WiC Watches—Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian
Scene from Disney+ series THE MANDALORIAN.
Chapter 2: “Legacy”
In this episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau hosts a panel consisting of his fellow Mandalorian showrunner Dave Filoni, John Knoll (ILM VFX supervisor), Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Richard Bluff (VFX Supervisor) and Hal Hickel (Animation Director) to discuss the legacy by George Lucas once the creator of Star Wars passed the reigns to Disney.
There’s not much discussion about The Mandalorian itself, but rather a broader talk about how we got from the first-ever Star Wars movie, A New Hope, to the very first live-action Star Wars television series, The Mandalorian. At the start of that timeline, Pedro Pascal (Mando) gushes about the escape Star Wars afforded him as a kid. In fact, recalling when he got tickets to Return of the Jedi and thought he was the luckiest kid in the world.
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 2 “Legacy” – Gina Carano on the set of THE MANDALORIAN. Image Courtesy Disney+
In a flashback to last week’s episode, Taika Waititi talks about being freaked out by The Empire Strikes Back because it wasn’t like A New Hope. But when he went back and viewed it again, he grasped the deeper meaning the film was trying to convey: If you give up on something hard, then that is why you fail.
There’s also a discussion about The Phantom Menace being done in mostly motion-control miniatures, which blows my mind, as I always thought it was completely CGI. But the real draw is Dave Filoni following the throughline from The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi. He describes how Qui-Gon Jinn was a father figure to young Anakin Skywalker. Against the Jedi Council’s wishes, he took on Anakin as his own padawan, pushing Obi-Wan to take the trials of the Jedi Knight. Because of this, Qui-Gon was seen as a renegade Jedi, which is why he wasn’t on the council in the first place. Obi-Wan, at first, served as a reluctant brother to Anakin, which is why he failed to save Anakin, in the long run.
The catalyst became the fight between Darth Maul and Qui-Gon, where the former struck down the latter. Without a father, Anakin was left to fall to the Dark Side, despite the good intentions of his brother, Obi-Wan.
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 2 “Legacy” – Carl Weathers and Werner Herzog on the set of THE MANDALORIAN. Image Courtesy Disney+
As Filoni puts it, Luke Skywalker faced the same problem in Return of the Jedi. Filoni thinks Luke would have turned to the Dark Side of the Force had Anakin not intervened. In the end, the father saved the son, and had Qui-Gon been alive for Anakin’s training, he might never have become Darth Vader.
As with last week’s episode, Dave Filoni provides invaluable insight into the thought process of George Lucas, as well as the lore of Star Wars in general. However, there wasn’t a ton of feedback that stood out from everyone on the panel. Still an enjoyable episode, though.