Jon Favreau has assembled one heck of a team of directors to bring his vision for The Mandalorian to life. Bryce Dallas Howard has proven herself to be a formidable filmmaker, remaking Seven Samurai in the Star Wars universe and making a goofy Imperial walker terrifying along the way. Taika Waititi brought a healthy dose of dry humor without undermining the pathos in the season 1 finale. Carl Weathers ratcheted up the tension in a kind of “Fury Road with Stormtroopers” episode. And Robert Rodriguez made fanboys’ childhood dreams come true with Boba Fett back in action.
The directors for The Mandalorian’s upcoming third season haven’t been announced yet, but there are some great high-profile directors out there who might be a perfect fit for the show.
Best: Dave Filoni
It’s hardly surprising that George Lucas’ personal mentor has successfully recaptured the spirit of the saga in a handful of spectacular Mandalorian episodes, including the first episode, which made instant icons out of both Mando and Grogu.
Having co-created Ahsoka Tano with Lucas, it was appropriate that Filoni helmed the character’s live-action debut in The Mandalorian episode “Chapter 13: The Jedi.” The whole episode plays like a love letter to Kurosawa, while Rosario Dawson’s fierce performance deftly set the stage for the spin-off that Filoni is spearheading.
Should: Edgar Wright
Ever since he completed his genre-riffing Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Edgar Wright has been stepping out of his comfort zone with American-set jukebox actioner Baby Driver and his upcoming straightforward horror movie (i.e. not a spoof) Last Night in Soho. A Mandalorian episode could be on the cards for Britain’s most stylish geek.
It would be interesting to see how Wright marries his own style of fast-cutting montages and soundtrack needle-drops with the Star Wars saga’s style of Kurosawa-influenced samurai imagery and wipe transitions.
Best: Peyton Reed
When Edgar Wright departed from Ant-Man and Peyton Reed was hired to take his place, Cornetto fanboys were quick to point out that the final product feels more like an agreeable, lukewarm summer blockbuster than what the visionary Wright would’ve come up with. And that’s probably true – Reed has never made a movie as great as Hot Fuzz – but Marvel’s replacement Ant-Man director proved he has a few tricks up his sleeve in The Mandalorian’s second season.
After introducing the Frog Lady and making the ice spider attack one of the show’s most thrilling set pieces in “Chapter 10: The Passenger,” Reed really knocked fans’ socks off with the season finale, “Chapter 16: The Rescue.” From Luke Skywalker’s triumphant appearance to Mando and Grogu’s heartbreaking goodbye, Reed nailed every monumental moment the episode had to offer.
Should: Patty Jenkins
Patty Jenkins is already in the good graces of Lucasfilm – she’s set to direct a standalone movie about starfighter pilots called Rogue Squadron – and she directed Pedro Pascal in a TV pilot in 2015 and again in the recently released Wonder Woman 1984, so she’s primed to tackle a Mandalorian episode. The Wonder Woman sequel has received mixed reviews, but its main problems are script-related. The Mandalorian’s writing team is a well-oiled machine full of incredibly talented people, so there won’t be any problems there.
Jenkins is also set to helm a third Wonder Woman movie and a remake of Cleopatra on top of her Star Wars movie, so she may not have time to direct an episode of The Mandalorian. But if she did have the time, based on the heart, humor, and vibrant world-building in the first Wonder Woman movie, we’d be in for a treat.
Best: Deborah Chow
Deborah Chow has been tapped to direct all episodes of the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series starring Ewan McGregor, which will chronicle the beloved Jedi’s time in exile on Tatooine during the rise of the Empire. Based on Chow’s pair of Mandalorian episodes, the show is in very safe hands.
In the show’s first season, Chow directed “Chapter 3: The Sin,” in which Grogu’s favorite gear shift knob inspires Mando to break the code to save him from the Client, and “Chapter 7: The Reckoning,” which set the stage for the season finale with the kidnapping of the Child and the introduction of Moff Gideon.
Should: Guillermo Del Toro
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm and pledged to provide a steady stream of new Star Wars content for the foreseeable future, Guillermo del Toro pitched a gangster epic charting the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt in Tatooine’s seedy criminal underbelly.
If Disney isn’t going to let del Toro make this movie, which could be “Star Wars meets The Godfather,” then the studio can at least let him take a crack at a Mandalorian episode.
Best: Rick Famuyiwa
Rick Famuyiwa has directed three episodes of The Mandalorian so far, and they’re three of the show’s best. After the pilot’s final scene introduced Grogu and he became an overnight sensation, Famuyiwa’s work on “Chapter 2: The Child” characterized Mando’s little green friend and defined their father-son relationship, which quickly became the beating heart of the series.
Famuyiwa also directed “Chapter 6: The Prisoner,” an action-packed, self-contained highlight of season 1, and “Chapter 15: The Believer,” the suspense-filled bridge between Grogu’s abduction and Mando’s rescue mission. He also penned the scripts for these episodes, making an unforgettable supporting character out of Bill Burr’s ex-Imperial marksman Mayfeld.
Outside The Mandalorian, Famuyiwa has helmed plenty of great small-scale feature films, such as the masterfully crafted coming-of-age dramedy Dope, and he’s attached to adapt Children of Blood and Bone for Lucasfilm.
Should: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller missed out on directing Solo: A Star Wars Story when Disney got cold feet about their comedic tone. The Mouse House brought in Ron Howard to turn Lord and Miller’s Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired fun space adventure into a generic blockbuster with predictable plot turns, forgettable characters, and so much color-grading that it’s hard to see what’s going on in most scenes.
Lord and Miller can finally put their stamp on the Star Wars universe in the form of a Mandalorian episode (possibly one of the more humor-driven episodes, given their background in comedy).
Best: Jon Favreau
Due to his commitments to acting in Marvel movies and remaking animated Disney classics, series creator Jon Favreau didn’t have time to direct an episode of the first season of The Mandalorian, so he’s only credited as a writer and executive producer. For the second season, Favreau carved out the time to helm the premiere episode, “Chapter 9: The Marshal,” which sees Mando teamed up with Cobb Vanth and the Tusken Raiders to slay a krayt dragon.
The best Star Wars stories are a jumble of genre influences, and “The Marshal” hits a bunch of them: it’s a high fantasy narrative filled with samurai motifs set in a dusty western town. Favreau’s command of tone, already well-established from timeless directorial efforts like Iron Man and Elf, has made The Mandalorian Disney’s best Star Wars project to date.
Should: Steven Spielberg
George Lucas offered his close friend Steven Spielberg the chance to direct Return of the Jedi, then asked him to direct The Phantom Menace, but was turned down in both cases. Maybe Spielberg could finally contribute to his friend’s galaxy far, far away with less commitment than a feature.
Spielberg has always been a fan of innovative filmmaking technologies, having pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved on film with Jurassic Park’s groundbreaking effects, so he’d surely have a blast playing with The Mandalorian’s Stagecraft tech.