Next month sees the release of the first Star Wars film in around six and half years. Last week at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas, Lucasfilm and Disney really launched the promotion into hyperdrive. The man, thus far, who is front and centre with the marketing push is the creator of The Mandalorian himself, Mr Jon Favreau. If you’re like myself, then perhaps your first recollections of this man are from playing Monica’s boyfriend in Friends. You remember, the one who went on to do the ultimate fighting championships. Well, he’s certainly come a long way from there and over the past weeks, in some down time, I’ve revisited some of the Favreau’s extensive filmography and it really does feel like The Mandalorian and Grogu is the culmination of his work so far.
Early Life
Favreau was born in Queens, New York in 1966 and in his late teens moved to Chicago in order to pursue a career in comedy. Like most performers, live comedy came first and he performed in a few improv revue productions.
Some of his earliest credits include roles on Seinfeld, Friends, Hercules and providing voice work in the animated series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Small film roles include playing an assistant in Batman Forever and a supporting role in Deep Impact.
Made (2001)
Favreau wrote and directed this crime comedy that starred himself and longtime friend and collaborator, Vince Vaughn. As we can see from the year, Favreau made the transition behind the camera extremely early in his career. Honing his craft in writing and directing in smaller films like this paved the way for much bigger studio productions down the line. The film received positive reviews from critics.
Elf (2003)
When one looks back and takes a second to soak in the diverse portfolio of work from Favreau, it really is quite something. This film, which I admit to having never seen as I cannot stomach the sight of Wil Ferrell, is widely considered to be a Christmas classic by most people on the planet. Ask my other half…she loves it. Making wonderful Christmas films is something that Hollywood used to be able to do quite easily, however, that skill set has certainly left them in recent years. Looking into the film, credit appears to go to Favreau for his creative instincts. He has said the film was originally conceived to be a lot darker, but he felt that by altering the tone of the film altogether, he could pay homage to the American TV specials of the 1950s and 60s. The film made $229 million off of a $33 million budget.
Iron Man (2008)
The film that ushered in the MCU was helmed by Favreau and if we think back, was his training ground for working for a big studio. With that would come big budgets, time constraints, marketing needs, shareholder pressure, an insane amount of work in post-production and the like. All these skill sets would later be very hand when working with Lucasfilm in the Disney-era. It would seem that Robert Downey Jr’s casting, celebrated by so many, was not met with enthusiasm by the studio. Downy had had is fair share of personal issues that had played out publicly, but Favreau believed and stuck to his guns. Many a Marvel fan has since rejoiced no doubt.
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Now, here is a film that I believe to be criminally underrated. It stumbled at the box office when it was released but, having rewatched this film only last week, it features some superb action sequences, brilliant production design and Harrison Ford as cowboy. What more could we need from some entertainment? I’ve long loved the western genre since my folks allowed me to watch the Spaghetti Westerns with Clint Eastwood when I was a youngster. If you dig deep into this film, a lot of people thought it would be a joke or a parody or not be take seriously. Favreau did a lot of work during the filming to keep the tone serious and avoid any trace of send-up. It mostly works extremely well in my opinion, and the hybrid of genres work well.
Chef (2014)
An important film in his filmography that adds fundamental elements to The Mandalorian later down the line. By this stage of his career, Favreau had had experience of big studio films. With this film, he wrote, produced and directed it all on his own. His reasoning being that he wanted to get ‘get back to basics’ with a character driven piece that was about the human connection. Sound familiar? After all, the heartbeat of The Mandalorian is not the action or the effects, it’s the relationship between a bounty hunter and his adoptive son.
The Lion King (2019)
Now, I admit, I had not seen this film until earlier this year. Why would I? I was born in 1991 so the original Lion King was a deep part of my childhood. Heck, the film is in my favourite films of all time outside of Star Wars. The 1994 version is classic. Why would they do this? Well, Disney was having success with turning their animated classics into live-action features. Jon Favreau took the helm for this picture. He had, after all, turned out a successful adaption with 2016’s The Jungle Book. The film was a goliath success. Produced for a budget of around $250 million, the film raked in just under $1.7 billion at the global box office. I watched the film for the first time in February and, whilst it’s not – and never will be close to – the 1994 classic, it is extremely well made.
