Star Wars: The Mandalorian

[GeneChing]

OCTOBER 4, 2018
THE MANDALORIAN FIRST IMAGE, DIRECTORS REVEALED
DETAILS EMERGE FOR LUCASFILM'S LIVE-ACTION SERIES HELMED BY JON FAVREAU.
Production on the first Star Wars live-action streaming series has begun! After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic. The series will be written and executive produced by Emmy-nominated producer and actor Jon Favreau, as previously announced, with Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) directing the first episode. Additional episodic directors include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok). It will be executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist will serve as co-executive producer. Stay tuned to StarWars.com for updates.

I always found the Boba Fett story arc disappointing but I did get into Mandalorian culture after Star Wars Rebels.

[GeneChing]

No image - there's a vid behind the link. But there's images of Pedro all over the net now if you're that curious.

Here's one:

NOVEMBER 13, 2018 10:45AM PT
‘Star Wars’: Pedro Pascal to Lead ‘The Mandalorian’ Series
By JUSTIN KROLL and JOE OTTERSON

Pedro Pascal has been tapped to star in the “Star Wars” TV series “The Mandalorian,” which is expected to premiere on the Disney streaming service, Disney+.

Pascal’s name had previously been rumored for the role, but sources say he was one of many actors being considered. Now, insiders tell Variety that he has been offered the role and negotiations are underway.

Jon Favreau penned the series, which is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. It follows the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

Disney recently announced that Dave Filoni, who has worked on “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels,” will direct the first episode of the series. “Thor: Ragnarok” director Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, “Dope’s” Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow (“Jessica Jones”) will direct additional episodes.

Favreau is also executive producing the show, along with Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist will serve as co-executive producer.

Disney also announced in an earnings call on Thursday that it would be doing a prequel series on the “Rogue One” character Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna.

Pascal is no stranger to the small screen, with star-making roles as Prince Oberyn in “Game of Thrones” and Javier Pena in “Narcos.” He has since been building a strong film resume with performances in “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” “The Equalizer 2,” and the upcoming “If Beale Street Could Talk.” He recently finished filming the Netflix action pic “Triple Frontier” as well as “Wonder Woman 1984.”

He is repped by WME and Untitled Entertainment.

[GeneChing]

... I had a feeling this Star Wars: The Mandalorian Live-Action series would be relevant eventually. The FORCE is strong in me. I'm hoping Gina Carano will play a Twi'lek.

NOVEMBER 14, 2018 12:00pm PT by Borys Kit
'Star Wars': Gina Carano Joins 'The Mandalorian'


By Joe Scarnici/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Gina Carano

The series is debuting on Disney+, the streaming service that is set for next year.

Gina Carano has joined Pedro Pascal in the live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

The series will debut on Disney’s streaming service Disney+, which is set to bow next year.

Jon Favreau wrote the series and is executive producing along with Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson and Dave Filoni. Filoni will also direct episodes, along with Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa and Deborah Chow.

Character details are buried deep in the desert wastes of Tatooine, but the company’s synopsis is thus: "After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic."

Carano is the MMA star turned actress who starred in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire and appeared in Fast & Furious 6 and Deadpool. She is repped by Gersh, The Syndicate and Ziffren Brittenham.

[GeneChing]

Luv Taika Waititi's work. I've been denying of this show but it'll probably be sufficient bait to lure me into investing in Disney+.

Taika Waititi's Star Wars: The Mandalorian Episode Set Video Reveals Story Details
BY DAN ZINSKI – ON NOV 16, 2018 IN TV NEWS



New video from the set of Disney's streaming Star Wars series The Mandalorian shows director Taika Waititi working on a scene from the season finale together with showrunner Jon Favreau, and the clip appears to reveal some details about the season 1 story. A previous batch of unofficially released photos gave fans a glimpse of a set from the show, and also revealed a pair of Death Troopers like the ones seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

With Disney getting set to launch its new streaming service Disney+, Star Wars fans are getting a whole array of new programming. One of the central Star Wars offerings will be The Mandalorian, which takes place after the destruction of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, and revolves around an armor-clad gunfighter from the same race that spawned the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Showrunner Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm recently offered up the first official image from the series, showing the lead character in his familiar Mandalorian armor. It was also revealed that a weapon wielded by the Mandalorian was inspired by a very unlikely source: the infamous bomb TV movie The Star Wars Holiday Special (which of course was what actually introduced the character of Boba Fett, albeit in animated form).

Fans hungry for any clues about what is set to go down on The Mandalorian have been treated to a few unofficial pieces of info in recent weeks via the website Making Star Wars. In their latest reveal, the site offers video that shows episode director Taika Waititi, showrunner Jon Favreau, and director Dave Filoni appearing to rehearse an action scene with several actors, including two men dressed in Stormtrooper gear (sans helmets), and two others dressed as characters who've reportedly been seen working in other scenes. There's also another actor or double wearing partial Mandalorian armor.





Though the video is limited in what it's able to capture - and indeed it doesn't actually show any filming, only featuring Waititi, Favreau and company working out some fight moves - it's possible to glean story details from the footage when put together with the prior leaks. Once all the dots are connected, it appears that the season finale concerns the Mandalorian taking on remnants of the Empire, for reasons that obviously remain shrouded in secrecy. Mandalorians of course are bounty hunters, gunfighters and mercenaries, so there's no reason why one of them wouldn't be fighting the Empire. Even Boba Fett, a bad guy in the original Star Wars trilogy, wasn't above getting mouthy with Darth Vader when he feared Vader would kill Han Solo by freezing him in carbonite, thereby robbing Boba of the bounty he looked to collect by delivering Solo up to Jabba the Hutt.

Like the other recent unofficial Mandalorian material, this new video offers tantalizing hints without really giving away anything concrete. The most recent bit of tangible news was the revelation that Gina Carano is set to take on a role in the show. Pedro Pascal was also recently reported to be negotiating to play the lead in the series. Carl Weathers too has been named in recent casting rumors. While The Mandalorian continues to shoot, Disney also is reportedly ready to launch another Star Wars streaming series, starring Diego Luna as his Rogue One character Cassian Andor. It remains to be seen what other Star Wars goodness Disney has in store for fans as they prepare to launch Disney+.

