'Mandalorian': Robert Rodriguez Was A Last-Minute Replacement As Director & Called The Experience "A Dream"

Last week’s episode of “The Mandalorian” is yet another where the guest star seems to get more attention than the actual title character. Nevertheless, the most recent episode featured the full-fledged return of Boba Fett, a character that was teased earlier in the season, but fully shown in the new installment. To make matters even more interesting, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez helmed the episode, marking his debut in the world of “Star Wars.” And apparently, his inclusion in the stable of directors only happened at the very last minute.

Speaking to GamesRadar, Rodriguez admits that he wasn’t the original choice to helm the episode of “The Mandalorian.” And he was called because of his friendship with Jon Favreau.

“I’m friends with Jon Favreau and he needed a last-minute replacement for a director,” Rodriguez explained. “And so I said, ‘Sure, I’ll come play in the “Star Wars” universe!’ What a dream. And it’s fulfilled all my… it’s beyond my expectations, I mean, it was SO fun, you can’t imagine what it’s like to walk on a set that has the classic look of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ feel and look. It’s right after that era, right after the ‘Return of the Jedi.’ It’s that era. So you really feel like you just walked into your childhood.”

In an interview with Collider, he went on to discuss what it was like reading the script and realizing that it really was going to be a dream come true.

“When I saw the script and it said ‘Boba Fett’ and ‘Darksaber’ and ‘Mando’ and ‘Fennec,’ I was just like, ‘This doesn’t even feel like a real script. It feels like a fan wrote this in a fever dream hoping that this would be an episode,’” said Rodriguez. “And yes, this was the script. It had all the good stuff in it. It was like a ‘Greatest Hits’ of all the good stuff; I couldn’t believe it. To go play in Star Wars with all the toys and to get to play with Boba Fett as one of your main [characters] — I just thought, ‘I gotta go in there and just have him be… I don’t know if he’s going to show up in any more episodes or what, so I just gotta make him super badass in this moment [and] be that character that I imagined him being when I heard about him when I was 12. That was my mission, just to go satisfy that 12-year-old fascination with the character.”

Speaking to The New York Times about his return to the “Star Wars” universe, actor Temuera Morrison talked about playing Boba Fett. He admitted that he still doesn’t know the explanation for how the character survived his apparent death in the Original Trilogy, but he does hope there are more plans for the character outside of his recent appearance.

“I’m just going to have to wait and see,” the actor explained. “I think a lot of it depends on how things go with this season, but I don’t really know. I wanted to bring everything I had to that [episode] and give them a glimmer of what I can offer. There’s room for this to go someplace. I hope I’m going to be included.”

Obviously, there are very credible reports that Lucasfilm not only has plans for Boba Fett but is already prepping to start work on a spinoff series focused on the character. So, if that’s accurate, then we’re likely going to see plenty more of Morrison in the future. And who knows, maybe we’ll have Robert Rodriguez back to help tell the story?

“The Mandalorian” still has a couple of episodes left in Season 2. The next episode debuts this Friday on Disney+.