If you’re a fan of “Star Wars,” Lucasfilm, and particularly the storytelling on Disney+— not that you have much choice, there hasn’t been a “Star Wars” movie in movie theaters since 2019’s ‘Rise Of Skywalker’—you may be frustrated. While it’s possible that Tony Gilroy’s “Andor” series gave you some respite and relief from some of the episodic Lucasfilm storytelling on Disney+, there are legitimately lots of reasons to be unfulfilled.
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Take “The Mandalorian,” for example, Lucasfilm’s flagship show. While the show has been hit and miss, the Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni-created series was bold enough to blow itself up at the end of Season 2; a heartbreaking finale that showed the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu having to split up, the young Baby Yoda leaving his parent figure in favor of training with Luke Skywalker.
After making that courageous choice, somewhat inexplicably, Favreau and Filoni walked it back almost immediately. But they did so on an entirely different show! Grogu and Mando reunited, Favreau and Filoni undid that choice and did it in the middle of “The Book Of Boba Fett,” in episodes that somehow bizarrely walked away from the main Boba Fett narrative and then seemingly just wandered into the ‘Mandalorian’ show.
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Favreau’s reasoning? Well, its sounds like not having the courage of their convictions, frankly. “We couldn’t just hit a hard reset,” he admitted to Empire this week, despite setting up a conclusion that pointed towards a hard reset.
Favreau also admitted that it might be a challenge for viewers who didn’t watch “The Book Of Boba Fett” and might be confused when they watch the upcoming ‘Mandalorian’ Season 3 and find that Grogu and Mando are reunited.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how this unfolds for people who may not have seen ‘The Book Of Boba Fett,’” he said. “But I think ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’ offered time to pass. You saw what Mando was like without Baby Yoda and we saw what Grogu was like without the Mandalorian and neither of them was doing too good. So them coming back together was a really good plot point that allows us to jump back into Season 3 while maintaining the central relationship.”
To be fair, you saw each of them without each other for one episode each, but I’m also reminded that Favreau was the same guy who tried to talk the Russo Brothers out of killing Robert Downey Jr. in “Avengers: Endgame,” and look at the impact that had on the storytelling (hint, the events of the movie had weight and consequence and things mattered).
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“I think you had to service both things,” Favreau continued. “Just because this kid has the potential and had training, does he belong away from the Mandalorian? I saw it more like ‘Paper Moon,’ where the whole thing is about delivering the kid to the blood relative, only to realize that, whether genetically through her father or just through bonding, Tatum O’Neal has to end up with Ryan O’Neal. That ending feels really good to me. And this little kid [Grogu] is given a decision to choose. And the kid chooses the emotional relationship and wants to be with the Mandalorian, and passing up Yoda’s lightsaber. Part of you wants to see him develop in that way, and part the other.”
Hey, I love “Paper Moon” as much as the next person, but if you’ve been frustrated with the Lucasfilm storytelling on Disney+, this interview does not inspire a lot of confidence, frankly.