[GeneChing]

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 11:53am PT by Borys Kit
'Star Wars': Nick Nolte Joins Pedro Pascal in 'The Mandalorian' (Exclusive)


Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Nick Nolte

The 'Thin Red Line' actor joins a cast that also includes Gina Carano.
Veteran actor Nick Nolte has joined the cast of The Mandalorian, the live-action Star Wars series that will launch on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+.

The known cast includes Pedro Pascal and Gina Carano. The project, which is already in production, is heavy on visual effects, costumes and makeup, which will allow actors to come and go as well as, in some cases, be cast later in the production process than usual.

Jon Favreau wrote the series and is executive producing along with Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson and Dave Filoni. Filoni will also direct episodes, as will Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa and Deborah Chow.

Character details are stuffed deep in the Sarlacc pit, but the company’s synopsis is thus: "After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic."

Nolte’s many film credits include 48 Hrs., Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Mulholland Falls, The Thin Red Line, Warrior and Gangster Squad, while his TV credits include Rich Man, Poor Man; Luck and Gracepoint. He most recently starred on the short-lived Epix series Graves.

Nolte is repped by CAA.

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[GeneChing]

Jon Favreau Teases R5-D4 Appearance in The Mandalorian
BY ANA DUMARAOG – ON JAN 29, 2019 IN TV NEWS



The brand new Star Wars TV series created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian, may feature R5-D4 from A New Hope. Set to debut on Disney's upcoming streaming platform, Disney Plus, the series will take place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens possibly allowing fans to learn about what happened to the said droid following its debut.

Centered on a single-operating Mandalorian gunfighter, who will be played by Pedro Pascal, not much is known regarding the plot specifics for The Mandalorian. But with a staggering budget of $100 million for its first 10 episodes, fans' expectations on the project are very high. Favreau will also co-executive produce the show alongside Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson with Karen Gilchrist. Meanwhile, Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow have all been confirmed to direct succeeding episodes with Filoni helming the pilot. Pascal is joined by an ensemble cast including Gina Carano, Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, and Werner Herzog - but their respective roles are yet to be named. While Disney and Lucasfilm continue to be mum about other information regarding the show, Favreau continues to tease fans with various social media posts - the latest one hints at the appearance of R5-D4

Taking to his official Instagram account, Favreau shared an image of R5-D4 from the set of The Mandalorian. Fans will remember the droid in Episode IV after the Jawas attempted to sell it to Owen Lars, but it intentionally malfunctioned so that R2-D2 could be picked instead. Sadly, the image doesn't reveal anything more about the involvement of the droid in the show. Regardless, the photo sparked a conversation among fans with regard to what can they expect from R5-D4's appearance. Check out the image below:

jonfavreau
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Considering the time period of The Mandalorian, it would've been several years after his initial debut in A New Hope, and his upcoming re-emergence in the Disney Plus series is surely piquing the interest of many fans. What's unclear, though, is whether or not R5-D4 will play a pivotal role in the show, or his involvement will be nothing more than a glorified cameo. That said, given how he played into the events of Episode IV, it's safe to say that he deserves to get the recognition for his sacrifice that led to the destruction of the first Death Star.

That said, given that Lucasfilm appears to be revisiting some original side characters, giving them the opportunity to shine on their own shows or movies, it won't be surprising if R5-D4 will play a pivotal role in the upcoming show. Perhaps the public will even learn what happened to it. In the canon book A Certain Point of View, the chapter titled "The Red One," written by Rae Carson provided a little bit of insight with regard to the droid's final sighting. But with the short story leaving his narrative with an open ending, fans are hoping that The Mandalorian will fill-in the gaps regarding his previous adventures.

Source: Jon Favreau

The backstory of R5-D4 was something I never even considered.

[GeneChing]

MOVIES
Gina Carano Is Ready to Launch Her Career Into Hyperspace (Exclusive)
By Meredith B. Kile* 8:01 AM PDT, June 19, 2019

Gina Carano is ready for her career to make the jump to lightspeed and with an upcoming role in a galaxy far, far away, she just might get the chance.

It's been nearly a decade since the MMA fighter stepped away from the ring -- following her one and only career defeat -- and decided to pursue her acting career full-time. One of her first major offers, she recalled recently while sitting down with ET's Ash Crossan, came from a serious Hollywood name, director Steven Soderbergh, who cast her as the lead in his 2011 action-thriller Haywire.

"[Soderbergh] said, 'We would like to do a movie, a real-life action movie with [a real-life] fighter, and um, it's gonna happen really quick or it's not gonna happen at all.' And it happened," Carano said of the film, in which she played black ops operative Mallory Kane and performed her own stunts. "I haven't looked back since. I've just been, you know, paying my dues here in this business... To look back and say that I've been doing this now for 10 years... it just now feels like it's starting to click."

Accustomed to proving herself in the ring, Carano was ready for the skepticism that came with her decision to step in front of the camera as an actress, thanks to years of critiques as a female fighter in the male-dominated MMA world.

"So many people look at athletes in movies and they, you know, they're always like, 'Oh, it's so cringeworthy,'" she noted. "And I'm just like, give 'em a second. You know, you knew them as this athlete and so you kind of have to let them turn into an artist."

"I learned that earlier on with fighting, 'cause I had my first professional fight and I felt like, 'Oh my gosh, I did such a good job,'" she continued. "And I went home and I looked at the internet and looked at the forums, and all they could talk about was boobs and butt and, like, pretty face and 'She's not real' and all this stuff. And I was like, ugh, did anyone see the fight? Like there's-- I was punching. And I did well... I feel like what I have to prove is just something to myself. And I believe that its gonna come through. It just takes a little bit longer for some people."

