Mandalorian: Giancarlo Esposito had a special request to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni

Moff Gideon has been the main villain across all three seasons of The Mandalorian, and it's hard to imagine how the story will continue without him.

Giancarlo Esposito is also one of the few remaining actors on the show who has been there since Season 1. While the actor seems keen on returning as Gideon, he insists he has no idea what creator Jon Favreau is planning. While speaking at his panel at LA Comic Con, Esposito chronicled his journey to becoming Moff Gideon, which means as much to him as the role.

According to People, Esposito shared where he got the inspiration for the role, and it turns out the actor looked at the work of Star Wars heavyweights, including the late James Earl Jones and Peter Cushing. He says he found Cushing's performance as Grand Moff Tarkin "very interesting," but it's Earl Jones' Darth Vader that gave Esposito a performance to model his character after:

"“I went back and looked at James Earl Jones because that was just inspiration to me, how he held himself, how he carried himself underneath that grand and very graceful costume. It took a long time for me to even start to think that I was kind of a modern-day Darth Vader.”"

- GIancarlo Esposito.

Esposito says Filoni and Favreau didn't give him much of an idea of which direction to go, so it was up to him to do the research and come up with an idea of what Gideon should be like. However, he admitted to having one special request for the duo to play Gideon:

"The one request I asked for was a cape, and that gave me the feeling that I had to walk a certain way and be a certain way..."

- Giancarlo Esposito.

The actor also shared that he used to swing a broomstick in his living room to get an idea of what it would be like to use the Darksaber as Moff Gideon, a major aspect of his role in the first two seasons of the show. While Esposito insists he isn't sure whether he'll be back again as Moff Gideon, and whether a possible return would come in a Mandalorian movie or the future, he sounded optimistic and revealed that it was his idea to shave his mustache for the role, as he figured Gideon was in "prison for a while and had no mustache."

" “And then before I started shooting, Jon Favreau came down and he kind of looked at me and he scratched his head. He went, ‘No mustache?’ And I went ‘No! No mustache!’ And so it leaves it open with all of those clones that there's a possibility that Moff Gideon is still hiding out somewhere, waiting to come back and take over.”"

- Giancarlo Esposito.

Little is known about The Mandalorian & Grogu, and the casting has remained under wraps. If Gideon is to return, it would have to make sense, and he'll have to become a bigger threat than he was in Season 3. He and his clones were defeated in a matter of minutes in the season finale. However, if he plays a major role in helping Grand Admiral Thrawn in the future, a return may not be such a bad idea.

The Mandalorian is streaming on Disney+.