Sam Hargrave Discusses Work on The Mandalorian Season 2

Sam Hargrave reveals The Mandalorian season 2 details

As we near closer to the highly-anticipated second season of Disney+’s hit Star Wars spin-off series, Collider has confirmed that Extraction director Sam Hargrave contributed work on new episodes of The Mandalorian as second unit director.

While discussing the hit Netflix original actioner starring Chris Hemsworth (Avengers: Endgame), Hargrave revealed that he was approached by line producer and friend Colin Wilson during post-production on the film with a special message from one of the creative minds behind the series.

“I got a call from my buddy Colin Wilson, one of the line producers, who said, ‘Jon [Favreau] and the people over here are looking for someone to bring into the team or add to the family who has experience with action,’” Hargrave said. “The team that was there did a great job in the first season and it was just all fun. But they wanted to build on that and bring a new perspective and take it to another level for the next season. So, I was like, ‘That sounds like a fun challenge.’”

Hargrave described the set as “a really fascinating adventure” and noting the sci-fi series has “a crazy way of shooting,” with some of the material being shot traditionally including live-action and blue screen on a backlot while also utilizing the recently revealed technology The Volume, on which it’s “just, like, the inside of a live game engine.”

“It’s quite insane what technology nowadays is available to filmmakers,” Hargrave said. “It was really eye-opening, the potential of this technology that Jon and they guys had been working on. It was a really fun learning experience.”

Having been a stunt coordinator in Hollywood for nearly 15 years and wowing critics and audiences with some of the hard-hitting action sequences in Extraction, namely a long one-take sequence, Hargrave finds himself “confident” he’ll be able to up the action from the first season, though notes a major difference between working on his film and Mandalorian.

“With Extraction, I’m in the editing room so I can be extremely confident [the action] is going to be what it’s going to be,” Hargrave said. “I’m not editing these episodes. […] But I know the footage we delivered, as a second-unit, they seemed to be happy with. We worked closely with the stunt team there, with Bryan Watson and the team that had done the first season; they did a really great job. You know, it was just to bring a little extra perspective, add a few things, things I’ve learned while working on superhero movies, little tricks which make the performances easier and using visual effects to enhance certain things. Just bringing a little bit of experience and knowledge to where we could take it to another level and up the ante. The next season is really, really cool. The way the story arcs is really cool. So we tried to have the action represent that and take it to the next level. I think we did that.”

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That being said, Hargrave finds it all to be “a dream come true” and that he found no issues working with a character who is always helmeted, but rather that it opened up the possibilities for many new action sequences, noting a few recent superheroes as examples.

“There’s certain characters like, well, in one of [the Captain America movies] we put Captain America in the helmet and off you go,” Hargrave said. “Or, with Iron Man, a lot of the times he’s CG but, like the Mandalorian, you put the helmet on and you just get the best people for the job and now the character can do whatever you can imagine him to do because it’s a stunt performer who’s trained his entire like to do these amazing things.”

Recent revelations of the second season of The Mandalorian have revealed that the returns of Temuera Morrison (Aquaman) as Boba Fett, Katee Sackhoff as The Clone Wars‘ Bo-Katan in live-action form and will reportedly feature the live-action debut of Jedi Padawan turned Rebel Alliance spymaster Ahsoka Tano with Rosario Dawson (Zombieland: Double Tap) in talks to portray the fan-favorite character, though the star recently confirmed that the deal is not yet sealed on the part. Timothy Olyphant (Justified) also joined the second season of the series.

In addition to the announce of Boba Fett joining the character roster, multiple directors recently confirmed their involvement on the new season, including Robert Rodriguez (Alita: Battle Angel) and Ant-Man franchise director Peyton Reed, who joined the that already includes the returns of Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Dave Filoni, Carl Weathers and Jon Favreau (The Lion King).

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.

Pascal (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) stars as a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy and is 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.

The series also stars Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) and Nick Nolte (Affliction).

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

The Mandalorian is executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. Karen Gilchrist will serve as co-executive producer.