For Carano, the process so far has been a decade's worth of hard work -- including roles in Deadpool and the Fast & Furious franchise -- which has brought her to some major career milestones this year, with a leading part in the action-thriller Daughter of the Wolf, as well as a main role in the upcoming Star Wars series,The Mandalorian.

"There's definitely a lot of pressure, I think, when you're the lead of a film," Carano said of Daughter of the Wolf, in which she plays Clair Hamilton, a military veteran on the hunt for the men who have kidnapped her son. "I think you have to set the bar high."

"You have to stay super positive, and your work ethic has to be high," she noted. "Everybody kind of feeds off that, so I think, you know, first and foremost, you wanna make sure everybody feels like they're a family unit, and we're gonna get to the end of this film, through all the ice and all the snow and all the blood and all the accidents and all the things that happen."

However, it was a moment on the Mandalorian set, with executive producer Jon Favreau -- whom Carano raves is a "wonderful man" who provided an experience like no other on the secretive Star Wars project -- that was a true eye-opener for the 37-year-old star.

"He looked at me before my big scene, one of my biggest introductory scenes in Mandalorian, and he was like, 'We're gonna change your trajectory right now,'" she recalled. "I think he's a very honest man, and he's seen the struggle, and he's seen what happens to careers and he's like, 'We're gonna change your path right now'... He's like, 'From here on out, you're gonna choose jobs that are complementing [you]. And you're gonna choose jobs that challenge you. And you're gonna believe in yourself. From this scene forward.'"

"I was welling up with tears," Carano continued, remembering the emotional moment. "And I went out and I crushed that scene. And it was like, a scene when I first read the script I was like, 'Oh gosh, this is more than I've ever been given -- how am I going to do this?' And then, with him, I really trained for it, and I really was present... He believed in me and it helped me believe in myself."

"I couldn't thank him enough, because I feel like my whole life since I shot that has been a different world," she added.

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I can’t describe the energy I felt at the #starwarscelebration2019 event!! It was incredible and I’m so grateful for all of you and the crazy awesome support you showed us. I’m so stoked... that was epic. Thank you! ♥️ this is the first shot of my character #CaraDune Cara Dune. �� #TheMandalorian #STARWARS #ginacarano

Though most of the details of her Mandalorian character, Cara Dune, a former Rebel Shock Trooper, are a close-kept secret, for now, Carano is already feeling the love from the Star Wars fandom, beginning with an appearance at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year.

"Literally, as soon as we walked out on stage, it was a rush of, like, this positive energy, which I was not expecting," she recalled. "And I feel like, you know, Twitter is one of the worst places to go, but I refuse to let people chase me away. And I refuse to be one of those negative voices... because a lot of us have been reserved and now we're like, no, come on, like, we're human beings, you know? We're just trying to do the best we can! So that was just positive energy, I love it."

As for what's next in her career, Carano is open to anything -- "Get me in a rom-com!" -- but has her hopes set on trying even more new things, like a twisted team-up film or a gritty biopic.

"All my favorite movies are like that, you know? Natural Born Killers, just, like, crazy psychotic love stories where, like, two people just can't have enough of each other and it's them against the world. That would be amazing," she said. "[Or] a genuine, like, real-life story of struggle. I think that I do really well in that space because I am honest. And so I think that I could really portray somebody's real-life story very honestly."

"It's gonna be really interesting, what happens next -- I'm not sure what it's gonna be," she added thoughtfully. "Like Jon Favreau told me, you know, we're going in a different direction now -- and I believe it. Who knows what's gonna happen?"

Daughter of the Wolf is in select theaters and on VOD now. The Mandalorian premieres Nov. 12 on Disney+.

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[GeneChing]

What Is a Mandalorian? The Meaning of a Curious, Important Star Wars Word
The newest installment of the Star Wars saga ,‘The Mandalorian,’ might not star a real Mandalorian. Confused? Here’s what’s going on.



By Ryan Britt on August 5, 2019
Filed Under The Mandalorian

Imagine Boba Fett with horns. I wonder if you can? And that’s because if Boba Fett had Viking horns coming out of his helmet no one would think he was cool. Luckily he doesn’t and is very cool. But why? And is this new helmeted character in the new Star Wars streaming Disney+ TV show The Mandalorian just a Boba Fett copy-cat? What the hell is “a Mandalorian” anyway? Here’s a very brief history to get you prepared for the first live-action Star Wars TV show, coming this fall to a new streaming service you’re about to start paying for.


'The Mandalorian'

Where Did the Word “Mandalorian” Even Come From?

When Boba Fett was first introduced in The Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, everybody fell in love with the word Mandalorian, because it was all Boba Fett could say. “Mandalorian this. Mandalorian that.” JUST KIDDING. Including the animated segment of the Star Wars Holiday special which marks Boba Fett’s very first appearance, nobody says the word “Mandalorian” in any Star Wars movie, ever. So where does the word come from?

Well, during the development of The Empire Strikes Back, conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie and production designer Joe Johnston created an idea for super commandos from the planet Mandalore. Eventually, this morphed into just Boba Fett, and he was turned into a bounty hunter. Though there’s considerable evidence that Lucasfilm was considering expanding Boba Fett’s role significantly in Return of the Jedi, it never really happened and Boba Fett died like a chump in the Sarlacc Pit.

Why, then, did we all know the word “Mandalorian” or that Boba Fett wore “Mandalorian armor” back in the early eighties? The short answer is tie-in media. Nobody says the word “Ewok” in Return of the Jedi (really!) but you all know what an Ewok is, right? Even before the dawn of the internet and people writing handy explainer articles like this one, information about Star Wars canon seeped into the fandom even if characters never said certain words onscreen. Another fun example of this is the phrase “Dark Lord of the Sith,” an honorarium that accompanied photos of Darth Vader in old Star Wars books, but was never, ever mentioned onscreen in the classic trilogy, not once. Nobody says “Sith” in the original films. It’s a dirty word!

