Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian (2020–…): Season 3, Episode 1 - The Making of Season 3 - full transcript

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.

We knew that that's
where things were headed.

And we knew that we
were going to begin

to deal with what had happened
and what we had set up.

And we also knew that

because of the lore around
the rules and the Creed

among the Mandalorians
with the helmet,

that as different groups of
Mandalorians came together

and as he revealed his face,

we knew that we couldn't just
hit reset and start over again.

So the decision was made.

What was true for the
character was going to be

that he was going to have to
receive some sort of redemption

if he were to be reaccepted into
this culture that he held so dear.

The Creed teaches
us of redemption.

Redemption is no longer possible since
the destruction of our homeworld.

But what if the mines of
Mandalore still exist?

Mandalore was an
interesting challenge,

in that we haven't seen a
live-action interpretation of that.

Dave Filoni created quite a bit
of that for the animated series.

And our job was to take that and
then translate to live action.

George Lucas had the idea that
the planet was devastated.

So it's pretty much a virtual
desert on the surface.

And the inhabitants of Mandalore
live in these artificial domes.

Inside the domes is
this very lush culture.

And it was really tricky
in terms of balancing,

"Okay, how much destruction
versus how much aesthetic taste

"to bring in for Mandalore?"

We looked at the nuclear Trinity test
site where the explosion was so hot

that it fused the sand
into a glass like material.

And Jon said that the idea was
that the surface of Mandalore

had undergone such a
series of nuclear blasts

that the surface had fused
into this shiny material

with this green color
that trinitite has.

And we went to all sorts
of lengths to explore that,

including buying some
radioactive trinitite

that you have to wear
gloves to handle.

And eventually, we settled on a
process that used a special resin

that gave us something that really looked
like the concept art and was durable.

You gotta do something that's
gonna last through production.

Jon and Dave, they love the
old school way of making films.

A lot of models.

Andrew had given me a call and said,
"You need to sculpt a cave set."

And then, Phil Tippett
was gonna collaborate

and bring his team in and actually put
all the flavor on the inside of this.

All the scenery.

So I basically
sculpted the whole form

and then, Phil went in
and made it beautiful.

Part of what our memory
is of Star Wars from growing up,

is a lot of it is
Phil's aesthetic.

Whether it was the dejarik chess board
with the stop motion chess characters

or, the rancor,

Phil Tippett was one of the original
collaborators with George Lucas,

and we thought that Phil would
be great to collaborate with

on what Mandalore
would look like.

To create something that was
both tech and nightmarish.

Because we wanted the
mines of Mandalore

to look different from
anything on the show.

And, of course, Phil
Tippett's aesthetic

was something that we thought
we would really benefit from.

We actually use his models
to do photogrammetry

and help build it into the
Volume and into the CGI.

This is obviously a huge episode for
Star Wars fans to get to see Mandalore

and to get to see the
ruins of a city destroyed.

Look around.

There's nothing left.

A great society is now a memory.

You have people treading and
retreading some of the same footsteps

and going deeper and
deeper into the underbelly.

And how do you keep the gradience
feeling different and new?

Do we go from a more translucent
green to a deeper green?

And what does it feel like for Bo
to see Mandalore for the first time

as somebody who was raised
there and saw it destroyed,

versus The Mandalorian, who
has sort of fetishized it

and has never actually set foot?

And how do we see that differently
through each of their eyes?

"These mines date back to the
age of the first Mandalore.

"According to ancient folklore, the
mines were once a Mythosaur lair.

"Mandalore the Great is said to
have tamed the mythical beast.

"It is from these legends that
the skull signet was adopted

"and became the
symbol of our planet."

The Mythosaur
originates from a graphic

that was included in the
costume of Boba Fett.

It was a graphic that just probably
seemed pleasing at the time.

It was a skull of some
sort of tusked creature.

And over the decades, it has
grown to be a particular species.

And there's talk that the Mythosaur
was ridden by the Mand'alor

and that it was a creature that
was evolved on that planet.

And as you talk about ancient
Mandalorian history, it comes up.

But it all came from
just that one visual.

And we referenced it back in season one,
when he's learning how to ride the blurrg.

Do you have a landspeeder or
speeder bike that I could hire?

You are Mandalorian!

Your ancestors rode
the great Mythosaur.

