Star Wars Celebration: The Mandalorian Panel Full Recap

On Saturday, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni played host to a panel in the arena at the Anaheim Convention Center during Star Wars Celebration. The panel was hosted by Ash Crossan, with plenty of seats for special guests to join and share insights about the upcoming season of The Mandalorian. The panel also promised to focus on other Disney+ shows set in the Star Wars universe. On Thursday, Star Wars Celebration offered the first look at Season 3 of The Mandalorian. This panel promised to offer a bit more!

Crossan took the stage to introduce the guests, starting with executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. They start out by joking about how there are so many microphones, teasing more guests to come. 

“It’s been a dream come true,” Favreau says of the journey. “I wanted to really pare it down to a few characters a personal story set in that world…and also an opportunity to bring new people in who might not be up on the lore. This became an entry ramp. As we’ve introduced characters that existed before, thanks to the Disney+ streaming service, they could go and watch everything.” This includes the animated series, as well.

They take a look back at keeping Grogu a secret. “I was just glad it was in the first episode,” Filoni said. 

“Then the second season, it was the last episode,” Favreau said of keeping secrets, referring to Luke Skywalker’s appearance. “A lot of secrecy but every other secret we’ve ever had has come out. We’ve never made a casting announcement.”

How does Filoni see the future for Star Wars on television? “More.”

Favreau points out that Star Wars has always been a serialized story. “They pick up and leave off and I think those chaptered stories are very fun to write,” he said. “There’s an adventurous spirit to how we write them…There’s a tremendous amount of freedom as storytellers. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had and it’s a job I’m gonna keep doing for a while.”

Pedro Pascal takes the stage to a standing ovation. “My heart has exploded,” he said. “It’s a good last day of my life.” 

How tough was it to be separate from Grogu? “It;s very hard to be separated,” Pascal said. “It’s the closest I’ve ever come to being a dad, so far, anyway.”

It seemed liked we would see Grogu for a while but we did in Book of Boba Fett. “What was interesting was that we already had the plan to have Luke train him in that but what was very interesting was that we only had six or seven shots in the previous season. We thought he looked okay but we wanted him to look better. We were actively solving that visual effect as we were dong it and he got a lot more screen time in that part of the story. In that time period, it just makes sense Luke should be the one to train him…How he’s interacting with Grogu was a way to explore his philosophy…Like everything we do, there was a tremendous amount of thought we put into that…Bringing together Jon’s character and George’s character, I wanted to see over that.”

Favreau adds; “I think it’s interesting that each character had to sacrificed a little bit of what they stood for. With Din taking off the helmet and the kid abandoning the training…the whole notion of attachment and family versus commitment and discipline.”

Crossan turns to Pascal to ask about the team that brings Mando to life, prompting Pascal to introduce Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder to the stage. They have all played the Mandalorian under the helmet. Pascal shares a story recalling how he met Crowder on Kingsman and how excited it made him to have him be part of his Mandalorian character. Favreau came to Pascal about Wayne, the grandson of John Wayne, and he has learned so much from both Wayne and Crowder. 

Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, and Carl Weathers join the panel to a great applause from the arena. “I will squash that little baby,” Esposit jokes. “I want the Child within me to come back through the Cghild within Grogu. That child has been reunited with its big boy here through the experience with this show. I’m hoping that happens for you all within the audience.” Esposito compliments the environment and creative team for how everyone will “get a sense” of what everyone wants to accomplish. Learning that they trusted him to fulfill the character as they needed meant a lot to him.

Crossan turns to Swallow to discuss the Armorer and her dialogue. “i don’t know if I’ve really said anything that memorable,” she said. She jokes about fans asking her if they ad-libbed, “This is the way.” She thought about taking credit for it. “I love getting to live in her space because there are often people who will met me at conventions and it goes one of two ways,” she said. Some people will realize she is the Armorer and be excited and others will be surprised to see her and find out she is. “She is so grounded, she she is patient, she is so wise, she waits,” she says. One of her favorite line was when she reminded everybody that Din Djarin took on the same creed that they all had but has been living a different way for a while and was one of them and made the same sacrifices. “The reminder of that kind of bond of community is so important and so vital and the fact that this show and that Star Wars has always reminded us of those messages…is one of the reasons I love these stories so much and I think that the Armorer continually reminds us of those important heart and soul themes. I really appreciate that about her.”

Question for Weathers is next. Crossan points out that he has directed. “I owe at least 90% of what you see on the screen to Jon Favreau because…if Jon hadn’t invited me into this, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Weathers notes. “His support along the way, with Dave’s and more recently in the last season with Rick’s, has just been phenomenal. At the end of the day, I really owe so much to those guys.”