So, in a sense, the word “Mandalorian” is kind of like the word “Sith” but slightly more pervasive and confusing. Eighties and Nineties Star Wars Legends canon played fast-and-loose with Boba Fett’s origins and his ties to the Mandalorian culture. Still, in nearly all versions, including real-deal canon, the Mandalorians are warrior culture who fought with the Jedi in the days of the Old Republic.


Boba Fett in Star Wars

Okay, but What Is a Mandalorian?

If you were a Star Wars fan in the nineties, this meant that you had a vague belief that maybe the Clone Wars and the wars with the Mandalorians were the same thing. Which, if you squint, is kind of what happened when Attack of the Clones came out and retconned Boba Fett.

In the 1996 short story “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett”, author Daniel Keys Moran created the first reference to the planet called Concord Dawn, which was where a bunch of Mandalorians lived and where Boba Fett was supposedly born. The notion that Concord Dawn was a Mandalorian planet (read: overrun with people dressed like Boba Fett) is actually still canon to this day, but obviously, because Boba Fett was retroactively revealed to be a clone of Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones, that means Boba Fett isn’t really a Mandalorian. Also, in current canon, Concord Dawn is a planet that renegade Mandalorians live on, but “real” Mandalorians live on Mandalore.

Weirder still, Jango Fett isn’t a Mandalorian either, even though he claims he was born on Concord Dawn, a planet run by the Mandalorian Protectors. In Star Wars: Rebels (which is canon) Concord Dawn’s Mandalorians are conservative extremists who work for the Empire, which horrifies the heroic Sabine Wren because she is 100 percent, a real-deal Mandalorian.

That’s right, the most famous person to wear Mandalorian armor, who actually is from the planet Mandalore is one of the good guys from Rebels. In fact, both The Clone Wars and Rebels did more to establish the history of the Mandalorians than any other aspect of Star Wars canon. In The Clone Wars, it was established that though the Mandalorians were a war-like culture, a huge pacifist movement created a peaceful period on the planet. It was during this time that Obi-Wan Kenobi fell in love with Duchess Satine Kryze, the leader of the Mandalorians, who was tragically killed by Darth Maul, while Maul was briefly the ruler of Mandalore. (Yeah, um, Darth Maul was obviously not from Mandalore, but he was in charge of them for a short period.)


Sabine Wren in 'Rebels'; one of the only legit Mandalorians who is in a bunch of Star Wars stuff.

Anyway, in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, wearing Mandalorian armor takes on a somewhat heroic visage, which is decidedly different from the kind of Dirty Harry gunslinger feeling of Jango and Boba Fett. This is something to keep in mind when we think about the description for the upcoming show The Mandalorian, which, according to Lucasfilm is:

After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

Who Is *The Mandalorian?

So, right now its unclear if titular Mandalorian of The Mandalorian is a “real” Mandalorian or only wears the Mandalorian armor. It’s also doubly unclear what this person is trying to say by wearing that armor. The show’s synopsis seems to imply that putting on this armor is meant to send the message that: “Hey, I’m a murdering badass gun for hire.” But, if you consider that the Mandolorians were also an honorable culture of warriors — and their fashion sense just kind of got co-opted by Boba Fett and his dad — then wearing the armor could send a different message. And that message could be: “This is the armor of a really strong culture, and one person who used to rule the planet Mandalore was Obi-Wan’s girlfriend and a founding member of the Rebellion, Sabine Wren, was also a Mandalorian, so don’t mess with me!”

So what does it mean to be a Mandalorian? It sort of depends on who is wearing the armor.

More confused then ever? Well, welcome to Star Wars lore, but hopefully, The Mandalorian will provide even more information on one of the most perplexing corners of the Star Wars galaxy.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian debuts on Disney+ on November 12, 2019.

As a longtime Star Wars fan, I confess I never realized the Ewok or Holiday Special things. Mandalorians really came into my consciousness with Sabine, who was really the central character for Rebels.

[GeneChing]

Jon Favreau Unveils 'Star Wars' Series 'The Mandalorian,' Marvel Plans and a New Venture
7:00 AM PDT 8/21/2019 by Matthew Belloni


Yuri Hasegawa

"When you no longer have the pressure of proving yourself to yourself or to other people, you can just follow your bliss and be led by your curiosity," says Jon Favreau, photographed Aug. 14 at his studio in Playa Vista.

With 'The Lion King,' 'Spider-Man: Far From Home,' Netflix's 'Chef Show' and now the Disney+ series about to drop a trailer at D23, the 'Swingers' star turned billion-dollar filmmaker chats about his next endeavor, and how he plans to bridge storytelling and technology (and Hollywood with Silicon Valley).
The future of filmmaking is unfolding in a drab office park near a Whole Foods in Playa Vista. It's where Jon Favreau assembled this summer's $1.5 billion-grossing The Lion King using a gaming engine and a warehouse of cutting-edge artists and technicians, and it's where the actor-writer-director-producer is sketching out season two of The Mandalorian, a Star Wars TV series set to debut Nov. 12 on the new Disney+ streaming service (and to be teased with a trailer at the D23 conference Aug. 23). Favreau, 52, invited Hollywood Reporter editorial director Matthew Belloni to a conference room lined with pictures of Tatooine's finest to talk about his crazy summer (in addition to Lion King, he co-starred in the $1 billion-grossing Spider-Man: Far From Home and dropped The Chef Show on Netflix) and to unveil his new endeavor, Golem Creations, named for the man-made creature from folklore that represents an artistic creation brought to life by magic. It's a logical next step for a multihyphenate who, since writing and starring in Swingers in 1996, has carved out a unique (and lucrative) niche combining his passions for storytelling and technology, launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the tech-heavy Iron Man and developing immersive video walls to use with live actors on Mandalorian.

A married father of three teens (wife Joya is a physician), Favreau lives on L.A.'s Westside and says he's still interested in acting, but he's plenty busy making an Apple docuseries featuring photo-realistic dinosaurs, the VR experience Gnomes + Goblins as well as a stop-motion animation special for Netflix called Alien Xmas. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

Let's start with is the focus of the new venture. What's Golem Creations?