Surely you can ride
this young foal.

I loved it there because
it felt iconic for a western.

The riding of the horse, the
breaking of the wild mustang.

So that was fun to
play with there.

But as we got deeper in
in going to Mandalore,

you start to say, "Well,
what can we pull into this?"

And how could we incorporate a lot
of the stories that have been told

that aren't necessarily
canon per se

but still acknowledging that
a lot great creative minds

have been contributing to
Star Wars over the years?

The songs of eons past
foretold of the Mythosaur rising up

to herald a new
age of Mandalore.

Sadly, it only
exists in legends.

If you set something
up in a movie in your first reel

and you pay it off
on the last reel,

that is really great
feeling of satisfaction

that you have this delayed
gratification of something paying off.

Well, with television, you can do
that over the course of many years.

And I find that
extremely satisfying.

The Mythosaur moment
for her is this moment of faith

where she sees something
that should be impossible.

And she is asked
to believe in it.

If the creature gets up out of
the water and reveals itself,

it's just way too obvious.

It has to be something isolated.
Something that only she sees.

Something that she
has to make a choice.

Do you trust your eyes?

"Did I really see that?
How is that even possible?"

Did you see anything alive?

Alive? Like what?

Nothing.

We're a communal species.
We connect with one another.

We're influenced by the
people we spend time with.

And especially people that we face
challenges with and work with.

And so, what seems to be naive to
her maybe there's something that...

It's not just a matter
of her filling him in

on how things really
are on Mandalore,

but maybe his fresh perspective is
going to inform how she sees things.

Why are all of these things
that shouldn't be possible possible?

Why does this Mandalorian, Din Djarin,
believe in all this hokey things

that only Mandalorian children
were supposed to believe in?

But as she watches him have
this faith and believe in it,

the world around him
starts to change.

And it starts to
change for the better.

So she starts to change, 'cause
she thinks maybe this is the way.

When you choose to
walk the Way of the Mand'alor,

you will see many things.

But it was real.

This is the Way.

This season, we were challenged
with creating seven distinct environments.

Two of them were environments
we've already seen.

One of the most fascinating ones for
me was actually revisiting Coruscant.

A trillion
permanent residents.

Amazing.

All these people working together
to make something better.

It makes me feel
rather insignificant.

So, in my episode, once
we transitioned to Coruscant,

we start to the episode
off in the opera house.

It's the same opera house that
you see in Revenge of the Sith.

So I went back

and looked at how that space was
filmed in that original movie

and also the visual
language in that movie.

And tried to recreate
it a little bit here.

In Revenge of the Sith the
character is going up the steps.

Anakin runs up the stairs.

And in here, Pershing
goes down the stairs.

So we tried to put the
camera in a similar spot

to give audiences a nod that,

"Hey, we're revisiting some places
that you may have seen in the past."

- I'm very lucky.

And we're lucky to have
you, Doctor Pershing.

How are you finding the
city? Comfortable, I hope?

Yes. Though anything would be
comfortable compared to the Outer Rim.

Coruscant is one of those environments
or planets that is so rich

and has so much history.

When I was working with George
Lucas, designing it in 1995,

we actually designed a
majority of the planet.

And in the prequel films you
only see a small portion of that.

So there's a lot of layers of design
that have always been figured out

and we never really had an
opportunity to execute them.

One of the really fun
ones for me was that

Coruscant has this very unique
form language for these speeders.

Air taxis.

And we had seen some of them
already back in the prequels.

I thought, "Wouldn't it be terrific
to tie the design continuity

"to bring those designs back?"

And we literally did that.

It's almost exactly the
same, same color palette.

And we just made it into our own
bespoke version for our show.

Ah. Look at that,
here we are. Amnesty Housing.

Please watch your step
as you exit the vehicle.

When I came on to this job,
Jon and Dave both told me

that I would do well if I
could figure out a genre

that I'd like to put
this episode into.

So, as I was reading the script, my
mind instantly went to Hitchcock.

You
sure we're alone?

Yep.

Ships are all inoperable.

No need to guard 'em.

The entire sequence
that we filmed in the train,

we tried to film in a
Hitchcock sort of mode.

We incorporated a lot of looks

and the types of suspense that
he uses in the visual language.

A lot of this show happens
with everyone wearing helmets.

