Jon Favreau Wants Another Star Wars Holiday Special!

Jon Favreau wants another Star Wars Holiday Special with Mandalorian character

The infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the most bizarre and divisive installments of the long-running sci-fi franchise, being considered one of the best worst attempts at expanding the lore while also heavily criticized for its poor quality. After jokingly offering up the concept of reviving the special a few months ago, it appears The Mandalorian‘s Jon Favreau might be seriously considering the venture.

After making a brief reference to the special in the pilot episode of The Mandalorian through a bit of dialogue about Life Day from Horatio Sanz’ character, Favreau spoke with Variety at a fan event for the series to discuss the possibility of giving the special another shot through the eyes of a character on the Disney+ series.

“Oh I would definitely be interested in doing a holiday special,” Favreau said. “And I’m not going to say who I would be interested in. But one of the people is the member of the cast in an upcoming episode of the show. So we’ll leave it at that for now. I’ve been thinking about it. It’s ready, the ideas are ready. I think it could be really fun. Not as part of this, but there’s an excitement around it because it was so fun and weird, and off and not connected to what Star Wars was in the theater. The Mandalorian cartoon, the Boba Fett cartoon, from the holiday special was definitely a point of inspiration for what we did in the show.”

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After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

Pedro Pascal (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) will star as a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy and will be joined by Gina Carano (Deadpool) who plays Cara Dune, a former Rebel Shock Trooper, having trouble re-integrating herself into society.; and Carl Weathers as Greef, a man who heads a guild of bounty hunters that hires The Mandalorian for a specific job.

Also set to star in the series are Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) and Nick Nolte (Affliction).

Jon Favreau serves as executive producer and showrunner for the series, Directors for the first season include Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), who will be directing the first episode, plus Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), who will also provide the voice for bounty hunter IG-88 in the series.

The Mandalorian will be executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist will serve as co-executive producer. The series will premiere on Disney+ when the service launches on November 12.

(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)