Robert Rodriguez Directed the Hell Out of the Best 'Mandalorian' Episode Yet

From Men's Health

• Season 2 Episode 4 of The Mandalorian, titled "The Tragedy" had quite the famous director: Robert Rodriguez.

• The episode featured a little bit of what everyone wants in Star Wars: some mythology, some great action, return of fan-favorite characters, and most importantly, key story progression.

• Rodriguez is best known for his exciting action films, such as the Desperado trilogy, Sin City, and Planet Terror.

Now that we're well into the second season of The Mandalorian, we kind of know what factors into a good episode. Well, "The Tragedy," Season 2's 6th episode and "Chapter 14" overall, had just about all of it. We're talking mythology—Grogu went straight from the end of the previous episode to doing some real Jedi stuff on the seeing stone on Tython. We're talking returning characters—freaking Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are back. And we're talking, key, vital story progression. And all of that comes in an episode directed by someone who feels like a natural fit for the Star Wars world: Robert Rodriguez.

If you don't know Rodriguez by name, you certainly know his movies. Rodriguez came to fame with his Desperado trilogy, centered around a very Mandalorian-esque, lone gunfighter type character known as "El Mariachi." In the latter two movies of this trilogy, that character is played with a wonderfully badass swagger by Antonio Banderas. These movies clearly set a precedent for the absolute blast that his "The Tragedy" would be.

While Rodriguez makes a lot of movies that are...uh, not appropriate for children—the Desperado films, Planet Terror, Machete—he has also spent a lot of time making sci-fi and action movies that the whole family could enjoy. That counts the Spy Kids movies and Shark Boy and Lava Girl, which will have its own quasi-sequel, We Could Be Heroes, also directed by Rodriguez, drop on New Years Day 2021.

Balancing these two worlds with a little bit of nerd culture acumen—Rodriguez has also helmed the Sin City films, based on Frank Miller's hugely popular graphic novels—make this, really, a prime director for The Mandalorian. And with this action and mythology filled episode that the nerds, the kids, and the parents will all enjoy, he did exactly what Jon Favreau and company brought him in to do.

We'd heard that Rodriguez would at least be directing segments of Season 2 if not a whole episode during the run-up to Season 2 before eventually confirming along the way that Rodriguez would, indeed, be helming his own episode. Earlier in the year, in May 4, Rodruguez confirmed it himself on his social media.

It's also clear that Pedro Pascal loved working with Rodriguez, saying on instagram that he's "been waiting for this one to drop."

Rodriguez is probably a one-off director for The Mandalorian; film directors like Taika Waititi and Peyton Reed have directed episodes throughout the first season, but it's only been one at a time. James Mangold, who directed one of the greatest superhero movies of all time in the X-Men movie Logan has also been rumored to direct this season; maybe he'll slip in under the belt in one of the final episodes of Season 2.

In case anyone is still filled with adrenaline following "The Tragedy," and is feeling like they want to give a Rodriguez movie a go, we've got one more suggestion: his 2019 action epic Alita: Battle Angel. It's a movie that had a bit of a mixed reaction both critically and at the box office, but it's already developed a cult following, and sure seems like it aims to develop a world that Star Wars fans would really dig. It's a big, fun movie that doesn't take itself super seriously—and has some really awesome action and visuals. Sound familiar?

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