Today, in an exclusive interview with Allie Gemmill at Collider, director and veteran Hollywood stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave revealed his involvement in season two of Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
Highly regarded in the film industry for his stunt work (especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Hargrave became much more widely known after his directorial debut on the Netflix original film Extraction. While the movie’s script/plot was met with lukewarm reviews (we liked it), even the its harshest critics couldn’t help but be impressed by the film’s incredible action sequences.
Here’s a brief sample of Extraction’s most-discussed scene, which is part of a 12-minute long single shot (and definitely worth watching if you have a Netflix subscription). It’s also extremely violent, so viewer discretion is advised.
As far as The Mandalorian is concerned, Hargrave was tapped by series creator Jon Favreau to be a second unit director, a position often responsible for a production’s effects and stunt work. While the those aspects were all types of good in the series’ first season, Hargrave’s mission was to take them to an even higher level. He says as much in his interview with Gemmill, stating:
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.
Should be exciting to see whatever the “next level” from this is (‘The Mandalorian’/Disney+)
Hargrave went on to say that working on The Mandalorian was a “dream come true.” For Star Wars fans, adding someone with his talents to an already incredible production team for the series is a dream come true as well.
Season 2 of Star Wars: The Mandalorian debuts this October exclusively on Disney+.
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