already said it's not Boba.

Our guy had spurs, but not like that.

You know, I was nine years old
when the first Star Wars came out.

Saw it again and again,
all its re-releases,

and I was already a huge Boba Fett fan
before Empire Strikes Back even came out.

So Boba was a star
before the film ever premiered

and had us kids just so excited
to see the movie,

and to see him in it.

And anything called a bounty hunter
back then was just cool.

And the fact that you couldn't see
his face shrouded him in mystery.

You know, he was the flipside to Han Solo.

He had a jetpack, a cool ship,
really cool name.

I just remember that time period very well

of just the mystery of him, and he was
just always my favorite character.

I feel real honored
tobring back this character

and become the son of Jango.

Help!

The last time we see him,
you know, after the barge,

he falls into the Sarlacc.

What the...

For us to think, "Okay,
he survived that,the belly of the beast."

You know, with stomach acids
and stuff like that.

Jon and Dave wanted something to show
that something really happened to him.

The first makeup test
that we did was kind of like,

"This is how far we can go."

And then it got refined, so that
we can see a little bit more of him.

Save some of the humanity,
so that it's still there.

I think whatever it is,
it should be evocative

of whatever people's memory is.

- Take the one from Jabba's.
- The other way you held it.

It's stock under arm, right?

Try the stock under arm to see.

- Yeah, like that feels like Boba to me.
- Like that.

With that tilted down.

Let's look it up.

What really makes it Star Wars,
and I've heard this from every actor

that we've fit.

When they put on the costume,
they're like, "This is it."

Especially Tem, who plays Boba Fett.

When he put on his costume,
his posture changed.

You see the difference?
You see the perspective?

It's quite a dynamic feeling
to be in that armor.

He's the kingpin.

He's the kingpin of the galaxy.
You don't wanna mess with this guy.

It's like when you walk
into those cowboy bars

and the saloon doors open.

The first thing
you're gonna find out is,

who's the number one gunslinger
around here.

Otherwise, you're dead, so...

So, I'm that guy.

I ended up turning
a three-page battle scene

into a nine-minute battle scene

because I was just that excited
to be bringing Boba back,

and I had an idea, right away I told Jon.

I've been waiting
to see this version of Boba Fett

since I was a kid.
Boba has to be different,

he can't just seem like another Mando,
you know?

He has to move differently,
feel different,

occupy completely different space,

and have a weight and gravitas to him
that shows why he's such a legend.

I wanted him to live up to his name
that we would whisper since we were kids.

Be that mysterious character with a past
that makes you wanna knowmore about him.

If Mando is a gunslinger,
Boba needs to be a barbarian.

So, to illustrate
what I was talking about,

I took my Boba Fett
and stormtrooper Halloween costumes

and put them on my sons
and went into the backyard

and filmed Boba's arrival.

And since I didn't have stuntmen
at my disposal,

I used my Star Wars action figures

'cause a picture's worth a thousand words
and helped me just communicate

what I was going for with a crew.

And when I first showed it to Jon
and Dave Filoni, Dave said,

"Wait a minute. Were those
just action figures I saw?"

And I said, "Well, yeah,
I didn't have anything else on hand."

And he said, "No, you don't understand.
That makes it the coolest animatic ever."

And I just thought, "These are my people!"

Another thing about this character, Boba,
you know, the actual fight,

and the way he fights,

I'm actually drawing a lot
on my Māori traditional side.

Thing called the Haka. "Ha" is the breath.
"Ka" is fire. "Fire breath."

Temuera happened to show Jon
his traditional Māori dance,

which is a lot of spinning of the stick,
stomping, the tongue out and everything.

And Jon saw that, and he asked me

if we could do anything with that style
and make it fit.

After we talked about it, we told Josh
to start making this Māori weapon.

Temuera specifically requested
his own gaffi stick.

He wanted one that was longer
and one that was more slender.

If you look at the other ones
from the earlier films,

it's much more...
The shaft if just thicker and wider.

