Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian, and Haunting

 

Picture by Shredhead74

     Jon Favreau is famously the man behind The Mandalorian TV show.  The Mandalorian is famously the most successful and popular of the MANY spinoff series Disney has squeezed out of their Star Wars cash cow.

     Why?  Is it because new technology was developed to make this show look amazing?  Is it because they show new characters, new worlds, new aliens?  Is it because of the world building?  These are all definitely contributing factors.

     I would argue that none of that would really matter without the inspiration.  Jon Favreau has made it clear that the inspiration for this world was not just Star Wars - he went back to the sources that INSPIRED George Lucas to create Star Wars.

        There have been lots of Star Wars knockoffs, including the Disney stuff.  I'm not about to go into all of that.  What I do want to suggest is that in the Mandalorian, Favreau did more than just co-opt someone else's characters.  

    Favreau took the world of Star Wars as a framework and then looked to spaghetti westerns and samurai movies for inspiration in creating his own characters and stories.  The Seven Samurai. Yojimbo. Lone Wolf and Cub. The Hidden Fortress.   The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Once Upon a Time in the West.  The Searchers.   Dersu Uzala.  The Dam Busters. These are the sources that inspired the man that made the universe which inspired The Mandalorian.

    What inspires YOUR haunt?  Is it a movie like Halloween or 28 Days Later?  Have you ever asked yourself, "What inspired John Carpenter or Danny Boyle"?  Maybe you don't really have a single source of inspiration.  Maybe you have a zombie haunt.  Are your zombies slow and shambling?  You probably have much to thank George Romero and Haitian legends for.  What characters, creatures, and stories could you come up with if you allowed yourself to be inspired directly by those older stories?

    You have clowns in your haunt?  Obviously Stephen King's IT has become famous for the killer
clown.  What about He Who Gets Slapped?  The Man Who Laughs?  Going to older sources of inspiration just might lead you in creepy new directions!

    I have been profoundly affected by Favreau's idea to look not only to your own inspirations, but also to those who inspired your inspirations.  "Work until your idols become your rivals".

Happy Halloween!