James Mangold Debunked Those ‘The Mandalorian’ Rumors During A Pretty Great Twitter Exchange With Ron Howard

Last week, rumors began swirling that James Mangold and Robert Rodriguez will be directing episodes of The Mandalorian season two. But they were just that, rumors. However, the situation escalated when director Ron Howard tweeted out a report, which seemingly confirmed the news.

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) February 29, 2020

Considering Howard directed Solo: A Star War Story and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard is directly involved in The Mandalorian production, it’d be fair for fans assume that he’s a credible source of information. If someone would be in the know, it’s Ron Howard. There was just one small problem. Howard wasn’t sharing his inside knowledge. He was simply linking an IGN report, which was not accurate and led Mangold to debunk the news.

— Mangold (@mang0ld) February 29, 2020

Fortunately, Howard was quick to apologize and explain his blunder.

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) March 1, 2020

What’s this about a Christmas Special Following Mangold’s debunking, director Taika Waititi decided to jump in and have a little fun with the confusion.

— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) February 29, 2020

In the end, Mangold had no hard feelings and completely understood why Howard tweeted the report.

— Mangold (@mang0ld) March 1, 2020

As for why Mangold’s name suddenly got attached to The Mandalorian, there are two possible reasons. Variety reports that Mangold is close to replacing Steven Spielberg as the director of Indiana Jones 5. If that reporting is accurate, then it would make sense if Mangold was already working with Lucasfilm on something like an episode of The Mandalorian.

However, Mangold’s relationship with both Lucasfilm and the bounty hunting series goes back a bit further. In 2018, the director was reportedly attached to a standalone Boba Fett film, which was scuttled after Solo underperformed at the box office and Disney began shelving prequel films. But what fans didn’t know is that those projects were being repurposed into original series for Disney’s fledgling streaming series. The Boba Fett movie became The Mandalorian, and the Obi-Wan movie became, well, whatever the title of Ewan MacGregor’s Obi-Wan series will be.

Considering Mangold’s previous attachment to Boba Fett, having him helm an episode of the bounty hunting series that sprang from the aborted film tracks. Too bad it’s just a rumor. For now.