It didn't lend itself to the choreography
that he wanted for his fight.

We wanted to make sure
we had something specific

that he could have the action.
The action's pretty brutal.

He's gonna go
after some stormtroopers.

I'm pretty excited about that.

We had to take the show to location
for the first time

because of its scope, really.

You know, the Volume's incredible,
but it has limitations.

Direct sunlight over a large area,

that's difficult to do, that particular
lighting condition in the Volume.

Whenever we're going to do
direct sun,we usually go to the back lot.

And the back lot
wasn't big enough for this.

So we ended up in Simi Valley.

The terrain was so difficult.

Everything we wanted to take up
onto those rocks, we had to hand carry.

It's dry up there in Simi Valley.
We couldn't have any fire.

You know, no explosions.

Except for when Fennec's
running on the rock.

Those were practical.
Those were practical explosions,

and I think it's because
they were far enough away

from everything that was combustible.

And the fire department's there
when you do that sort of thing.

The special effects guys, they all have
fire extinguishers all over the place.

And it's very safe, but obviously,

the bigger explosions,
those were all visual effects.

I love doing physical stuff.

Every day we're running, jumping, we're...

We were parkouring
up these Rocky Mountain peaks.

There was one point when
we were really high up in the rocks,

and I'm watching the cameraman carrying
these 50 pound, I'm trying to traverse,

and we're trying to avoid poison oaks,

and we're trying to avoid rattlesnakes
and divots and stuff.

I was like, "Okay,
let's go back to the Volume."

My approach was to pretend
that this is the only other time

or episode we'll even see Boba Fett.

And it needs to satisfy.

I don't wanna take for granted

that he'll show up again
later in other episodes.

He needs to be all things
right here, right now.

That's what Boba Fett is all about.

This episode needed to say,

"Boba is back,"
and that was my main personal mission.

And with Rodriguez, yeah

Making season two of The Mandalorian

Oh, yeah

We got The Mandalorian blues
happening right here

On the sands of Tatooine

It's an interesting process
that happens on the show

because Jon is a writer
and does a lot of the writing

and Dave and I, I think,
are the only ones

other than Chris Yost,
who've written on the show.

Part of the process
was the refining of the script

as different ideas came together
and different things started to gel.

Rick has it all in his head.
He's so cool and laid-back.

You know what I mean?
If you watch the episodes that he's done,

you think that he'd be like this guy
on his toes and really like that.

He's just totally chill. He's like,
"Now we're gonna do this.

"Now we're gonna do that."
And then he just puts...

The way he puts it together,
yeah, is amazing.

Moving on, you guys.
Let's clean it up.

Where are we now?

I really appreciated
and I love working with Rick.

He's my...

I'd work with Rick
any day of the week.

Let's go! I've got a job for you.

If you wanted to try something
as a character he'd be like,

"All right, yeah. Well, you can try it."

And a lot of directors
like to take control and just, like,

"Be what I want you to be."

And Rick is like,
"All right. What you got in there?"

He comes right after with the
"Weren't you two the transport..."

He would notice where
you were discovering things

and, in recognizing that,
he would lean towards it.

And that was cool.
'Cause Rick's episode is the first time

that Mando takes his helmet off.

It's the first time we see his face
in season two.

And then I think the very first...
No, I'm sure.

The very first time another human being
sees his face

since he first put on the mask.

You the tank troopers
who delivered the shipment of rhydonium?

- Yes, sir.
- Yes, sir.

It's very economical
and subtle storytelling

and all about risking it all,

the value system, the Creed,
and everything to save the Child.

"Do we end this, you know,
sort of recon mission right here,

"or am I going to do the thing
I said I'd never do?"

But I think, for him
at this point, he is deciding

what his code really means for him
and protecting

this child is at the center of it.

I like the idea that inside of Star Wars,

which is gonna be filled
with a lot of big action,

that you could have
this quiet, tense scene

between these people
who have competing agendas,

who are trying to figure each other out.