Favreau: My fascination is with where technology and storytelling overlap. Méliès, the Lumière brothers, Walt Disney, Jim Cameron. It comes from the tradition of stage magic. When you have a tech breakthrough like Star Wars, like Avatar, like Jurassic Park, people's minds go into a fugue state where they just accept this illusion as reality. What's also enjoyable about it for me is that you're not being tricked by it, you're complicit in that you are agreeing to suspend your disbelief if the spectacle is sufficiently enjoyable. That's why Star Wars is so enduring and why we're surrounded [here] by artwork for Star Wars, why that's a world I want to play in because it's tech and myth coming together in a perfect way.

So what are your next steps?

A lot of it is focusing on the opportunities that new production technologies have to offer, and then also what technology offers in the form of platforms, distribution. It could be anything from The Mandalorian, where we're using game engine technology, virtual camera work and virtual production that we developed on Lion King, applying those learnings to designing a project where you could use virtual sets and virtual set extensions using real-time rendering, which is something that people talk about but we're the first people to actually apply it to a production. Getting that thing on its feet, from an idea through the screaming toddler phase into a place where you can actually have a responsible production that delivers quality is a very interesting part of the learning curve, so that's something that I'm fascinated with.

There will be people who hear "digital production" on The Mandalorian and think "Great, we saw digital production on the Star Wars prequels and it didn't look very good." How is this different?

Well, I would argue that the prequels are — and [George] Lucas in general is — the bedrock that all of this is built on. He is the first person that had digital photography, he was the first person to do completely CG characters. The whole notion of not having even a print [version of the film], of having everything be 0's and 1's, was all George. Not to mention EditDroid, which turned into Avid, Pixar was spawned out of their laboratories at LucasFilm, so he is arguably the center of the Big Bang for everything that I'm doing. It's building on the shoulders of what he was able to innovate.


Yuri Hasegawa
Character models from the Favreau-produced The Mandalorian, the Star Wars series that premieres on Disney+ in November.

So the answer is this is 20 years later than the prequels?

This is 20 years later, and also there's been a democratization of the skill set too. It's no longer a few vendors innovating in ivory towers, that information has been expanded and disseminated and democratized so that effects that would cost you millions of dollars, you can do it on a PC now, with consumer-facing filmmaking tools. When George came to our set and visited The Mandalorian, he said, "Oh, we did this," and what he meant was, “We had green screen and we were building small sets and expanding upon it.” Now, we have video walls, NVIDIA video cards that allow a refresh rate that allows you to do in-camera effects, we're in there taking advantage of the cutting-edge stuff.

You showed me some of the video wall work, and my first thought was, "Why the hell does J.J. Abrams go to Jordan?"

Every film is a puzzle, and there's a freedom that you have as a storyteller if you go to the real environment; it affects you and the human element. When you see Lawrence of Arabia, how much of that is informed by really being there and not shooting it in Calabasas — I think you get a different movie. The way I work and the stories I'm telling are geared specifically toward what this technology has to offer, so I could not make Episode IX using these tools. If you notice, there's a certain look that the Mandalorean lead character has, there's a size that the spaceship is, there's a scale that lines up with the original trilogy. I'm trying to evoke the aesthetics of not just the original trilogy but the first film. Not just the first film but the first act of the first film. What was it like on Tatooine? What was going on in that cantina? That has fascinated me since I was a child, and I love the idea of the darker, freakier side of Star Wars, the Mad Max aspect of Star Wars.

People might assume that Disney asked you to figure out what Star Wars looks like on TV, but the opposite is true: You came to them, right?

I wrote four of the episodes before I even had a deal, because I wanted to do this but only if they wanted to do the version that I wanted to do.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Yuri Hasegawa
This fan art mashes up the helmet worn by two iconic characters shepherded by Favreau: Iron Man and Boba Fett.

And by that you mean using the technology that you've been developing and doing it on the scale that you're comfortable with?

I had been thinking about Star Wars since Disney acquired Star Wars. When I was working on Lion King, it was a full-time job for a few of the years, but there was a lot of time when I just had to be available for three very focused hours a day. The TV model allowed me to be an executive producer [on Mandalorian], which allowed me to, on my own time, write everything. It's a lot like being a chef. You write the menu, you staff up with people who are great at what they do, you oversee and help guide the people who are actually cooking the food, working the line, and then at the end, you plate.

So that's why you didn't direct the episodes?

That's why it worked well for Disney. Plus, Disney+ is emerging and there's an opportunity to tell a story that's bigger than television, but you don't have the same expectations that a big holiday release has, which to me isn't that type of Star Wars that comes out of me. The type of Star Wars that I'm inspired to tell is a smaller thing with new characters.

But Bob Iger says Disney+ is the future of the company. So there is some pressure on this anchor show.

That's why he's good at what he does. But this feels to me like when we made Iron Man. It didn't feel like the future of Marvel was resting on it, [even though] the future of Marvel was resting on it because if we failed they would have lost their characters that were collateral.

How do you think the current entertainment ecosystem is positioned in a competitive landscape that includes Facebook, Fortnite and all the others battling for attention?

We have to be very keyed into what people really want. My company is called Golem Creations because the Golem could be used to protect the village or you could lose control and it rampages. Technology is that way. You have to make sure that you know why and how you are engaging technology. Are you using it just to grow or are you using it to engage people in a way that is pleasing to them? Are you giving them agency over how it’s being used? Are you being transparent about how they're engaging with the technology? I think these are the questions of our age.

The digital footage that you just showed me is so realistic, if I were an actor that would scare the crap out of me. You’re an actor …

I am. Either you have an animator making choices or you have an actor making choices, but it is a human being; it is not a computer. Lion King is the most handmade film I've ever done. There are thousands of hours of human attention being dedicated to every shot of that film.


Yuri Hasegawa
A portrait of Favreau as The Mandalorian by Doug Chiang, executive creative director at Lucasfilm.

