What I Heard This Week: ‘THE MANDALORIAN’ Season 2 Gets a New MCU Director

Every now and then I come across some information the veracity of which can be confirmed by a second source. What happens FAR more often is that I come across some information that while believable and from trustworthy sources, cannot be confirmed by other sources for various reasons. Typically, when the second scenario occurs, I move on and forget about the information unless, in rare instances, it turns out to be proven true somewhere down the road. For instance, on February 19th, I wrote this piece relaying some rumors I’d heard about Marvel Studios updating its Disney Plus slate; the next day, the news broke that a special Disney Plus event would be held in London on March 5th where it is expected that Marvel Studios and Star Wars slates will be updated.

It’s not very often something Star Wars related comes my way. There are several incredible Star Wars sites out there that do a great job covering the news and breaking it themselves, so I’m very excited to share this information with you. Before I share the information, I have to stress that as of now, this information is unconfirmed which, in my case, means I was unable to corroborate the information with a second source. However, this information came from a source who provided accurate information in the past (about a Marvel Studios project), so while I am wholly inclined to believe the source, I want to be up front with readers about the scenario. That having been said, here you go: Peyton Reed is set to direct 2 episodes of the second season of the Disney Plus streaming series, The Mandalorian and Taikia Waititi is once again contributing to the series!

Fans of the series will recall that in addition to voicing the rewired bounty hunting droid, IG-11, in season 1 of The Mandalorian, Waititi also directed the finale, bringing his signature wit to the series. While it is unclear whether or not Waititi will be directing an episode, helping to produce or coming back to voice another character, the message was clear: he’s been working with show runner Jon Favreau on the second season.

For Reed’s part, the seeds for his potential involvement may go as far back as November of 2018 when he, along with Waititi and Joe and Anthony Russo visited Favreau on the set during production of the shows’ first season, pictured below.

Favreau and Reed have a working relationship dating as far back as 2006 when the former co-starred in Reed’s comedy, The Break-Up, and have certainly had a chance to exchange notes given their ongoing relationships with Marvel Studios. Last season, 3 directors (Deborah Chow, Rick Famuywia and Dave Filoni) helmed two shows each, so it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities that Reed could fit into that same mold.

This news comes at a time when James Mangold publicly denied that he’d be involved with the show after a recent rumor surfaced, so it’s a scary time to put this out there. However, with Disney Plus holding an launch event this Thursday in the UK (as I first reported here) where they are expected to make some announcements and update the slates for their major properties, it was time to share this info.