SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The movies that stick with you for life are often the ones you see for the first time as a kid. For the actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau, that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "STAR WARS (MAIN TITLE)")
JON FAVREAU: It's "Star Wars." It's 1977 "Star Wars" because that hit me just at the right time.
DETROW: He was 10 years old when the original "Star Wars" came out.
FAVREAU: And although I could probably have an academic discussion with you about story structure and execution of facts, acting, writing, it - there's - that pales in comparison to what the - my experience with it is.
DETROW: Favreau would go on to have a long and ongoing career in film, making everything from "Elf" to "Iron Man." And then he got a chance to work on "Star Wars" on the small screen.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUDWIG GORANSSON'S "THE MANDALORIAN")
DETROW: The show he created for Disney+, "The Mandalorian," was a Western reimagined in the "Star Wars" universe. Its two main characters were a masked bounty hunter, played by Pedro Pascal, and a charming young alien named Grogu, who audiences immediately dubbed Baby Yoda. After three seasons, just in time for Memorial Day, we now have a movie, "The Mandalorian and Grogu."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU")
PEDRO PASCAL: (As The Mandalorian) Gangsters, war criminals - we'll take out every bad guy in your deck of cards.
DETROW: I asked Jon Favreau if directing a feature-length film felt different than producing the TV show.
FAVREAU: It actually does. I was very happy doing "The Mandalorian." Nobody really expected anything from it, and then people began to enjoy it. And it started to - word started to spread, and it did quite well. Then the opportunity came to explore these characters for the big screen. And it's hard to separate that experience of feeling the energy in the room from what's - seeing what's on the screen. And I realized that, you know, a lot of what affected me when I was a little guy in watching this was that combo. So it was a revelation to me that Han Solo returned.
DETROW: (Laughter).
FAVREAU: It was a revelation to me that they actually got to blow up the Death Star. And then to hear everybody cheering around me - and I think it was that combo that really drove my fixation on that film. And then that film became a doorway, thanks to George Lucas' sophisticated influences to other cinematic traditions, other storytelling traditions, whether it was the films of Kurosawa, Leone, John Ford.
DETROW: To that first season of "The Mandalorian," like you said, no expectations, no pressure.
FAVREAU: Yeah.
DETROW: To me, it kind of feels not dissimilar to "Iron Man." Like, this feeling of, like...
FAVREAU: Yeah. Yeah.
DETROW: ...What the hell is this? Oh, my God...
FAVREAU: Yeah. Yeah.
DETROW: ...It's amazing, you know?
FAVREAU: Yes.
DETROW: And that's a great place to be making...
FAVREAU: I agree.
DETROW: ...Something. But how did that...
FAVREAU: I agree.
DETROW: ...Pressure change? How did the weight of "Star Wars" change when you realized, oh, this is a hit, everybody's obsessed with Grogu, I'm going to make more, and it's going to be a high-profile thing?
FAVREAU: I think it was - I was very much benefited by the fact that it was a team effort. I had Dave Filoni with me as a partner from the beginning. And he has a lot of experience, especially in animation, with serialized dramas. The fact is, "Star Wars" was always inspired by serialized matinee, you know, pulp cliffhanger, as George would always describe. So you were always getting an incomplete picture, but enjoying it, nonetheless.
But a TV show that airs, you know, every week or eight episodes a year, it becomes - it's more like a river, you know? You're being judged by the overall flow of it. And people might like certain episodes more than others. Now, when you do a movie, it's a whole different thing. It's - you know, it's like you're looking at a pond, the body of water that's still, that you could study, walk around. You're working on it for close to three years. It's only two hours, and you're all focusing on every detail of that, and you're appreciating it in a different way as an audience member. So that was very different. So I did like the energy of the show. It was like white water rafting. This is a different thing, and this is what I come from.
DETROW: I'm wondering, in terms of the characters and how you think about them, how is the Baby Yoda/Grogu that we see in this IMAX movie different from when we first met this character initially? Like, how do you think about the changes of this character and the relationship between the two of them?
FAVREAU: Well, keep in mind that, you know, it's not like you map everything out from beginning to end when you're shooting the first episode of a show. What you're trying to...
DETROW: I thought that's what you all did in "Star Wars" world.
FAVREAU: (Laughter) You know, you do to some extent. And Dave Filoni's actually quite talented...
DETROW: Yeah.
FAVREAU: ...At having a very distant-horizon vision for the way stories are going to unfold. But there's always the story telling you what the story is, as well. What we were looking for for the show was a setting, a dynamic, a tone, a scale. And the twist of this battle-hardened bounty hunter who's pursuing a quarry that is - all he knows is he's 50 years old, and it's revealed that because of his species that 50 years old is actually a small child.
Now you have this dynamic between these characters. A guy's made a sacrifice. He's no longer abiding by his code, but his conscience is being reawoken, and now a bond is forming. And then it became a lone wolf and cub template. Now he has not only been trained by Luke Skywalker and has a much better handle on the use of the force and those Jedi skills, he's also now a Mandalorian apprentice, and he is - he's been adopted by the lead character who has changed, as well.
So Grogu is no longer as vulnerable. He's a partner and an apprentice. And his adopted father, Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, is now somebody who has made a commitment to only fight for the good guys. And now we have a different type of Western. So both characters have evolved quite a bit since the show.
DETROW: In terms of the other characters that we meet in this movie, I just have to say, I never really had jacked-up but also very sensitive son of Jabba the Hutt on my bingo card.
FAVREAU: (Laughter).
DETROW: Like, that was quite the twist to come across.
FAVREAU: Thank you. I take that as a compliment.
DETROW: It is. Can I ask - I'm embracing the fact that I get to professionally be a nerd here for a little bit.
FAVREAU: Oh, good, good. Me too, by the way.
DETROW: It's a good place to be.
FAVREAU: That's my gig.
DETROW: I mean, you have been - a few other people in this camp, too, but you, more than most other people - have shaped this franchise for the past decade. Like, what, to you, is the heart of what a "Star Wars" movie or a show is? What - across all these different things now - makes it that?
FAVREAU: I'm responsible for collaborating on a very small corner of "Star Wars." But it is something that's been around for this long and embraced so - with such enthusiasm, means that it's not something we're making that we're serving to our audience, but it's a relationship that we have with that audience.
When it's "Star Wars," everybody - there's a lot of stakeholders. There are people who care deeply about this and who grew up with it, and you want to make sure that it feels like it's of the same - it's consistent with what came before. We often will ask a question, whether we're looking at a piece of artwork or a scene or a cut of a scene - does this feel "Star Wars" to us? 'Cause it might feel like - it might be more "Star Trek." It might not feel consistent. Is it - what kind of "Star Wars" is this?
I find that people relate to the "Star Wars" that they encountered at - when they were of a certain age, and that age is, like, usually somewhere between, you know, 10, 11 years old...
DETROW: Yeah.
FAVREAU: ...To, maybe, 14 years old, you know? And we like to work with all of those and make "Star Wars" one big, you know, inclusive consistency that we really tried to ensure.
DETROW: Jon Favreau, director of "The Mandalorian And Grogu," thanks for talking to us.
FAVREAU: Thank you so much. What an enjoyable conversation.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUDWIG GORANSSON'S "THE MANDALORIAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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