But with Omid and Katy, they had
to kind of carry this episode

through their performance,
through their looks,

through the way in which they
subtly react to different things.

They were phenomenal.

Keep
it together, Doc.

You're better
at this than I am.

Oh, you'll get the hang of it.

We are not
making typical TV.

I've been involved throughout my
career with doing television, man.

This is another creature.
It is so much bigger than.

It is so much broader than.
So much more involved.

I wasn't steeped
in Star Wars lore.

But the material
was so damn good.

Four years later and we're
still rocking and rolling.

It is your favorite director.

Yeah!
Yeah!

Yay, Carl!

You can't say it, I'm
saying it for you.

- Um...

Welcome back, uh, to 304.

Carl had a very big
task this season.

With an entire episode
with a ton of moving parts.

I mean, we have kids
being taken by big birds

and tons of Mandalorians
and big huge fight scenes.

And rock climbing.

And, you know, his episode
legitimately had everything in it.

It's fascinating to
me that the Mandalorian culture

is something that we allude to
throughout every episode basically.

And in the episode that I was
fortunate enough to direct,

we open with this great
sequence of training.

And so, we get a chance to see how
you're introduced into that culture

with the various skill
sets that are necessary.

And the baby plays a big
part in that opening.

Ready.

Begin!

Whoa!

Three points. Winner!

What puts a measure on your
story is how creative can you be.

We try to give the audience something
that they've never seen before.

Like in season one,

Jon wants to make a Baby Yoda.

I'm like, "What? Why?
Why would we do this?

"That sounds like
not a good idea."

But, you put that initial
fear aside and you say,

"Okay, well, let's
really examine this."

And I was like,

"Jon, if you're gonna do this,
I'm gonna be there with you.

"'Cause I know Yoda's one of
George's favorite characters

"and we cannot mess this up."

But I also knew Jon
a bit as a filmmaker.

And I know he's
got a great heart

and a great sensibility for telling
stories that are meaningful to people.

And that maybe this little child could
turn out to be something special.

But we didn't think it was gonna
be a puppet the whole time.

We thought it'd be CG.

Jon's coming off of making
Lion King and Jungle Book,

where the CG is practically
unparalleled with its believability.

And here it is, we got Werner Herzog
telling us, "No. Believe in the puppet."

And well, the world did.

I would like to see the baby.

Uh...

It is asleep.

We all will be quiet.

The Grogu puppet
improves every single year.

And the Legacy performers are
always tinkering and finding ways

to honestly allow the puppet to do
as much practically as possible.

Don't underestimate
how significant

his interpretation
of the moment is.

Okay.

'Cause he's
everybody's touchstone.

The best direction we get is when they
treat the puppet like it's an actor.

They tell it what to do and we're
all standing around to hear it.

And we're reacting to
what the director wants.

There's an unspoken
chemistry to this where we...

Just getting to know him and
watching this character develop,

he's kind of got this personality
of his own that we all understand.

No, Grogu.

And, cut.

How Jon integrates
Grogu into these stories

and tells the story at times from
Grogu's point of view is so beautiful.

It's just beautiful. It's
the only word for it.

This is the Forge.

The Forge can reveal weaknesses.

We knew we had
to tell more stories

'cause we've told flashbacks
about what happened to Grogu.

And how Grogu escaped
the Jedi Temple.

We've shown little glimpses
and clips of his memory.

Most recently in The
Book of Boba Fett.

And so, we wanted to continue to
tell that story in small chapters.

We had to figure out,
"What's the next chapter?

"What's the likely thing
that would've happened?"

Get the youngling
to Kelleran! Go!

What was clear was we needed
Grogu to have a type of savior companion

that preceded Mando and
that it would be a Jedi.

And then it becomes important
to say, "Well, who is that?"

'Cause that'll be a big deal.

And for me, it's always
nice when it's somebody,

"in the family"
here at Lucasfilm.

Someone that's been out
there representing Star Wars,

interacting with fans,
carrying the banner.

And Ahmed Best has been such an
important part of our Star Wars history.

Don't worry, kid.
Everything's gonna be okay.

I come in and see it's the baby, do
you want this to come down or stay up?

It'll never be up because
then you're not on guard anymore.

- Right.
Right?

It doesn't come back up until
you pick up the second one.

- Now you're gonna take care of business.
- Got it.

