Giancarlo Esposito Talks About His First Conversations With Jon Favreau for The Mandalorian

SWNN Probe · Jan 11, 2023

As part of the promotional campaign for his Netflix series Kaleidoscope, Giancarlo Esposito stopped by The Tonight Show to chat with host Jimmy Fallon about many topics, including the return of The Mandalorian this March. While he didn't discuss much of the third season, he did tell some fascinating stories about his first meetings with showrunner Jon Favreau.

Esposito first explained the story of how he was initially approached by Jon Favreau to play the role of Moff Gideon, which the showrunner had created for him:

'Jon Favreau, who called me and said 'You wanna be a part of the show'' I have good news and bad news. 'Tell me the good news first' [I said]. 'The good news is I wrote a role for you of Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian'; 'Oh, what's that?' He said, 'It's a new Star Wars show that I'm doing'. So I said, 'Oh, ok, tell me the bad news.' He said, 'The bad news is all the money is going into The Volume', and he started talking technically, and talking about the story and all of these good things. And I said to him, 'Jon, I wanna work with people I like. That's the bottom line.' I did not want to say, I came very close to saying 'I will do it for free'. But I loved it that much.

And he said, 'Are there any requests?' And I said, 'I have one request. Please, I must have a cape!' And he said 'Done deal!'

That was me. It sold me on everything that I could have a cape, because, you know, this show allowed me to feel like a kid again, you know? It made me dream again, it made me be in wonder again, it made me feel like I could go any place in the universe and carry my dreams, my hopes, and my imagination with me.'
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Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian season 2.

Fallon then asked him about Grogu, and the actor told a story about the first time he interacted with the puppet:

'It was called The Child for a long time. And it was sitting on a desk, and I walk by and Jon and I were chatting. I think he's a genius, he's written such a beautiful show. [Dave] Filoni, his partner, is also fantastic. This all comes out of a relationship with George Lucas and Joseph Campbell. So what we love about the show, you may not know, is the power of the mythology of this show. That you can see hour hero and your heroine in Mando.

And we walk by a table and he said, casually, 'Hey, you wanna take a look at the Child?' And he pulls off the canvas and I look at this practical child. And he explained to me it was gonna be this, it was gonna be that, CGI... And I said no, this is perfect, and then the puppeteer walked by at that very moment. And the puppeteer said 'Do you wanna see and talk to him?' I went, 'Ok...' And the Child opened its eyes, turned its head, wiggled its ears, and I... You can't take your eyes off of this Child. Grogu is fascinating, mysterious, and smart, and I looked at Jon and I said 'Jon! This is the star of the show.' And he stood back and he scratched his chin, and he said 'Do you think so?' And I said 'I know so. And every scene that I'm in has to be with this Child! (Laughs.)'
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While the teaser trailer released last September did not reveal any Moff Gideon, the actor has repeatedly confirmed that he will have a major presence in the forthcoming season. The first episode will come out on Disney Plus on March 1.

You can watch the entire conversation with Giancarlo Esposito here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnrcwMDqyEc

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Giancarlo Esposito Talks About His First Conversations With Jon Favreau for The Mandalorian

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Giancarlo Esposito Talks About His First Conversations With Jon Favreau for The Mandalorian

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