Extraction director Sam Hargrave has headed to a galaxy far far away. Once known as just the guy who did a lot of stuntwork and second unit direction for the Russo Brothers’ Marvel films, Hargrave hit the big time when his directorial debut Extraction became Netflix’s most-watched movie ever. And that has led him to a new gig working with Baby Yoda.
Collider caught up with Hargrave, who revealed that he was brought on to The Mandalorian season 2 specifically because of his action stuff. Hopefully, this means Baby Yoda will get some lightsaber swingin’ to do, assuming there’s room for him with all the new characters around…
“I was in the middle of post [-production on Extraction] and I’m editing my movie and I got a call from my buddy Colin Wilson, one of the line producers, who said, ‘Jon [Favreau] and the people over here are looking for someone to bring into the team or add to the family who has experience with action.’ The team that was there did a great job in the first season and it was just all fun. But they wanted to build on that and bring a new perspective and take it to another level for the next season. So, I was like, ‘That sounds like a fun challenge.’”
Even better, Hargrave says the action is indeed better than before, which is really saying something…
“I know the footage we delivered, as a second-unit, they seemed to be happy with. We worked closely with the stunt team there, with Bryan Watson and the team that had done the first season; they did a really great job. You know, it was just to bring a little extra perspective, add a few things, things I’ve learned while working on superhero movies, little tricks which make the performances easier and using visual effects to enhance certain things. Just bringing a little bit of experience and knowledge to where we could take it to another level and up the ante. The next season is really, really cool. The way the story arcs is really cool. So we tried to have the action represent that and take it to the next level. I think we did that.”
The Mandalorian return to Disney+ later this year. Hargrave’s hit film Extraction is available on Netflix now, and a sequel is in the works.