He grew
up as part of it.

Through all
different eras of it.

Jon! We haven't seen each other
since I was 16-years-old on the prequels.

'Cause I was hanging
around during the prequels.

And he also has
martial arts training.

He introduced the character of
Kelleran Beq, a Jedi, into Star Wars.

And we thought that this could
present a really cool opportunity

to incorporate him
into The Mandalorian.

- It hasn't really hit me yet.
- Yeah.

I never thought I'd
be back, to be honest.

Especially like
this. So, it's crazy.

Don't worry. We're gonna meet
up with some friends of mine.

But hold on, it's gonna
be a bumpy landing.

When I wrote the
character of The Armorer

in the very first episode
of The Mandalorian,

we were trying to fill in what
that Mandalorian lore was.

And we made the
decision early on

that this character would be
seen as the shamanistic figure.

This was gathered
in the Great Purge.

It is good it is
back with the tribe.

This audition came along
that my agent said was

probably something
to do with Star Wars.

I knew that this character was the
leader of a group of people in hiding.

And it said that she was Zen-like.
And that's what I had to go on.

I do remember that
in the audition scene

I had to say the line,
"This is the Way."

And, of course, I had no idea.

This is the Way.

This is the Way.

Jon said that
especially for her,

they were really going back to a lot
of Kurosawa films and The Last Samurai.

And just that majesty and that
stillness, that regalness.

And that helped so much.

Emily has done
a really wonderful job

in helping to breathe
life into this character

and to make the character human.

On top of the mask and
on top of the archetype.

Our people have strayed from the Way and
it is not enough for a few to walk it.

We must walk it together.

There's a
lot of backstory

and there's a lot of moving
parts to the saga that seem like

they've kind of really started to
come to fruition with this season.

Now, many of
you don't know Greef Karga.

And those that do fought
against him when you rescued me

from his ambush many cycles
ago on the streets of Nevarro.

Since then, he's had
a change of heart

and has risked his life to save mine
as well as the foundling in my charge.

My episode centers around
Greef Karga and Nevarro.

I won't abandon my city.

We have to get the
public to safety.

Greef Karga at this
point is a bureaucrat really.

But he is still a guy
who can handle himself.

And who will step up when
necessary to do some handling.

Don't mistake my
hospitality for weakness.

Is that what you call gunning
down my helmsman in cold blood?

When he let down his
guard on your planet.

He shot first.

There's a few different genres
that I feel this episode touches on.

Our pirates led by Gorian Shard

are definitely beholden
to classic buccaneers.

Right down to wardrobe details.

So we had a lot
of fun with that.

But once the action really gets
going and the siege is under way,

the Mandalorians come to the
aid of the people of Nevarro.

And it turns into kind of a pitched
battle that feels a little bit like

something out of
Saving Private Ryan.

It really does become like
a full on battle sequence.

There's explosions, there's
kind of handheld cameras,

there's all the signatures
of battlefield action.

You fall in
love with a storyboard,

and we're never gonna
get that. Look at that.

Yeah.

Three people midair at once.
Wow.

With the fireball.

I'll pay you the highest
compliment, it looks like CGI.

This season's been fun just playing
around with different things

that we can do with jetpacks and
these weapons that we've been given

and these Star Wars rules.

We've definitely got to play with
a lot more different fun ideas.

This season there's
a lot more Mandalorians.

We've had some times where we have 30
plus stunt people working at one time.

And just having to
watch everything

and make sure everyone's performing the
same way and with the same intensity,

that's probably
the hardest thing.

Just because of the number and
just the scale of what we're doing.

You'll get a little support
fire as he's coming.

And you can come up, boom, boom,
and Joe will pass you for the thing.

Pop, pop. But when she doesn't
shoot, watch. Boom, boom, boom.

You can come over here and just
come after her like this. Boom.

You'll come up into this.

As long you're in the
front, lead this charge.

Weapons are intrinsic
to the Mandalorian culture.

So I think that's something
really fun to get to explore.

One of the
challenges for us this season

was the amount of
Mandalorian weapons.

The quantity of it.

We still like to do the
same methods as season one.

So what we normally do is
start with the artwork.

We show the illustrations to
Jon and Dave and Rick and Doug.

Get approval on everything. And
then once we start building.

