Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian,’ A Docuseries Discussing The Making Of The First Original Series on Disney+

The clumsily named eight-episode docuseries Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the first live-action Star Wars TV series, which became an instant hit on Disney+‘s November 12 launch day (Baby Yoda helped). In every episode, a different aspect of the series will be discussed, which includes on-set footage, interviews, and roundtable discussions hosted by Jon Favreau, the series’ executive producer and showrunner.

DISNEY GALLERY: STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Dave Filoni, executive producer of The Mandalorian and the director of its first episode, points at a monitor and says to his director of Photography, “Dude, see that laser in his helmet there?” and chuckles. “Amazing what we get excited about here. ‘Look, a laser!’.”

The Gist: The first episode concentrates on the five directors who helmed the first seasons’ episodes. Filoni, who admits he’s the biggest Star Wars fanboy of a group that all loves the franchise, directed the first episode, setting the tone and style for the rest of the first season’s directors, though they all had more creative input than most TV directors get. Essentially, according to Favreau and Filoni, the first season was 8 mini-movies, and they wanted to find directors to put their own voices into the episodes they helmed.

The group they assembled lends itself to that. Deborah Chow has done mostly TV, directing episodes of Mr. Robot, Fear The Walking Dead, and Reign, among many other credits. Rick Famuyiwa, on the other hand, had done mostly movies (Brown Sugar, Our Family Wedding, Dope) to that point and wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with the restrictions TV threw at directors. Oscar-winner Taika Waititi (who also voices IG-11), on the other hand, is an expert at directing on a shoestring; he cited that, when directing episodes of What We Do In The Shadows, they’d use prosthetics that were rejected from other shows and movies.

Then there’s Bryce Dallas Howard, who’s alternately known as a fine actress and Ron Howard’s daughter. This is the first time she’s directed a scripted TV episode, and apparently they threw her into the deep end, giving her the season’s most logistically-difficult episode because they figured she wouldn’t realize just how hard it was. But, using the knowledge she gleaned from her father and her experiences on many a soundstage, she was equally praised by Favreau and the show’s stars.

Our Take: Genre films and TV, especially franchise properties like The Mandalorian, are such fine fodder for behind-the-scenes documentaries because people are so curious about how the magic they see on screen is created. So it stands to reason that, after The Mandalorian ended its first season with fans wanting to watch the second right away, that a BTS-type docuseries, doled out weekly like the parent series, would be good to tide fans over for awhile. And the first entry in the Disney Gallery franchise does just that.

It helps that Favreau is heavily involved in this series, because it was his initial vision that brought this series to fruition, and his acting chops help him move the interviews along with a funny line or keen observation. The first episode is also helped by the fact that the season’s directors are such a dynamic bunch. Howard didn’t at all sound like the newbie of the bunch, she was just that confident in her vision. Waititi was funny, of course, doling out an interview segment where he jokes that he’s given no support. Famuyiwa couldn’t believe he was on a set where he could stand next to the humongous sand crawler. Chow has done so much genre TV that she knows she needs to plan in order to be as efficient as possible.

But Filoni is the most dynamic of that bunch, telling a long story about how he was recruited by Lucasfilm to work on the Clone Wars while he was still working on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. He was so surprised by the call he thought the guys from SpongeBob SquarePants were pulling a prank on him. Then he details his meeting with George Lucas, which left him gobsmacked. And that’s before he even got the job.

It’s stories like that that make shows like Disney Gallery worthwhile. Can it be a bit too promotional, and slather praise all over the Star Wars franchise? Of course. But we also appreciated that the directors of the first season had careers before they came to Disney and the Star Wars franchise, and that the job of putting one of these episodes together is no small task. It also shows Faverau’s desire to not only hire “smart people,” as he mentions to the roundtable, but also a diverse group that comes from different backgrounds. Those perspectives are why The Mandalorian was considered to be one of the better Star Wars side projects.

Parting Shot: At the roundtable Faverau calls everyone thee “creatively brave,” and cites that bravery for why they connected with each other so well.

Sleeper Star: No one in particular, but we were surprised at how it feels like Faverau and Filoni would have one of the other directors on set to help the current director, or maybe it’s the other way around, where the next director shadows the current one. Not sure if that’s common, but it seems like a good practice, if a showrunner can do it. Faverau may just have that kind of pull.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing, really.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a pretty straightforward BTS docuseries, but it should scratch the itch of anyone who’s jonesing for new Star Wars content.

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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian On Disney+