The Mandalorian star Giancarlo Esposito has a message for his co-workers who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19): stay away from the set.
“If you don’t want to vaccinate, go to a small island and sequester yourself,” Esposito told The Hollywood Reporter. “[Otherwise] you’re saying ‘Fuck you to all you other human beings.' We all have to do it if we want to live. I don’t understand how people don’t vaccinate. For me, I’ve lost dear friends, so I know it’s real. Not only in Europe but in America, friends who were completely healthy and uncompromised. The vaccine is the answer. I’m not downing anyone who doesn’t want to vaccinate. Don’t work. Go ride it out somewhere where you’re not going to compromise anyone else if you get it.”
In order to combat the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant, The Walt Disney Company -- which owns The Mandalorian's production company Lucasfilm -- has mandated that all employees at its U.S. facilities receive the COVID-19 vaccine. "At The Walt Disney Company, the safety and well-being of our employees during the pandemic has been and continues to be a top priority," read the company's statement in July. "Vaccines are the best tool we all have to help control this global pandemic and protect our employees."
Around the time of Disney's announcement, several major Hollywood studios and guilds also agreed to an updated set of COVID-19 protocols. Those measures, which remained in effect until the end of September, gave producers "the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies" for cast and crew members working in Zone A -- the area on film productions where cast and crew tend to work in close proximity without protective equipment.
Esposito played the former Imperial officer Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian Season 1 and 2. He is expected to reprise the character for Season 3, which looks to begin production in the near future (assuming it hasn't quietly already). In the meantime, The Book of Boba Fett will pick up where The Mandalorian Season 2 finale left things, following Boba and his associate Fennec Shand as they navigate the Star Wars galaxy's criminal underworld.
The Book of Boba Fett premieres Dec. 29 on Disney+, with The Mandalorian Season 3 arriving in 2022.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter