It would be an understatement to say that Jon Favreau has had a pretty good 2019 so far. We’re barely even halfway through the year and the 52 year-old has already executive produced and cameoed in Avengers: Endgame, starred in Spider-Man: Far From Home (which recently crossed a billion dollars at the box office), released spinoff cooking series The Chef Show onto Netflix and seen his latest directorial effort The Lion King earn over $700 million worldwide after less than two weeks in cinemas.
However, the filmmaker isn’t done yet, not by a long shot. Favreau also serves as the creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner of upcoming Disney Plus series The Mandalorian, one of the soon-to-debut streaming service’s flagship launch titles. Any new Star Wars project always comes burdened with huge expectations, and Favreau revealed that he had spoken to George Lucas about the upcoming series and the creator of a galaxy far, far away imparted him with some storytelling advice.
“We had a long talk with each other. One thing he said to me was, ‘Remember, Jon the real audience for all stories and all myths is the kids that are coming of age.’ We enjoy the stories as adults, but really, storytelling is about imparting the wisdom of the previous generations onto the children who are becoming adults, and giving them a context for how to behave and how to learn the lessons of the past without making the mistakes on their own. That’s the hope, that you can teach them how to avoid all the hardship but garner all the wisdom.”
The Star Wars prequels aren’t exactly the greatest examples of coherent storytelling and Lucas doesn’t exactly have a hands-on role within the franchise anymore after selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, but when he offers advice about how to handle the mythology, you’d be a fool not to listen.
The Mandalorian is set to debut on Disney Plus in November with Pedro Pascal in the title role, backed by a supporting cast that includes Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito and Werner Herzog. Favreau may not be directing any episodes himself, but Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa and Taika Waititi have all stepped behind the camera on the show to help bring it to life.