All heroes of the Empire.

A fun and different break to take
within the world of Star Wars and Mando.

Nobody's ever seen what goes on
inside that ship when it rotates.

- Reorients.
- We've only seen the outside.

- Yeah.
- So that's...

That was one of the inspirations
for doing it on this stage.

Taking advantage
of what this stage could do.

Spinning's a good trick.

The ship has this condition
where it rotates when it takes off.

It starts off flat,
and then it goes like that.

So, the pilot sits on his back,
when it takes off, it rotates,

now he's sitting upright.
But down below is the navigation room,

and as the ship takes off
and it rotates into its flying condition,

that part of the ship stays level.

Instantly I knew that was
something we'd try in the Volume.

And it got me incredibly excited
because I think it's something

that kids back in the day
would've played with that ship

and wondered what it would be like
on the inside when it rotates through.

It was a bit of a challenge to
see if this would work on screens.

But to do that
with traditional special effects,

you can imagine.

It would be this huge, complicated rig.

So we built an elevated deck
with some seats on it,

and there's a console as well.
But that's the set.

All of the rest of the vehicle
is on the content.

Action.

We got to ultimately shoot it
on the stage against the LEDs.

And boy, oh, boy, was everybody excited.

I think that was the moment on season two

that mimicked the hyperspace
being turned on in season one.

It got everybody excited,
everybody knew where we were,

and everybody felt like a child again.
It was wonderful.

Never gets old.

One of the exciting things
that we did on season two

is we built a five-foot long
light cruiser miniature model.

This part slides out,
and that will access the front rod mount.

But what's inside this
is this little TIE fighter bay.

And this is where
the TIE fighter bay fits.

It's right back in here.

John Knoll used
his motion-control rig

to shoot a number
of miniature shots for that.

It's a classic sort of
Star Destroyer-ish ship,

but in a unique design with
interior lighting. It's just gorgeous.

We were all giddy as school children
when we saw the first takes come through.

It looks like we're transported right back
to the late '70s or early '80s,

doing exactly the same George did,
and we have that characteristic.

It takes me back to when I was a kid,
when I wanted it. I want that model.

It's pretty spectacular.

Also, we've been using miniatures
in a little bit different way.

We make the miniature,
and instead of filming on it,

it gets scanned,
and then put up on the screens.

In episode seven,
the miniature model maker

built 12, 15 TIE fighter balls
and this wonderful table top set

to be visualized on the screen.

That's an example
of taking the practical models

and bringing it into today's technology.

There's something about the hand.
You know, actually physically making it.

It gives it a look
that is uniquely Star Wars.

At the heart of what I wanted to do
with this episode was that, you know,

I think where we see Star Wars
sometimes in stark ways.

You know, there's the lightand the dark,

and there's the Rebels or the Empire.

What I really wanted to do was just kind
of have this conversation about that,

and that these things aren't always
as black and white,

and that there's so much gray,

and especially when we're talking
about power,

and the use of power,
and the transfer of power.

For me, I felt like, let's see how far
we can keep pushing things

and how much bigger
we can tell these stories.

To the Empire.

Bang against the floor,
and then looking at it,

and then almost surprising yourself.
I think I got it.

Let's cut it.

Cut.

As an almost lifelong Star Wars fan,

I don't think
I could have lived with myself

if I turned down doing that finale.

That was an exciting thing, to have Mando
at the center of this rescue mission.

And then to have Bo-Katan
and to have Koska,

and then to have Fennec and Cara
making their way

through this Imperial ship.
That was fantastic.

When I read the script,
I was like, I'm dying to do this.

Pivot into that position here.

And then I'll cue, ding!
Door will open and...

Okay.

When you do an episode of
Mandalorian you're like, "Which characters

"are gonna be in my episode?

"What are the sequences like?"

And in 208,
Moff Gideon has the Darksaber,

and now Mando has this beskar staff.

