Jon Favreau Talks Boba Fett Season 3 Crossover – The Hollywood Reporter

The internet’s favorite father-son couple is back. The Mandalorian returns for its third season on Wednesday, as masked warrior Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and baby Grogu embark on a new journey together – this time, to the Mandalorian home planet of Mandalore, where Din hopes to be forgiven for his transgressions.

Last year, Din and Grogu made a surprise appearance in crossover episodes of Boba Fett’s Book, where great developments took place for the duo. When presented with the choice of devoting himself to his Jedi training or returning to a life with his father, Grogu chose to reunite with Din. Although some audience members may have missed those key moments if they skipped Boba Fett, mandalorian Creator and showrunner Jon Favreau said the decision for the crossover came from “the storytelling freedom” that comes with the Mando-verse multishow.

“We have characters that exist in both sets of stories, so we can take the opportunity to Boba Fett’s Book to check where these characters are,” Favreau said. The Hollywood Reporter at the series’ Hollywood premiere on Tuesday night. “I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of screen time in The Mandalorian at a time when there wasn’t much character progression. The two (Din and Grogu) were kind of stuck, as far as character progression goes, until they were reunited. So my feeling was that it would allow me to do both of those things and free me now two years later to have a whole new context for these two characters to have a relationship and move on.

In addition to playing the title role of The MandalorianPascal is currently taking the internet by storm, as he simultaneously stars in HBO’s The last of us, the apocalypse series based on the video game of the same name. As shown in a sketch at his recent hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, Pascal’s fans on social media have devoted themselves to creating “fan-cam” montages of the actor’s work. However, when the mandalorian the team initially cast him, Favreau said they didn’t fully anticipate the budding superstar the veteran actor would become.

“We just hired him because we were fans of his work. Narcos And Game Of ThronesFavreau said. “He’s been at it for a while, and what we really liked about him was that he was a journeyman actor who always played a big role. He really picked big projects to be involved in, he got is always stood out. We knew he could anchor and add humanity to a character who was otherwise a mask, someone we knew you wouldn’t see his face in, and if and when you did, it had to mean something. He had to deliver a lot in a few moments.

Favreau says he’s not surprised The last of us and his post-mandalorian the projects “all add up”.

The director said, “People are starting to associate his name with his performance and his face. Of course, now that he’s doing talk shows, people are getting to know the person, as well as the characters. So he’s having a time, and I’m glad we can be a part of it.

The third season comes over two years since the show last aired in 2020, and the cast is ready for the story to finally continue.

“It was about time,” said Giancarlo Esposito, who plays villainous Moff Gideon. “We have all this time to imagine and have this great wonder and the expectations surrounding what could happen. The time has finally come when you will see it.

In addition to appearing as High Magistrate Greef Karga on the show, Carl Weathers returns as a director on the show, directing the fourth episode of the season. With expectations high for season three, Weathers said the creative team’s biggest priority is delivering for fans.

“The gauntlet was thrown down in season one, we had to get past it in season two,” the actor-director explained. “And here we are in season three, again, we have to surpass season two. Jon Favreau is not going to give up. I feel like we’ll get there. »

And in a franchise that strives to keep spoilers a secret, executive producer and series director Rick Famuyiwa shared his surprise when star wars fan theories eventually come to fruition on the show.

“They are very passionate,” Famuyiwa said of the fan base. “I’m one of those fans, so I can’t complain. I love seeing it, especially the level of forensic detective work that goes into every little image or piece that’s revealed. Our fans just find ways to dive in and find theories that I didn’t know existed. But then a lot of them are like, ‘Oh, wow, they were kind of on the money. How did they know that?

Joined by fans adorned with star wars cosplay, the cast and crew celebrated the season three premiere at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theater, where they treated fans to not one, but two new episodes.

“I can’t wait to see what happens and what she does to me,” Pascal told the audience, referring to co-star Katee Sackhoff, who plays Bo-Katan Kryze on the show.

New episodes of The Mandalorian out on Disney+ every Wednesday.