Will Weathers direct in Season 3? “In the Spring of 2023, The Mandalorian will be out again,’ Weathers jokes. He has directed another episode in Season 3 but he can’t say anything about it other than crediting the entire team for helping bring the entire world to life. He says he got really lucky with a “really good script and good actors” for his episode. “It’s a wonderful sandbox to play in.”

The panel turns its attention to The Book of Boba Fett. Temuera Morrison takes the stage. Morrison jokes about 20 years ago, celebrating Attack of the Clones, and having hair back then. “We had a wonderful time in Sydney,” he said. “Many, many, many years later, I think Boba had to look a little bit like me, so. I want to thank everybody. Ming-Na sends her apologies…We have a lot of crew and people behind the scenes out there in the crowd with us. They’re the ones who work hard making us looking good in front of the camera so I want to acknowledge everybody from our crew..”

Favreau confirms that the Boba Fett theme song changes a bit in the final episode, adding “Fett” as a lyric to the song. He credits Ludwig Goranssen for the great work designing the themes for these shows. “Psrt of what’s fun about him is he’s so creative, so prolific,” Favreau said. “He has so many different aspects so when he first pitched the Boba Fett theme, there were lyrics that we saved for the last episode.”

Katee Sackhoff and Rick Famuyiwa join the panel. Famuyiwa is now an executive producer on the series. “For some reason, Jon saw my film Dope and said, ‘That’s Star Wars material,’” Famuyiwa laughed. “Honestly, the first film I saw in the movie theaters was Star Wars and I remember waiting in that long line to go see that movie with no idea what I was gonna go see and from the moment I saw the opening crawl and the Star Destroyer flying over that screen, my life was changed. This has always been a dream of mine, to tell stories in this world, this universe, this galaxy and to get to walk in and Jon say, ‘Hey, I want you to do the second episode of this thing,’ and the follow up, ‘Hey, it was an honor!’ I’ve been around for the ride ever since and I’m excited about the next season with a lot of exciting developments to come.”

Where is Bo-Katan’s head and focus now? “Her head is still attached to her body so that’s a good thing,” Sackhoff said. “I’ve said this before, my dad raised me on science fiction. He raised me on strong characters. When I was little, you didn’t have a lot of strong female characters to choose from. We had Sigourney and Linda and Lucy Lawless but I wanted to be Bruce Willis. I wanted to save a building. To be able to play the women that I have been able to play throughout my career has been such a gift and strong women keep presenting themselves to me. These guys at the end of the table are responsible for creating so many strong characters. The fact that they’re women, they’re just women. To be able to start with her 10 years ago and the fact that they trusted me to take her into live-action, I’m still pinching myself. The fact that you guys love her, flaws and all, means the world. Thank you. You’re in fora a treat.”

Thursday’s preview played, this time showing a destroyed version of Mandalore at the end as Din Djarin and Grogu approached.

The panel shifts its attention to Ahsoka. Filoni says filming is going “really well.” He is asked to share some information about the series. Rosario Dawson is here to discuss the series. It is her first Celebration since becoming the character. She was filming late last night. “It’s been amazing,” Dawson says. “I was so excited that Dave actually posted when we started, we started filming on my birthday may 9. Last night was the end of our third week.”

Is she in this for the long haul? “It’s because of people like you,” she says to the fans. Fan art from BossLogic made it to Dave Filoni and she ended up getting the part. ‘They had actually drawn all these more images of me as the character which is mind-blowing. It’s just been such a thrill and honor to bring this character to life and to feel the energy of everyone wanting to see her come to life.”

Did she bring any friends with her? Yes, she brought the droid Chopper who rolls out on the stage! There is still one microphone unattended. Filoni opens up about the fans being a huge part this show existing. He introduces footage. In the footage, Ahsoka enters the cockpit of a ship. She walks through pillars in a sandy region, enters a save and feels the walls. Sabine Wren and Hera are confirmed to be a part of the show. Ahsoka is seen removing her hood and revealing her face. The logo takes the screen. After the footage, Natasha Liu is introduced to the panel, as she is playing Sabine.

Favreau explains that every person they work with is chosen by determining “who is going to be a great creative partner to have?” Filoni echoes the sentiment and says it was true in animation, as well, with Rebels. “You write these stories and then all the sudden, you’re looking through a camera and there they are,” Filoni said. He thanks every person on the panel and those who do not get to be on the panel for helping to make the characters come to life.

There is one more person they want to introduce and that’s Grogu. The panel poses with Grogu for a photo before replaying the trailer one more time.