Lucasfilm President and Honorary Fantha Tracker Kathleen Kennedy recently discussed the evolution of The Mandalorian, the route to making the groundbreaking series and how the show retains the original trilogy DNA of the man who started it all, George Lucas.
Q: You can talk about the advanced technology, but one of the things that appealed to me about “The Mandalorian” is that it has the feel of the original trilogy or even the original “Star Wars” movie. However different the process was, it definitely feels like it’s from that universe.
A: I agree with you. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the advanced technology is actually allowing you to feel that way. I think that that’s really true. I think that in an interesting way, it has all the DNA of what George (Lucas) was always interested in. He was trying so hard in pushing technology, but at the heart of it, it was still focused on storytelling and characters, and also a kind of lived-in feeling to everything. Which I think is something certainly (“The Mandalorian” director/executive producer) Dave Filoni understands in all the work that he’s been doing for years inside the company, and something Jon always loved. The technology has never been an attempt to try to move this further into some kind of science-fiction world. It’s still in service to that original feeling.
Q: From a storytelling point of view, what were your priorities going into “The Mandalorian?”
A: Well, the most important decision made by Jon was the decision to focus on the Mandalorians inside the “Star Wars” mythology. The fact that they are in this metal armor meant we didn’t have to deal with everyone being in human form. That was extremely important, because it gave us some flexibility and forgiveness, frankly, in what we were trying to do with the technology. So that was a really important decision, and an idea that Jon had right from the outset.