But the stars, Beyoncé and Donald Glover, met each other at the premiere.

Right. But Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen were in my editing room and on that stage for dozens of hours working on every scene with me. It allows people to engage. It allows Donald Glover to work with Beyoncé in a way where Donald Glover is in London working on Solo and Beyoncé is having twins. They would have not been able to participate in this film had it not been for this technology. However, if you wanted to take this and push people out of the equation, technology can always be used to do that. So when does technology end up enriching the human experience and when does it end up isolating us or replacing us? That's why I want to be in the middle of this conversation.

Do you think a movie like your 2014 hit Chef would debut in theaters today?

No, I wouldn't have done it that way.

But the independent film world launched your career.

It did change things for me. Getting a check for a few hundred thousand dollars on the backend of the sale of Swingers changed my life in a way that money no longer represented something. Once you relieve people of that debt and preoccupation, it allows you to engage creatively on such a more meaningful level.

Do you think companies like Disney are getting too big and too powerful?

Compared to who, Amazon?


Yuri Hasegawa
Favreau hands out these "challenge coins" to the cast and crew on all of his projects: "I’ve been making them since Iron Man 2."

Compared to where it was 10, 15 years ago. There's leverage and a balance of power that impacts creative people.

I know that I have the ability to work with Disney and I have a great time in that partnership. But also there are new people who are financing things. I couldn't make a documentary with Apple 10 years ago. I couldn't do a cooking show as director and on-camera talent for Netflix. Even talking to [an outlet] like Quibi about doing short-form stop motion, working with Netflix on a stop-motion Christmas special. I've been trying to work with these guys the Chiodo brothers, who did the stop-motion on Elf, it took over 15 years, only because the business model changed. Yes, it's the consolidation — certainly of IP — with Disney, but Disney is finding themselves in a position where they have to be competitive with companies that are playing by a different set of rules in the financial space because they're tech companies and growth companies.

What in your observation is the view of Hollywood from the Silicon Valley community?

I think they look at Hollywood as having a tremendous amount of potential because we have developed slowly. It's like a slow-growth forest. There's a relationship that the audience has with it and there's wonderful branding because we associate these great memories and great movies with filmmakers, studios and stories. But I think the technology companies are always looking for ways to build a better mousetrap. It's almost like the intercontinental railroad coming from each coast and meeting in the middle. You have people like Bob Iger and [Disney direct-to-consumer and international chair] Kevin Mayer, who are studying the tech space and trying to pivot a very large company into a direction where it's competitive, relevant and flourishing in this new environment. At the same time, you have companies like Amazon and Apple moving toward what Hollywood's doing. Ted Sarandos and Netflix are interesting because I knew him for a very long time — I think I was involved with the first original production. I think we did an episode of [2000s chat show] Dinner for Five on DVD. It was the first thing they financed. He always had one foot in each community. I think both are wary of each other. As we all come together, that's why there's a lot of uncertainty, because we're establishing a new culture that incorporates aspects of both.

Do you think Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are in premium content for the long haul or is this a fad?

Telling people stories that they love is the best way and the most organic way to engage with an audience and have an attention transaction. If Amazon does a wonderful job building Lord of the Rings, and they make a commitment and build a story in a way that delights their audience, there will be a very genuine transaction where people will willfully rush home, sit, watch it when it first posts, and then chat about it online.

And buy more products on Amazon.

That's the way that Amazon monetizes. By the way, it's a very sincere, upfront way to monetize.

But premium content is really hard. Do you think these companies know that?

They're learning that. Because there's no guarantee. If there were a formula, the studios would get it right every time.

Explain how the Apple dinosaur documentary Prehistoric Planet will work.

We've been collaborating with BBC and the people that brought us Planet Earth, working to show documentaries that you would be able to film if you were able to travel in time, but present it as though you were seeing it alongside anything that would be filmed today. Technology is really at the point where you can fool people into believing that they're looking at something that was photographed even though it's generated by computers.

Will Disney submit Lion King in live action or animation for awards consideration?

Technically, it qualifies for both, but I don't think the technical aspect is what's interesting here. What's interesting is how people are interpreting what they're looking at. We've hit a level of photorealism. You're a journalist, you're more qualified to say what it is or what it should be.

The animals sing and dance. I think it’s clearly an animated film.

My perspective as a filmmaker is that I love that this conversation's even happening because it means people care.

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[GeneChing]

Yuri Hasegawa
This director’s chair was a gift from "Stark Industries" by way of Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr.

Is there a character or project that could lure you back to direct for Marvel?

I'm talking to them because I'm very close friends with all of them. It’s been a really interesting experience being involved with Lion King and being involved with Endgame. Because with Lion King we were taking this technology that is only available now and applying it to one of the great myths. At the same time, we see Tony Stark, who starts off as a very flawed character — using technology, by the way, from the first Iron Man to the 23rd film with Thanos. Developing a character over 23 films, supported by Robert Downey's performance, Gwyneth Paltrow's relationship to him and performance, from the first moment you see them onscreen to the last moment you see them together, you develop such an emotional connection to that character. Going from selfishness to selflessness — the perfect model myth — and that paying off over how many hours of film? I feel like I've seen that video game solved perfectly. So to jump back into the big screen right now, by being involved with both of those projects, I went through that journey.

But are you going to continue to appear as an actor?

Oh sure, I love doing that. And I learn because I get to be on other peoples' sets. When I get to see the Russo brothers direct, it's great. When I get to be on Jon Watts' set for Spider-Man, I had more fun in his last Spider-Man than in any movie role I can remember.

You and Downey have been in it since the beginning. Have you talked to him about his post-Marvel life? What is he thinking?

I don't know what he's thinking, but he better direct. Otherwise, I'm not going to be his friend anymore. He's the star of the biggest movie of all time. He did it. So now, you better do stuff you love. Because if you can't do what you love, how are you going to inspire everybody else out there who's climbing that ladder? He has a lot of passion. He's an artist: He understands visual art, he understands music. I think he would be a hell of a director. I hope I get to have a part if he ever decides to direct because I want to show him what it felt like when I was directing him. I want to give him the other side of that equation.