These are the notes we basically did for
Mando's new blaster that he's getting.

So we extended the
barrel like you wanted.

Made it longer, inch and a
half longer. Changed the grip

to go back to the original
grip where the top's in center.

But still makes it feel
Empire. A cool gun for Mando.

Mando's blaster is iconic.

I love that gun. We've
had it for three seasons.

And it's a big change to go
to a new blaster for Mando.

But I think it
works really well.

Star Wars has always been
the blending of technology

with the right amount of just
pure hand built craftsmanship.

Which I think is what's really
exciting about the world.

And so, I get geeked out as much by the
latest prop that I have to work with.

Or droid
that's being built.

Or a costume and how it flows.
And how it feels lived in

as anything we're
doing on the Volume.

Could you all put
your helmets on for us?

Creating
60 brand new Mandalorians

from the three different
tribes was amazing.

We got to do a survivor look.

We got to do the
original covert look.

And then we got to explore
the Bo-Katan group.

Former, I guess, Death
Watch or former Nite Owls.

We called them the Marines.

It was very much influenced
by the animation.

I designed this helmet
on a Southwest flight one day.

Shut up. Really?
- It was on a napkin and I...

I wanted Bo-Katan to have
a specific style cutout.

And so, it's based
on a barn owl.

And it's like the beak

- and the eyes of the barn owl.
Oh, cool.

It was fun to
create each individual art.

With them all wearing
basically the same armor

but being able to
distinguish one from another.

Basically what we did was,

we sort of created an assembly line
in the creation of the armor itself.

But then, we found unique ways
of, especially with the survivors,

replacing bits of
armor with like,

what would you find on a planet
that had been through an apocalypse?

Wood and leathers and furs,

anything you could put
together to protect yourself.

But because you're from a
religion of the Mandalorians,

you would find a way to sculpt
that into traditional shapes.

- B2 battle droid.
Oh, that's cool.

Each individual Mandalorian tells a story.
And that's always what I tell my artists.

I wanna know the story behind
the choices that we're making

for every crack, every stitch.

Mary, my costumer,
gets very frustrated with me

because I like to talk about
game time preparations.

I don't let her put my
gauntlets on or my gloves.

That's something I do.

It's like tying up my shoes
before a basketball game.

That's part of my process.

This is the Way.

This is the Way.

The first few
times I wore the armor,

I had to rely so much on
what I knew it looked like

because it felt
incredibly awkward.

And, um, it's funny now,

I meet so many of the
members of the 501st

or the Mando Mercs, or the Rebel
Legion, who do the cosplay all the time.

They all just nod their heads and
they're like, "Yup. Yup. Yup."

We each
begin as raw ore.

We refine ourselves through
trials and adversity.

Suit acting is very different than
acting with a face, if you will.

You really have to be conscious
of what a head movement says.

Every tilt, every little
thing was so loud on camera.

And so, we had to be incredibly
specific about what we were doing.

It was such a wonderful
time of trial and error.

Bo-Katan Kryze is going off to
bring other Mandalorians in exile to us

so that we may join
together once again.

This is my fourth season working
with The Mandalorian family.

For a lot of the episode, it's
the introduction of a new planet.

It's the introduction of a new cast
of characters we've never seen before.

You will always be welcome
in our domed paradise.

I read the script
and then I was like,

"Oh, okay, so casting,
what are you thinking?"

And Jon's all, "Oh, yeah, we already
have three key new cast members.

"Jack Black, Lizzo and
Christopher Lloyd."

I was like, "
Right. Okay!"

Bombardier.

Jon Favreau claims that
he wrote this role for me.

I think he did.

I love the
name Bombardier.

I like to think
that I'm a badass.

That I actually could
hold my own in battle.

There's no talk of that.

In the script it just
says that I used to be...

Yeah, it fits.
a facilities planning officer.

- Is Bombardier a dancer?
I think so.

Dude, his name is Bombardier.
It's got bomb in the name.

How can he just
be a facilities planner?

He's got a blaster.
You just don't see it.

What's so fun
is that Lizzo and Jack

have been very public about
their support for Star Wars

and this show and
the characters.

Oh, my God!

Amazing, right?

- Yes, I got my Grogu hat on.

I'm a huge fan.

Their enthusiasm was
absolutely infectious.

