when he cast Trejo in Desperado. "So I wrote him this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, "That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts." But I never got around to making it." Rodriguez hoped to film Machete at the same time as Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Additionally, during Comic-Con International 2008, he took the time to speak about Machete, including such topics as: status, possible sequels after the release of Machete, and production priorities. It was also revealed that he has regularly pulled sequences from it for his other productions, including Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Machete was released in theaters September 3, 2010, in the U.S.A. On May 5, 2010, Rodriguez responded to Arizona's controversial immigration law by releasing an "illegal" trailer on Ain't It Cool News. The fake trailer combined elements of the Machete trailer that appeared in Grindhouse with footage from the actual film, and implied that the film would be about Machete leading a revolt against anti-immigration politicians and border vigilantes. Several movie websites, including Internet Movie Database, reported that it was the official teaser for the film. However, Rodriguez later revealed the trailer to be a joke, explaining "it was Cinco de Mayo and I had too much tequila." Streaming series In May 2020, Rodriguez confirmed he would direct an episode from the second season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, part of the Star Wars franchise. Rodriguez made the announcement in an Instagram post in which he posed with a puppet of Grogu, a major character in The Mandalorians first two seasons. He also tweeted a video of himself on the set of the episode playing a guitar next to Grogu. In December 2020, it was also revealed that Rodriguez executive produced The Book of Boba Fett, a spin-off of The Mandalorian released in December 2021, where he also voiced Dokk Strassi and Mok Shaiz. In August 2021, Rodriguez had signed a two-year first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max. Unrealized projects Since