Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian docuseries premiere episode showcases the deep love, care, connection, and understanding the creators have for this universe and this series as a whole.
The Mandalorian is the first-ever live-action Star Wars television series to be created and ever since it’s debut in late 2019, the series has managed to win over new and old fans of Star Wars, reinvigorating their love for this franchise; while also bringing forth new fans along the way. Disney and Lucasfilm have pulled back the curtains on the beloved series and have officially taken fans behind the scenes. Giving them a new perspective of the creative team behind the series while showing fans how the series was crafted and put together.
Today is officially Star Wars Day. A day commonly bestowed with the phrase “May The Fourth Be With You”. A play on the day Star Wars Day lands on and the iconic catchphrase used in this franchise “may the force be with you”. Disney has decided to throw a massive celebration for Star Wars Day by releasing the final installment of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the new docuseries Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian, and the series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
What a day to be a Star Wars fan and while we aren’t focusing on The Rise of Skywalker or the series finale of The Clone Wars. We will be focusing on the new docuseries and its premiere episode which is centered around the directors of the series. As many fans know, every episode of The Mandalorian had a different director. Whether it was recurring directing gig or a one-off directing gig. Each episode had a unique director, bringing in a totally different aspect to the story, no matter how that story was presented.
The episode starts with longtime Star Wars creative Dave Filoni. Filoni recaps his first meeting with George Lucas and how that meeting came about and how that landed him a job at Lucasfilm Animation. Thus bringing forth the beloved animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Each director, just like Dave Filoni had a story about how they became fans of Star Wars and how they ended up working on The Mandalorian.
During this roundtable discussion, each director reflects on the challenges they faced directing their specific episodes of the series and how each episode was a learning experience for them, whether or not they had experience directing television. Ironically enough, despite their expertise in directing television or lack thereof. Every director was able to put their specific set of skills to use to get the job done in ways we have never seen before.
The Mandalorian executive producer/director Dave Filoni’s deep knowledge of Star Wars lore really helped him further bring these characters to life. He knew to a tee how every character should’ve and would’ve acted in whatever situation they were in and the nuances that made those characters unique to themselves. You have Deborah Chow who’s work on television shows like Mr. Robot helped her find her niche, not just in her career but also in this series.
Even someone like Bryce Dallas Howard, who made her directorial debut in this series. As someone who is mostly known for acting, she revealed that being an actor herself really helped her work much more closely to the actors she’s directing. Her understanding of drama and the emotion behind it gives her the ability to present that in a scene without her actors saying much vocally. Granted she was also given the hardest episode of the series to shoot according to Jon Favreau.
And then you have directors like Taika Waititi, who’s work on Thor: Ragnarok helped the indie director find much bigger success thus paving the way and making his work on Star Wars a possibility. Taika’s roundtable discussion differs from all of the other directors. In typical Taika fashion, there’s a sketchy-comedic aspect to his side of the lens. But he also reveals his background in art and how his disenchantment in that world of art and inevitable denial of landing film work, lead the director/actor to pursue his dreams on his own. Thus his place in a world where he was able to work on all of the artistic aspects he enjoys about the world of art.
At the end of the day, cinema and filmmaking is a creative art. But aside from getting this roundtable discussion and gaining a new perspective and appreciation for this series due to how it was made, cinematically. We get a ton of behind the scenes clips and b-roll moments that we have never seen before. As well as all the actors showing their love and affection towards their directors throughout their journey together.
Overall this premiere episode does a solid job of showing us the fans the creative aspect of filmmaking that we typically do not see. It’s an awe-inspiring experience that makes you appreciate filmmaking and the daunting task it could potentially be. But most importantly that in order to make the magic happen, you gotta love and believe in what you’re doing and what you are creating. Without it, everything else doesn’t work.
Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian is streaming now exclusively on Disney+.
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