Tell us something about Elon Musk that we don't know.

I met him when I was making Iron Man. He's in Iron Man 2. He let us shoot at SpaceX for free, long before any rockets launched, so [Iron Man 2 villain] Justin Hammer's worksite is SpaceX. He understands how much impact he has on the path to the future. He understands storytelling, whether it's in how he makes presentations or what he gravitates toward. When he wants to explain things, it's often by referencing something that has appeared in fiction. Whether you're making movies or whether you're selling an idea of the future, the best way to demonstrate it for the most people to understand it is through a good fable, a good story. That's why Steve Jobs was a great storyteller. He told you the story of the iPhone, he didn't just give you the iPhone. Remember, the iPhone never had an instruction manual. The flip phone would have never existed had it not been for Star Trek. The engineer who developed that saw it in Star Trek and said, "How can I build this?" After Iron Man, I went down to SpaceX, and if you remember when Robert Downey is designing the Iron Man suit, he sticks his arm into a hologram and moves it around. [Musk] had his people build that 3D printing system based on manipulating holograms because he saw that in the movie.

You're now a food celebrity, so people must approach you to open restaurants all the time.

I will open a restaurant.

Why don't you already have a restaurant?

Because I have to talk Roy Choi into it and he's too pragmatic. But you will see a restaurant at some point from me. Restaurants are great, but even when they're hugely successful, what do the chefs end up doing? They go into either merchandising or they become TV personalities. That's how you monetize being a great chef. You don't make the French Laundry twice as big; that's not how you scale. I draw inspiration from that. I want to have an eight-seat ramen bar where I'm there behind the counter. I don't scale well.

A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Great interview.

[GeneChing]

I've watched up to S1E3 and I'm still waiting for Gina to appear on the Mandalorian.

Gina Carano Reveals Why She Hates Her 'Mandalorian' Stuntwoman
Fred Topel | MORE ARTICLES
November 11, 2019

Gina Carano plays a mysterious character on Disney+’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian. Even at an early preview of the series, Disney did not show any scenes involving Carano’s character, Cara Dune. She only appeared in that one brief shot during the trailer.


Gina Carano as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian | Melinda Sue Gordon/Lucasfilm Ltd.

Carano was part of a panel to discuss The Mandalorian though. Although she could not reveal any details about Cara Dune, Carano gave some insight into what it’s like playing her and working on a Star Wars series for Disney’s streaming service. The Mandalorian premiers Tuesday, November 12 when Disney+ launches.

Gina Carano is very possessive of her ‘Mandalorian’ character

Gina Carano wanted to be the only one to play Cara Dune. Even when there were stunts to perform, she didn’t want any stunt doubles putting on her costume. And why should she? Gina Carano is a former MMA fighter who’s done plenty of action movies. She doesn’t need anyone else’s help.


Gina Carano at The Mandalorian press conference | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

“I did not want it to be anybody else in this Cara Dune costume,” Carano said. “Oh, is she running? Okay, I’ll run. That’s fine, no, we don’t need her [the stunt double]. I really hated anybody that was in this costume. I didn’t want to share at all.”

Pedro Pascal disagreed with his ‘Mandalorian’ costar

Pedro Pascal plays The Mandalorian himself. In every image released from the show, he is covered head to toe in armor. Pascal was happy to let the stunt doubles take over.

“Stunt doubles are essential to every large production just so you know,” Pascal said. “Even for the strongest people or agile ones, nothing can get done without the incredible stunt work.”


Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian on Disney+ | Lucasfilm

Gina Carano may be a superstar in the MMA or action world, but Pascal thinks everyone behind the scenes on The Mandalorian is a star.

“You have no idea the amount of star power from every department that goes into making something like this, from the person that is working on the shine of my shoulder to the person building the ship that we’re shooting on or the whole set. I’ve seen some pretty big sh*t and I haven’t seen anything like this. Yeah, there’s stunts, thank God.

Gina Carano describes one ‘Mandalorian’ stunt

Star Wars is full of creatures and ships so Gina Carano could describe one without giving anything away.

“Actually, my first day on set I was on a bird,” Carano said. “So I was up on this big thing and I was just like, ‘Okay, this is it. This is my life now.’”

The ‘Mandalorian’ costumes made Gina Carano feel she was in ‘Star Wars’

Gina Carano may have been possessive of her Cara Dune costume, but it was looking around and seeing all her costars dressed up as Star Wars characters that transported her into the galaxy far, far away.

“It really honestly was one of my favorite unforgettable moments being on set, seeing the other cast members whether it be behind a helmet or a creature,” Carano said.


Gina Carano and Jon Favreau | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Cara Dune even impressed the people who created her, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

“Jon and Dave came [to set],” Carano said. “They made such a big deal out of ‘Oh my gosh, look how great you look.’ I was like wow, this is really great, but then I saw they did that to everybody and I’m like, ‘Oh, so you do that to everyone? Okay.’”

[GeneChing]

I feel like I've just had my Star Wars nerd card revoked. How did I miss this Easster Egg?

How ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ References the Most Awesomely Bad ‘Star Wars’ Video Game
Posted on Friday, June 1st, 2018 by Ethan Anderton



Solo: A Star Wars Story is chock full of winks and nods referencing future events in the Star Wars trilogy, almost to the point that it’s annoying. But there are also some obscure references for hardcore Star Wars fans that are a little more interesting. One of them comes from a single line of dialogue referencing one of the worst Star Wars video games every made…but it also has a place in the history of Star Wars and even sets up the major reveal everyone has been talking about.