Who wouldn't wanna party
with Bombardier?

Everyone wants to
party with Bombardier.

I'm gonna have to do a quick
research study on all dancing

that's ever taken place in any
Star Wars film or side series.

'Cause I definitely feel like
I need to have the moves.

Just a little taste for
the behind the scenes!

My job working with Jack and
Lizzo was to just not break.

Because no take is the same.

And my goal was
just to get out of the way.

Who wants to take
on the champion?

They infused so
much energy and enthusiasm

and passion into
every single moment.

The moons of Paraqaat.

The moons of Paraqaat,

- that's a hit.

It reminds us yet again that, "Oh,
my gosh, we're making Star Wars.

"Isn't that bananas?"

Okay, this is... I... This is...

If you guys wanna be on time today,
get this baby out of my hands.

A Quadro-blast! I've
never seen such a streak!

On Plazir, it's kind of this
idealized city of the future.

And as part of their working force,
they sort of lean into robots.

The citizens voted against any
interruption in droid services.

They can't live without it.

We thought, "On Plazir,
wouldn't it be terrific

"to have a cantina but
make it a droid bar?"

Can I help you?

That depends. Is
this The Resistor?

This is.

Literally, this became one
of the most fun sets for me

because when you
look around the room,

you're seeing droids
from all of our films,

from all the different eras.

All sort of in this
one environment.

It's like the greatest hits
of all the droids in Star Wars.

And that was just an
enormous amount of fun.

And also really complicated.

He looks a little bit like
he's giving the middle finger.

Okay, tan droid, put
your left arm down, please?

One of the things that's
important to depict in terms of droids

is having the majority of
them be practical droids.

Like actually being there and being
performed and operated by human beings.

I think it was the
most droids in one scene,

- I could be wrong, in a Star Wars thing.
Yeah.

Including like,
inside the sandcrawler.

- It was so cool.
- Yeah, 20 puppeteers.

- Yeah, 20...
- Scrambling around doing...

- Mostly doing two puppets at one time.
- Yeah.

Every person had at least
two puppets, maybe three.

You start here with these
puppets and as the camera went by

you jump over to two other
puppets down the line.

It was really fun.
Yeah.

Looks so good.
Team Legacy, y'all.

Thank you so much.

Bryce's episode
is a lot more lighthearted

than some of the other
episodes this season.

But she also has
the task of this

tremendous heaviness
at the very end of it.

Which is where Bo-Katan
goes to get her people back.

And try to convince them
to follow her again.

I've come
to reclaim my fleet.

It's no
longer your fleet, is it?

Then I challenge you,

one warrior to another.

And it's this
epic fight between Bo-Katan

and Axe Woves, played by Simon.

Do you yield?

In the first season
that he was in,

in my episode, his character Axe
Woves was originally written to die.

And I've gotta say this,
like, Simon is so wonderful.

Part of the reason why we want to keep
him around is because he's so great.

I had no idea I'd be back.

And not only am I back but
I've come back to this arc.

That just knocks my socks off.

You'll never be the true
leader of our people.

You won't even take
the Darksaber from him.

He's the one you
should be challenging.

Enough Mandalorian blood has
been spilled by our own hands.

Mandalorian belief is that

whoever possesses the
Darksaber rules Mandalore.

And you cannot accept it as a
gift. You have to win it in battle.

And for anyone who has
seen Clone Wars and Rebels,

they know that Bo-Katan
accepted it one time.

And she believes that moment led
to the Night of a Thousand Tears.

Which was the destruction of
the planet and the people.

Bo-Katan is
a cautionary tale.

She once laid claim
to rule Mandalore

based purely on blood and
the sword you now possess.

I think
people expected Mando.

He had the sword, he's
gonna take the throne.

He's gonna change from a travelling
bounty hunter to Aragorn or something.

And you felt like, "Oh, that's seems
like where you're gonna go with it."

But if you look at the
clues, it actually hopefully,

makes you reach the
conclusion of where we went

because if you notice in the
first time he uses Darksaber,

it's heavy for him. Even
The Armorer tells him that.

There. Feel it.

You are too weak to
fight the Darksaber.

It will win if you
fight against it.

You cannot control it
with your strength.

But then Bo-Katan gets her hands
on the Darksaber when Din Djarin's trapped

and she uses it
like a fencing foil.

