How Iron Man played a role in the creation of The Mandalorian

Executive producers of The Mandalorian Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni talk about how Iron Man influenced the creation of the popular Star Wars series. Season 3 of The Mandalorian is set to release on March 1, 2023.

According to the executive producers of the popular space Western series The Mandalorian, Tony Stark is partially responsible for the show’s birth because Iron Man served as a catalyst for its creation.

How did the idea of The Mandalorian propagate?

In an interview with Empire, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni discussed their initial encounter and how the notion for The Mandalorian came about. The creator of the Disney+ action-adventure series, Favreau, recalled how he ran into Filoni at Skywalker Ranch while doing a sound mix for Iron Man just as Filoni was getting ready to premiere The Clone Wars.

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The acclaimed director introduced himself to Filoni and the rest is history. “Well, if you ever need someone to do a voice, I remarked jokingly. Then he summoned me to voice Pre Vizsla, a warrior from the Mandalorian race,” he said. Years later, when Disney+ was launched, Favreau went to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to pitch The Mandalorian. Kennedy thought it would be a good idea to connect him up with Filoni because it came out that Filoni was working on a similar concept.

That feeling was mirrored by Filoni, who is also the executive producer of Lucasfilm, who recognized that Favreau had a solid understanding of Star Wars lore with his presentation of Iron Man. “When I saw Iron Man, I had the impression that Jon had a solid understanding of how Star Wars truly functioned. There were comic aspects, but there was also a lot of heart in this enjoyable experience. This sentiment, this sense of heart, permeates all of Jon’s work,” he says.

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Jon Favreau’s career in the MCU and Star Wars 

Favreau initially gained recognition as a filmmaker by presiding over the critically and commercially successful Iron Man and Iron Man 2 movies, which he followed up with a renowned acting career that included appearances in Daredevil, Avengers: Endgame, and several Spider-Man movies. Robert Downey Jr.’s career as Tony Stark/Iron Man was revitalized by the superhero flicks. Downey recently paid respect to Favreau during his induction onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 13.

Favreau agreed to serve as the showrunner for The Mandalorian in 2018. He and Filoni are executive producers alongside Colin Wilson and Kathleen Kennedy, the CEO of Lucasfilm. The episodes of the program took place five years after Return of the Jedi and the Galactic Empire’s downfall. The Mandalorian has been a huge smash for Disney+ since its November 2019 release, bringing in some of its biggest viewership figures and winning over reviewers. It now has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also gave rise to a spin-off series, The Book of Boba Fett, another brainchild of Favreau’s that debuted last year.