Jon Favreau says he threw Bryce Dallas Howard in 'deep end' with hardest 'Mandalorian' episode

Debut director Bryce Dallas Howard was thrown “in the deep end of the pool” with her episode of The Mandalorian, which creator Jon Favreau believed to be the most difficult to make.

Speaking on the new making-of programme Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Favreau joked they decided to pick Howard because she wouldn’t be as intimidated by how hard the task was.

Read more: Howard reveals she got expert advice from George Lucas

Howard helmed the fourth episode of the show’s first season, entitled Sanctuary and set on the secluded forest planet of Sorgan.

The episode features a battle between Pedro Pascal’s title character, mercenary ally Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and a group of villagers against a gang of marauders led by a devastating AT-ST vehicle.

“Now that you are done and you did a great job,” Favreau said. “We threw you in the deep end of the pool.”

He added: “That was such a difficult episode to do and we were like: ‘We have got to pick the person who has never done this before because they won’t know how hard it is, what we were asking them to do, with the forest and water and the big mech shooting.’”

Favreau made the comments as part of a roundtable chat between all of the series directors on the first episode of the new docuseries about the making of The Mandalorian.

Read more: Russian Doll creator making female-centric Star Wars series

Howard discussed how she went on a business trip to Japan with her father — Solo filmmaker Ron Howard — at the age of five or six and fell asleep during a dinner with George Lucas and Akira Kurosawa.

The 39-year-old Jurassic World actor said The Mandalorian was an invaluable education for her as a filmmaker.

Howard added: “So much of this process is about iterating and reiterating and figuring it out.”

The episode was one of the most highly acclaimed of the season, scoring a 92% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The entire first season of The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+ in the UK after an agonising wait in the wake of the United States release last year.

Attention now turns to what season two has in store and whether we’ll learn more about the adorable Baby Yoda.

Read more: Pedro Pascal on the fan reaction to Baby Yoda

Season two of The Mandalorian is expected to arrive later this year, with October 2020 the original airdate prior to the coronavirus pandemic, which may delay its release.

Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is available on Disney+ from today.