And what happens if those two weapons
go up against each other?

That's not gonna be
just another lightsaber duel.

It's gonna be
something different entirely.

What does it look like?

The Darksaber
was enormously difficultto get right.

Because this is something that
Dave and George came up with together.

Dave has a real sense of propriety
over that object

and what it should look like, feel like

to audiences on screen.

I commissioned this.

It's silver.

Yeah. That's the new change.
Yeah, it can be silver.

- Why not? He can paint it.
- Stop it.

There was a lot of time put into
getting the energy effect just right

that you see along the blade.

I think we landed on a look
that's really spectacular

and feels different,

and yet still feels
like a Star Wars movie.

This is where it's going.

This season we do a lot of fighting
with the Darksaber.

We had to re-engineer
and re-design how we did it.

This is a full aluminum machine hilt
to give us more structural integrity.

It's intense, man. It's feeling good.

Moff Gideon is not a master swordsman.
He feels more like a bureaucrat.

But what he does have is
he has the Darksaber in his possession,

and he also has this rage.

And we almost got into trouble

by running through
too many prop Darksabers.

Josh, the prop master, was...
He wasn't thrilled, but he was there.

He was totally prepared.

But Giancarlo just had this fury
as he came in there,

and it shows in the finished episode.

Oh, my God!

Giancarlo brings the greatest energy ever.

Yeah. Hell yeah!

Yeah. Keep it going. Keep moving.

Yeah.

It actually brings up
my skill set as well.

If he's coming
with a lot of energy and heart,

I have to really be on point, too,

and everything is gonna look strong
and on point.

So, you know, we're literally fighting.

It's gonna add to the scene,

and people are gonna be blown away
by that.

Your attitude's right, too.

- Thank you.
- Yeah, man.

Still, still, still.

Okay, front two, we're getting ready
to do the arm raise in three, two, one.

Lock it.

One of the exciting parts
about the Dark Trooper designs

was that Jon,

as always, wants to photograph something.

Not do it as a full CG version.

He would have us, very specifically,

look at the way that the surfaces
on Darth Vader would reflect the light.

You look at the shoulder pads
or the helmet,

it's not a perfect surface.
With a 3D model,

you'll get a perfect surface
unless it's engineered and modeled in

from the artist to not be perfect.

And so what was important to Jon
was that we photographed actors in-camera.

For the live-action version, we knew

that they had to be
performed by stunt actors.

And that demanded that we couldn't modify
the portions too much,

and yet we still had to make sure that
it looked like the original inspiration.

To really highlight the fact
that there isn't a human inside the droid,

what we're doing in visual effects

is adding in all the pistons
around the neck

or the jointing around the elbows
or the knees,

the ankles or the shoulders,

and they have to be seamless.

Tweezers.

No, he always had two. It's weird.

You don't see it, but he has
one wrapped around this way

- and the other through the back. Yeah.
- The bottom as well.

Those are so gross.
These little things. And they're ticklish.

They're ticklish.

Jabba's palace, we were desperate
to put that on the Volume.

The challenge with Jabba's palace is
we simply couldn't find a good seam

for where we could go from practical
to the digital walls.

It had to match exactly
from the blueprints

of the original movie,
the Return of the Jedi.

The intention is to
just get that feel back

you got when you first saw it.

...my Lord.

There's a lot of little nooks
and cranniesaround the back of that one.

It wasn't a shape that suited
breaking down into a Volume set.

So we built that physically.
And got it very accurate.

So cool. And this is like,
we look through here with pictures.

Crack for crack,
a re-creation of Jabba's palace.

You go on, and it's like,
"Oh, wow. We're in the palace,

"and there's that weird mobile
hanging down the stairs

"where Carrie Fisher hits her head."

Every detail is...

Because everybody has
a personal relationship

with every frame of those movies.

And you walk on the set,
and that thing's there.

It's exactly the same.

