Jon Favreau Reflects on Season 2, Keeping Surprises Secret

The Mandalorian Season 2 ended with a huge reveal, and according to series creator Jon Favreau, the team behind the show had to go to serious lengths in order to make sure nothing was leaked too early.

During an interview with Empire Magazine at a recent celebration of The Mandalorian ahead of its Season 3 premiere, Favreau reflected on the second season of the series. Specifically, the end of the season, which featured Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) handing Grogu over to Luke Skywalker. He revealed that they went to great lengths to keep the moment a secret, with the team going so far as to not list Skywalker at all on scripts.

“We shot Luke’s scene with a body double,” said Favreau. “His character was called Plo Koon in the script, he had an alien head in the production art. R2-D2 was painted green. There was a lot of subterfuge.”

Favreau also looked back on the finale after having just watched it on a theater screen. In the discussion afterward, he praised director Peyton Reed, noting that they had fun slowly revealing things to the audience, including Luke’s X-Wing, his lightsaber, and more.

“Oh yeah, Peyton was such a great partner on that episode, we had so much fun revealing things piece by piece. The X-wing, the lightsaber, and then the John Williams score, incredible,” Favreau stated.

Similarly, The Mandalorian became immediately popular following the reveal of Grogu, who was known by fans as “Baby Yoda” for all of the first season. Thankfully, Favreau said, the bigger reveals of the show didn’t make their way online, even though some other ones might have.

“We had leaks from the show, but Baby Yoda didn’t get spoiled, and Luke didn’t get spoiled. It was like everybody got to open a Christmas present at the same time,” said Favreau.