Season 1 of The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action TV show set in the Star Wars universe, is set to hit Disney+ when the streaming platform goes live this November. And while we’ve yet to see so much as a trailer, creator Jon Favreau is already in the middle of writing for season 2. Disney is clearly banking on this being a hit, and honestly, it’s probably a safe bet.
Speaking with Collider at a recent press junket for The Lion King remake — which he directed — Favreau revealed how he approached Disney with the idea for the show. “I keep getting pulled deeper into the orbit of Disney, but fortunately the stuff that Disney’s working on is the stuff that I love,” he said. “I wanted to do a Star Wars TV show like The Mandalorian and pitched it to them and they were very open to it.”
For those just joining us, The Mandalorian is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and takes place on a far-off planet where lawlessness reigns. We’ll follow a long gunman — the titular Mandalorian (Game of Thrones veteran Pedro Pascal) — as he makes his way through this world.
Before Disney even hired him, Favreau had written four episodes of the show. “I was excited as a fan to see what these stories might be and see if they were interested in doing what I was interested in, which they were,” he said. “And I was actually writing Season 2 this morning before I came here.”
The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN.
And there’s more than writing happening on season 2. The Iron Man director revealed he has already started pre-production. “In The Mandalorian because we’re doing live-action production, we’re using the Epic game engine and using that to do real-time in-camera visual effects,” he explained. “So if you visited the set for The Mandalorian you would’ve seen a completely video-wall wrapped stage and we were in there filming the characters in the foreground, and oftentimes either blue screen or full digital versions of set extensions in the background with Parallax, because the positional data of the camera was informing the backgrounds, so it was like a translight that had perspective.”
"So that allowed us to have environments—as long as we could build them digitally and put enough work into planning it, we could have the game engine be used for creating effects in a timeframe that allows us to get a TV season done."
Okay, so that was a lot of technical jargon. Translation: the show will be pretty. Given the kinds of movies he’s made, Favreau is right at home on a show with heavy CGI. “So if you visited the set now as we’re starting to get into Season 2, it looks a lot like the set of The Lion King as we’re planning how we’re gonna shoot it ahead of time.”
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The Mandalorian debuts alongside Disney+ on November 12.
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