When we do recreate things,
like Jabba's palace,

we show it the proper respect,

and not just the respect for
making it look like the place,

like when we did the cantina,

but for the people that worked on it.

For the people that were a part
of the legacy at Lucasfilm

that are the reason we have jobs.

Living up to that expectation
and living up to that creativity.

From Return of the Jedi
to where we are today,

we knew it was years after
that Bib Fortuna took over.

So we tried to figure out,
"Okay, what would have changed?

"What would've been the same?"

We obviously put the throne in there,
where I think in the original,

they had the band
and they were mid-partying.

It was just a different,
little more lighthearted.

We took it a bit darker,

a bit seedier,
that kind of feel in there.

- Jabba the Hutt, I get that that's him.
- Yeah.

But whenever they say
there's other Hutts...

- Yeah...
- They're all fat, big too.

- Yeah, yeah.
- But there is something that you become...

Gluttonous. It's the gluttony.

It changes. It's like with the...
How the ring makes you gaunt.

Is there some...
It's a metaphor for, like, gluttony.

You know, what if he has the big fat.

To where he, like, he gets
that second embellishment.

Yeah. Yes.

I think if you accent that
under there that would really help.

Underneath, that's what happens.

Okay. Got it. Okay.
So you wanna pursue this?

Inside Bib Fortuna costume is Matt Wood.

He comes from the sound department,

and we were working with him
on season one.

And Dave has worked with him
on Clone Wars for a long time.

Big staple at Lucasfilm.

But the real thing here
is that you played him...

I did, yeah.
For Phantom Menace and the prequels.

You were born to do this.

Yes, right. Yeah, I know.
George had me do it in '97.

Never thought I'd do it again.
It's great.

- Matt Wood. Looking back.
- Matt Wood.

He was trooper, he was way into it,
which was really cool.

It was two big tentacles,
a cowl, a big face piece.

He wore contacts, he wore the teeth,

he had all of the big finger cups
and wore a big fat suit.

- Another cool thing is this staff.
- I love the staff.

This is something that was not
in the films, but actually was...

Could you talk about the backstory?

Well, yeah. As a kid, I even had
the Bib Fortuna action figurine

that Michael Carter played,
and to have the staff

that was part of the action figure
that was never seen in the movies.

And here it is.

I don't know if I've ever seen
anybody happier

while wearing such an enormous costume.

But to be standing there
in Jabba's palace...

It's one of those moments
where you just sort of pinch yourself,

and you're thinking about the fact
that you're there on a set

that's recreated from almost 40 years ago.

Not only do people want to
see it in the story,

it almost demands
and it deserves being revisited.

By the time you get
to the end of season two,

you could see on the page
the potential for this extreme emotion.

And that was really the challenge,

is to kind of like
bring all these elements together,

and I felt an extreme sense
of responsibility

to get this episode right.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

Getting to be a part of
The Mandalorian

in general is amazing.

You know, 'cause we didn't know
whether or not it was gonna work.

For it to materialize
in such a specific way,

in such visually familiar ways,

it continues to have
this very surreal relationship

to the actual child that you were

and these movies that you saw
in the movie theater.

It's not just about the recreation
of a set location

or characters that we've seen before.

It's what we're doing with them,
how we're executing them.

That's all part of the magic.

It is this mix
of incredible talent

that come from so many different places,
but everyone just bringing it

week after week.

When you get a call
to be on Star Wars,

you're like,
"I believe. I believe. I'm in.

"I'm gonna give everything I have."

And every department
gives everything they have.

It's a true team.

And every one of them
contributes something.

I think why it's resonated so deeply
with the audience

is that it's just the level of surprise
that comes.

It's all the tropes put together
in a completely new way

that's very George Lucas.
I think it feels just very true

because Jon and Dave really had that
in mind. They wanted to make something

that felt true to the roots
of what George was doing.

It's all there. And hopefully,
this is an opportunity

to bring all the different groups of fans
together for one experience.

This is the Way.