She coveted that
Darksaber so much

but without even thinking gives
it back him before he wakes up.

After she rescues him.

And so, what many may have expected to
be a show down between the two of them,

ends up with them both going
for something very different

and working together.

And ultimately, all of the different
Mandalorian groups coming together.

Mandalorians.

It is time to retake
our home world.

I need volunteers
from both tribes.

They need each other.

And we are learning all the time

that we need other people
to help us in our life.

So that's why these things
are powerful and relatable.

For Mandalore!

For Mandalore!

In Star Wars, you
want a feeling of hope,

a feeling of adventure but more so
uplifting positivity to be happening.

It is a sign that
the next age is upon us.

I think we need a range of
stories and experiences in Star Wars

that go from being cute and
fun to being serious and dark.

You knew in the old movies
when Darth Vader showed up,

it was time to get serious.

But you knew when it was fun when
you see the Jawas or the Ewoks.

It was a little
more lighthearted.

But you also knew that
those lighthearted things

that seem fun and simple might
pay off later in a big way.

They might be meaningful.

The smallest lives, the
most insignificant people

can sometimes rise up and
do the greatest things.

If you wanna see Baby
Yoda walking around

in a metal body like exoskeleton
power suit like Ripley in Aliens

we've got that.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I thought it
was really fun idea.

I never try to lose touch with the
kid that saw Star Wars that I was.

And think, "Boy, I
would've loved that."

Go, Grogu. Go.

I was
actually piloting IG,

so I was the one who had IG
strapped to my shoulders.

And these guys puppeteered
the Baby inside of it.

Rick, Rick Galinson built IG.

Amazing piece of art itself.

Inside the cavity,
where Grogu lives,

he has two control stations
to make him walk around.

And when Grogu moves, these
two make the character walk.

It actually moves Grogu.

So these are motorized and we have
a duplicate of this chassis area

that's a control station and when
we move these sticks like this,

these ones follow suit.

And looks like he's piloting the
character and not the other way around.

Once it got on set, we kind of knew
that something special was happening.

There's serious stakes and
people get hurt and it's a battle.

But here's this child,
this little Baby Yoda,

Grogu, that because...

If he's nothing else, he's
filled with heart and compassion.

And he wants to save and protect.
And that's what he wants to do.

He protects The Mandalorian,

who doesn't seem to need
a lot of protection.

Grogu, I'm going to need you
to be brave for me, okay?

We can't keep running.

If we don't take out Moff
Gideon, this will never end.

With all
great villains,

there's a guilty
level of likeability

that we have as an audience
for these characters.

And even though we might revile what
they're doing or their motivation,

there's always been
a certain charisma.

I mean, from Vader on, there was
an attraction to these characters

and I think that is what Giancarlo
brought to the role of Moff Gideon.

Thanks to your planet's
rich resources,

I have constructed the next
generation Dark Trooper suit

forged from beskar armor.

The most impressive part
is that it has me in it.

Giancarlo's
a storyteller.

And he thinks things through.

He considers it, then
completely invests in it.

And when you're working
with an actor like that,

you're really working
with a partner.

They're helping you. They're
asking you the right questions.

So, it's a real collaboration.

Did it once here, 'cause
I loved how it looks.

But then I did once...

In fact, I did it to retake
the homeworld of Mandalore.

And I kind of like that too.

Yeah.
- So we'll play it.

Part of what the
success of Mando is

is that we're talking about
mythology and the hero's journey.

Even Moff's journey
somewhat as a warlord,

as a warden of the
galaxy with aspiration,

even his journey is
the hero's journey.

Because he's looking for
something he doesn't have.

His first lines in that first season
are, "You have something I want."

I mean, that's powerful stuff.

There are so many
repercussions that have happened

because of the
fall of the Empire.

And this figure in Giancarlo

was kind of a reminder of
what that past Empire was.

Long Live the Empire!

Long Live the Empire!

But he also in many ways is a
free agent and has his own ideas.

Moff Gideon sems to have really focused
a little bit more on the materials.

He had the Darksaber, that
enabled him to be stronger.

He creates this new
Dark Trooper suit.

What was missing that he's
trying to put together?

Well, it's the Force,
is what was missing.

He wants that kind of power.
Which I thought made it complete.

You were a talented people,
but your time has passed.