Find out what we’re talking about below, but beware of spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Qi’ra Shows Off Her Fighting Skills

In Solo: A Star Wars Story, part of the plan to hijack a bunch of coaxium begins with infiltrating a mining facility on Kessel. Our heroes accomplish this by having Qi’ra offer up Han Solo and Chewbacca as slaves, allowing them to get into the facility itself. While Han and Chewie are led through the mines closer to the coaxium, Qi’ra, Tobias Beckett and Lando Calrissian’s droid L3-37 are brought into the control room to finalize their business.

During this sequence, Qi’ra pulls off a couple unseen fight moves and takes down the facility supervisor. L3 is visibly impressed and even a little surprised as she asks, “What was that?” And Qi’ra nonchalantly says “Teräs Käsi.” That might not mean anything to the more casual Star Wars viewer, but for longtime fans, this was quite the obscure reference to throw into Solo. So what the hell is Teräs Käsi?



Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi
The fighting style Teräs Käsi became well-known to Star Wars fans when a PlayStation game entitled Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi hit the market. Styled in the model of fighting games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter, it was a video game that featured Star Wars characters duking it out on polygonal environments in a galaxy far, far away. Since this is a first generation PlayStation game we’re talking about, the graphics were not great and the game mechanics were clumsy at best. But **** it, was that a fun game to play with friends as an adolescent Star Wars fan.

The fighting roster features Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia (in Boushh disguise), Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Thok (a Gamorrean guard), Hoar (a Tusek Raider) and a new character named Arden Lyn, a Dark Jedi with a mechanical arm. They all engaged in hand-to-hand combat, as well as weapon combat (which didn’t make much sense when characters like Luke with a lightsaber would fight Thok with an axe). But there was no signature fighting style between them to dictate what Teräs Käsi was. Instead, that came from Star Wars Legends.



The History of Teräs Käsi

The first mention of Teräs Käsi comes from a major story arc called Shadows of the Empire. One of the more well-known Star Wars Legends titles, this was an interesting experimental sort of multimedia project that was intended to tell a story that took place in-between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, where no Star Wars novel had ventured before.

The goal at the time was to create anything and everything that might be associated with a Star Wars movie release, but without ever actually releasing a movie. This included a novel, a video game, action figures, trading cards, comics and even a soundtrack. And within the novel of Shadows of the Empire, the fighting style Teräs Käsi is mentioned as being used by the villains Sun and Zu Pike. And from there it went on to become part of the aforementioned video game that everyone loved to hate.

However, Teräs Käsi was only a blip in Star Wars until it came to be referenced in the novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. You see, after Darth Maul’s acrobatic, fast-paced martial arts style debuted in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, many thought it would be interesting if his character was trained in the art of Teräs Käsi, mostly because his fighting style was unlike any we’d seen in the Star Wars universe up to that point. After Shadow Hunter made it canon (at the time), the fighting style was referenced on and off again until it finally was given a real origin story, made to be a fighting style that allowed non-Force sensitive warriors could engage with the likes of Jedi and Sith and still hold their own. Of course, that’s all Star Wars Legends, but…



Teräs Käsi is Now Canon
With the mention of Teräs Käsi in Solo: A Star Wars Story, the fighting style is now canon. Funnily enough, since this was a fighting style that came to be associated with Darth Maul, the fact that Qi’ra learned it from Dryden works as a hint toward the reveal of the Sith warrior as the puppet master behind the Crimson Dawn in the film’s final act. It only makes sense that those working for Maul have been trained in a fighting style that makes them deadly enough to do his bidding.

The question is how much, if any, of the backstory that became associated with Teräs Käsi will be made canon. Will this fighting style continue to be mentioned in Star Wars stories now that we’ve seen it in Solo: A Star Wars Story? Maybe we’ll see it pop up in other comics, books and video games. And if we’re lucky (or unlucky, depending how you look at it), maybe we’ll get a new generation remake of the original game with even more characters. Because while Star Wars Battletfront II offers us a way to have Star Wars characters from all eras of the saga to fight against each other, there’s just something…special about Masters of Teräs Käsi. Awfully special.

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[GeneChing]

'The Mandalorian' Star Gina Carano Fired Amid Social Media Controversy
6:38 PM PST 2/10/2021 by Ryan Parker , Aaron Couch

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

UTA has also dropped the actor, who will no longer be part of the 'Star Wars' galaxy.
Gina Carano will not be returning to The Mandalorian or the Star Wars galaxy after sharing a post on social media inferring that being a Republican today is like being Jewish during the Holocaust.

"Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future," a Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement. "Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."

Carano has also been dropped as a client by UTA, an agency spokesperson confirms.

On Wednesday, the hashtag #FireGinaCarano was trending following an Instagram post from the outspoken conservative actor and former mixed martial artist which was met with severe backlash. The post has since been deleted, but screenshots were widely shared by users on social media who called for her firing from the hit Disney+ Star Wars show.

This is not the first time Carano, who played former Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, has been the focus of social media ire for her political comments. Last November, she issued contentious tweets, one in which she mocked mask-wearing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and another in which she falsely suggested voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.

“They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking tells THR.

The Mandalorian debuted on Disney+ in November 2019 and helped power the streaming service to impressive subscription numbers. Carano's Cara Dune became an instant fan favorite, with the actor praised for bringing a calm strength to the role. But her tweets have also made her a controversial figure among Star Wars fandom.

According to sources, Lucasfilm planned to unveil Carano as the star of her own Disney+ series during a December investor's day presentation but scrapped those plans following her November tweets. Multiple Mandalorian spinoffs are in the works from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, including Rangers of the New Republic, which could have potentially starred Carano.

But after the latest round of social media posts, the decision to cut ties with the actor came swiftly.

Carano came up in the world of MMA, and has appeared in high-profile projects, such as Deadpool and Fast & Furious 6. Steven Soderbergh cast her in 2011's Haywire, a film that launched her acting career following a straight-to-DVD project.

Her rep could not be immediately reached for comment.

Feb. 10, 8:15 p.m. Updated to note UTA had dropped the actor.

RYAN PARKER
ryan.parker@thr.com

AARON COUCH
aaron.couch@thr.com

Dune is TKOed in Round 2.

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