Extraction director Sam Hargrave talks bringing the action to The Mandalorian Season 2. Hargrave was hired as second unit director for the second season of the Star Wars Disney+ show. Though, knowledge of Hargrave working on The Mandalorian has only just come to light, the director was hired because of his action background. Hargrave spoke to Collider to promote Extraction on Netflix, however, the outlet had to keep his involvement in El Mando quiet until now.
Hargrave spoke to the outlet, and he initially talked about how he landed the job in The Mandalorian Season 2.
“They actually came to me,” Hargrave revealed. “It’s crazy. I was in the middle of post -production on Extraction and I’m editing my movie and 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.’ 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.’”
Insane Technology
Hargrave then went on to discuss some of his experiences in making The Mandalorian Season 2.
“I like the people over there — Favreau’s great — so I went over and it was a really fascinating adventure. They have a crazy way of shooting. Some of the stuff is traditionally shot, with the live-action and blue screen on the backlot, but they’ve also got this technology called ‘The Volume’ where it’s just, like, the inside of a live game engine. It’s quite insane what technology nowadays is available to filmmakers. 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.”
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As for just what Hargrave brought to the second season of The Mandalorian? It sounds like his experience in the MCU really helped.
“I am confident. The difference is, 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. 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.”
No Power Creep
Despite being able to have a stunt man under that Mandalorian helmet, you still have to stay true to that character. So it’s a case of bringing the action to The Mandalorian Season 2, without jumping the shark.
“There’s certain characters like, well, in one of [the Captain America movies] we put Captain America in the helmet and off you go. 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.”
“With that being said, the balance you have to find and the truth you have to adhere to is the character you’ve developed. So, if you have a character and for this guy — who’s more of a gunslinger, a bit more of a brawler — it would be out of character for him to come into a scene and throw out a round-off, backwards double flip and do a crazy kick just because you can, or because he has a helmet on. You have to remember to stay true to the character. So yes, you can put whoever you want in there, but you have to make sure that you reign in the excitement and make sure you’re true to the character and the story.”
I think power creep has been a real problem with Star Wars post-Disney acquisition. The sequel movies are the worst offenders when it comes to power creep in my opinion. Compounded by the crazy decision to have Rey suddenly able to heal people, even from death in The Rise of Skywalker.
[But Cam, Baby Yoda can also heal?]
Yes, I know, but I forgive The Mandalorian for this move because I fully believe it was mandated by Lucasfilm. The episode where ‘The Child’ heals Greef Carga was the week prior to The Rise of Skywalker‘s release. I can see what appears to be some cross purposes here. Does anyone really believe that it was a coincidence ‘The Child’ heals Carga the week before Rey would do this on screen? I think it was designed to ‘soften the blow’.
If anything, the healing used in The Mandalorian was even worse, because it comes from an inexperienced child. Clearly Yoda, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luke, and the rest had no idea how to heal. Somehow though, Rey just works it out, like ‘The Child’? If Abrams explained why previous Jedi couldn’t do this skill, some world building, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? Off the top of my head, a simple explanation could have been the former Jedi rules preventing attachment. I.e. this no attachment rule was holding the Jedi back in some way? Rey, as with Baby Yoda, are not brainwashed into this way of thinking, so it could have worked?
As for the action, I honestly thought the understated action in The Mandalorian was one of the shows strong points. So I’m interested to see just how Hargrave can help in bringing the action to The Mandalorian Season 2. Let us know what you think of Hargrave’s comments in the usual spot below.
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SOURCE: Collider
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