‘The Mandalorian’ EP Rick Famuyiwa Talks His Improbable Journey to ‘Star Wars’ and Mando and Grogu’s Big Screen Chances

When one door to the multiverse closed, another one opened to a galaxy far, far away.

Following the critical acclaim of his 2015 film, Dope, filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa found himself in the DCEU, developing The Flash, the same Flash movie that is about to come out after first being announced in October 2014. Famuyiwa would ultimately depart the project in the fall of 2016 due to creative differences, and the L.A. native went on to develop other projects until The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau reached out for a meeting. Famuyiwa and Favreau quickly hit it off, and the former not only directed three episodes across the first two seasons of the hit Disney+ series, but he also wrote a couple as well.

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To this day, Famuyiwa still can’t believe that his filmography of coming-of-age dramedies and romantic comedies would spark the interest of Favreau.

“I ask Jon [Favreau] all the time, ‘What is it that you saw in Dope that made you go, “I think that’s Star Wars material,”” Famuyiwa tells The Hollywood Reporter.

And now that season three of The Mandalorian is in the can, Famuyiwa has directed more episodes of the series than anyone else with six, including the premiere, penultimate and finale episodes of the current season. With executive producer Dave Filoni shifting his attention to the Rosario Dawson-led series Ahsoka, Favreau knew that Famuyiwa was ready for an expanded role due to trust and experience.

“It was important to have a continuity of people who were there from the beginning as we were going into this season, which was expanding and bringing a lot of ideas to culmination,” Famuyiwa says.

Below, during a recent conversation with THR prior to The Mandalorian’s season three premiere, Famuyiwa also discusses the chances of Din “Mando” Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu ending up on the big screen.

For a filmmaker whose career was born out of Sundance, how did you end up in a galaxy far, far away?

It’s a good question that I ask Jon [Favreau] all the time. I’m like, “What is it that you saw in Dope that made you go, ‘I think that’s Star Wars material.’” (Laughs.) But I’ve always loved Star Wars and had aspirations to tell stories in this world for a long time. Star Wars was the first film I saw in the theater, and even though my storytelling has often been very, very different from this world, there was always a link in terms of the things that I got excited by as a filmmaker. And I’ve always felt that they were similar to George Lucas. In many ways, American Graffiti was as much an influence on me as Star Wars was.

So when Jon was creating [The Mandalorian] and thinking about the filmmakers that he wanted to help collaborate on it, he had seen my work, but Dope in particular. So he definitely wanted to have a conversation about the things that he was putting together, and I had been developing some things at the time with Lucasfilm as well on the feature side. So it became a meeting, as I was doing that and he was creating the show. We came together, and he talked to me about The Mandalorian and what he was thinking about and what he was doing with the show. And while I was working on what I was developing, he asked if I would be interested in coming in and doing an episode or two of the first season. And being both a massive Star Wars fan and also a fan of Jon and his work, it was like, “Of course! You don’t even have to ask. I’m there.”

So that was how it came together, and he told me, “I want you to do the second episode.” And I was like, “Okay, whoa. Slow down, man.” (Laughs.) And then he handed me a 15-page script and said, “Here. Go for it.” And that episode had a lot of development in terms of character, but it didn’t have very much dialogue. So it was really about bringing [Mando and Grogu] together once we were introduced to them in the first episode, and I felt a real sense of responsibility and excitement that I would be a part of helping to define these two characters in a way that would hopefully show the way moving forward.

What was unique about your experience on season three compared to the previous two? 

I don’t know if it’s necessarily unique as much as it was really expanding upon a lot of the collaboration and working relationship that I’ve had with Jon and Dave on the first two seasons. I came in so early in the process of season one, and I was also a part of writing season one and season two. I had the opportunity to work with Jon and Dave as they were conceiving each of those seasons from a very early point, and since I was writing, I had to figure out how my writing was going to fit in with what they were doing and the overall arc. So I wouldn’t necessarily call it a writers’ room, but because we were the only three writing and I was coming in with a handful of episodes, I certainly had to be a part of what the larger storytelling was and how it was coming together. So I had comments, and I certainly had a part in helping to shape some of that, particularly as it moved towards my episodes and beyond.

So when we got into season three coming together, Jon reached out to me with the understanding that I’ve been there from the beginning and we’ve developed a certain trust, creatively. Dave was also going to be very busy launching the Ahsoka series, so it was important to have a continuity of people who were there from the beginning as we were going into this season, which was expanding and bringing a lot of ideas to culmination. So it was unique in that I had a very specific view from the very beginning to the very end. I had a broader look into it before, and while it still felt very much of a similar process, there was just a lot more of it.

Do you think it’s only a matter of time before we see these characters on the big screen someday?

I don’t know what the big plan of everything is, and obviously, there’s so much storytelling happening now in Star Wars. There are series, and a lot has happened in the films. So what that all means in terms of how we create things and for what medium has all started to blur. So I wouldn’t be surprised, but I certainly don’t have any inside knowledge about anything that’s happening in that regard. But there’s a large storytelling community within Star Wars that is very active on the series side and continues to be active when it comes to what may be happening with the films moving forward.

Well, Rick Famuyiwa, congratulations on The Mandalorian season three, and please give my best to Jib Dodger [Famuyiwa’s Mandalorian character from “Chapter 6”].

(Laughs.) Jib will appreciate that. Thank you.

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The Mandalorian is now airing on Disney+. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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