The following story is going to contain some loose spoilers for the ongoing season of The Mandalorian, so you might want to go read another incredible story on our site if you haven’t yet caught up with some of the more recent episodes.
Even though every season of The Mandalorian has one large story arc that connects the episodes, the Star Wars series that’s available with your Disney+ subscription usually is good for a standalone episode crammed with Star Wars weirdness, allowing the creators the chance to flex some of their creativity and keep the audience entertained. And that best describes episode 6 of Season 3 of The Mandalorian, which detoured to the planet Plazir-15, that is lorded over by a pair of A+ cameos in the form of Jack Black and Lizzo. Cameos are nothing new to The Mandalorian. In fact, in that very same episode, Back to the Future royalty Christoper Lloyd appeared as head of the planetary security office. But how do these celebrities get the chance to appear in a Mandalorian episode?
During the recent Star Wars Celebration held on the outskirts of London, CinemaBlend got the opportunity to speak with Jon Favreau, the driving force behind The Mandalorian. And while he did not direct this recent episode of the Disney+ series, he gave us some backstory as to how Jack Black and Lizzo ended up playing Captain Bombardier and the Duchess in the episode now known as “Guns for Hire.” The way that Favreau explained it to us:
The unifying aspect is (that) we like to work with fans, and people who love being on the set. … That brings a great energy to the set, when people feel that way. … I had learned about Jack Black and Lizzo being fans through – they were constantly posting on social media. They had no connection to the show. And so as I was thinking of an episode set on this planet with an eccentric royal couple that felt very fish-out-of-water for our Mandalorians to be visiting, we thought, ‘Let’s take a shot. Let’s reach out.’ But it was their enthusiasm that they had been very vocal about that drew us to them, and not necessarily their pop-culture significance. It’s more how much they connected, with Jack Black’s case singing the song and making people aware of us. And with Lizzo, her connection to Grogu and how she would dress up. Our hope was that when they hit the set, there would be an excitement around, not just them being there, but having them dress up and be part of it. That was really fulfilling. And that’s, at the end of the day, how that all came together.
Sometimes that’s all it takes, friends. Post your love for Star Wars on social media, and writer/director/producer Jon Favreau may ring you up for a guest spot on a future episode. It’s just that simple. There’s a running joke that several of the Mandalorian episodes follow a very basic formula where Mando (Pedro Pascal) arrives at a foreign destination, needs to complete a mission, but can’t acquire the thing he needs until he helps the locals with a problem. That’s very much the structure of Jack Black and Lizzo’s episode, so it fits snuggly into the format of a traditional Mandalorian season.
There was backlash online following the issue dropping on Disney+, where one “fan” took issue with the celebrity casting of Jack Black and Lizzo, claiming that this was a jump the shark moment that somehow meant Star Wars no longer was for nerds. My friend, have you listened to Tenacious D? Black might be the nerdiest celebrity on this or any other planet. Just look at my guy J.B. in the viral Star Wars tiktok that helped him land the role!
@ign ♬ original sound - IGN
Naturally, that level of fandom gatekeeping didn’t stand in the Star Wars universe, and hopefully now Favreau’s explanation of the duo’s casting BECAUSE of their fandom will change the narrative. There are numerous upcoming Star Wars projects in the pipeline, and countless celebrities who grew up worshipping this galaxy that’s located far, far away. So it’s better to learn who’s a real fan, before you start labeling famous faces, or claiming Star Wars isn’t for nerds anymore.
