Bryce Dallas Howard is back in the Star Wars fold.
The actress-director, who stars in this June’s Jurassic World: Dominion, is directing an episode of season three of The Mandalorian, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
This episode marks her fourth outing for a Star Wars series and cements her connection to the bounty hunting world. Howard directed the season one episode “Sanctuary” and the season two episode “The Heiress.” She also helmed one of the standout episodes of last year’s The Book of Boba Fett, the Mando-centric episode, “Return of the Mandalorian.”
Season three of Mandalorian began shooting last fall and is now in post.
Lucasfilm, the Disney-owned company behind the Star Wars universe, keeps the directors of the shows shrouded as much as possible. Mandalorian has seen filmmakers such as Peyton Reed, Taika Waititi, Rick Famuyiwa and Robert Rodriguez helm installments. Deborah Chow directed one episode and then moved to direct an entire season of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Showrunners and writers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni also directed outings.
Filoni, the longtime driving force of Star Wars’ animation side, made his live-action directorial debut with the very first episode of Mandalorian, going on to direct three more episodes, including one for Boba Fett. THR has learned that Filoni is expanding his behind-the-camera schedule, and will be directing a “handful” of episodes of Ahsoka, the series starring Rosario Dawson. That series, which also has Peter Ramsey directing an episode or maybe more, began production in April.
Filoni doing Ahsoka marks a reunion of sorts between creator and character. Ahsoka Tano first appeared in the 2008 animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was directed by Filoni, who had spent several years developing her. He also guided her in The Clone Wars series, her appearances in Rebels, and her live-action debut in the Mandalorian episode, “The Jedi.” Directing her in the live-action series deepens his connection to her evolution.
Coming up, Howard co-stars in Matthew Vaughn’s Apple spy thriller, Argyle, while Dominion opens theatrically June 10. Filoni will be on stage at Star Wars Celebration on Saturday with Favreau for a conversation on all things Mandalorian.