However, as you can see,
Mandalore will live on in me.

We never really... One
of the challenges for Mandalore

is we wanted to imply that
there was a hidden base

where Moff Gideon was
conducting his experiments.

And we thought, "What
should that environment be?"

Because the planet itself
has been devastated.

We thought that there might be
these pockets of natural caves

and that's where the Empire would come
in and modify some of that architecture.

But then build their
Empire aesthetic to it.

We were gonna have these TIE Interceptors
and we were gonna turn them white.

Then we thought,
"Instead of having them

"just sit on the tarmac
of these hangars,

"how about if we hung 'em
from the ceiling like bats?"

It was all those very
subtle emotional cues

that we always try to build
in to sort of reinforce,

"This is an underground
environment, this is the Empire

"but we're seeing a
fresh, new context."

And so, that whole environment
is now the centerpiece

for this giant battle
at the very end.

We're in our final
battle between Moff and Bo,

which turns into the final battle between
Mando, the kid, and Bo and Moff Gideon.

Which ultimately we've
been building to this.

So let's do some
great work this week.

And have some fun doing it.

So, here we go,
marking rehearsal.

And action.

Rick's episode, episode eight,
there's a lot of action on that one.

It's difficult but, man,
I love the challenge.

That one felt pretty damn good.

Lateef is one of
the best stunt performers

I've ever worked
with in my life.

He's so, so, so good.

In this season, we had an opportunity
to actually do some stunts

and some fights together and
I loved every minute of it.

My biggest struggle with
Katee is telling her no.

'Cause she wants to do
everything, which I love.

There was this
moment where they said,

"Okay, and then you slide across the
floor and you bring out your shield

"and you protect Mando.

"But you immediately come back
up and start shooting again.

"The sparks are gonna come down.

"But don't do that stuff, Katee,
we'll do that with Joanna."

And I went, "It's just a
flickin' knee slide, right?

"Like a run, knee slide, shield
up, guns, keep going, right?"

He went, "Well, yeah." I
was like, "All right, cool."

So I just did it.

You could hear JJ, our stunt
coordinator, scream at the end of it.

'Cause he screamed at
me like I was his child

that had just done something
that was told not to do.

But that he was also
slightly proud of.

And it was this, "Katee!

" That was awesome."

It was so good. And I
was so proud of myself.

Hand over the Darksaber and I
will give you a warrior's death.

I know the inference
was that always one day

that Moff Gideon probably
would meet his demise.

And that wasn't a
problem for me at all.

It's just when and how

and how tangible it is for an audience
to see what may happen to him.

I love this particular franchise
because it's never clearly defined

what really happens.

Even for Luke Skywalker, when he goes
over the edge, he's over the edge.

You don't see that
brutal demise or death.

And there's always a possibility that
the rise from the ashes is possible.

Looking at The Mandalorian, he
starts out as such a lone individual.

In the very description
he's the lone gunman.

Building him into a character
that not only accepts family

and having Grogu as
like a de facto son,

but to welcome
others into family

and be an arbitrator between
different groups of people

to bring them together is
quite a change for him.

Din Djarin's a Mandalorian
but he's not from there.

He's become one because of
the way he lives his life

and what he values
and who he's met.

And who saved him.

And Grogu is in this family not
because that's his biological dad

but because they're fulfilling
those roles in each other's lives.

You are now Din
Grogu, Mandalorian apprentice.

With Star Wars, most
of the time, it's about family.

Different types of families.

Not just in way that it's your
mom and dad and close relatives

but families that are
created out of necessity.

Friends that come together,

people that have things in
common that create a bond

and become like a family.

There are many different
interpretations of family now.

And I think that, that's something
that people are relating to

in this great galaxy.

It's more
about what you value,

what you're willing to
sacrifice, what you hold dear.

And the role that you fill
in each other's lives.

I like that that's
where this landed.

I don't know if that was
what we set out to do

but storytelling isn't always about that,
it's what you discover and what comes out.

Resolving the season
the way we did,

it does fulfill one of the western
tropes of the gunfighter moves on

and things change, his presence has
helped things take the next step.

But that doesn't mean the
gunfighter belongs there.

Maybe they get a brief respite,

but you know that new adventures
are around the corner.

It might feel like
the ending of one adventure

but it's always the
beginning of another now.