Expanding the Universe - Going Behind the Scenes with The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2)

In addition to the incredible concept art, The Art of Star Wars books always offer fascinating glimpses behind the scenes at how the stories we love are created. From fun trivia to world building insights, The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2) is no exception, so we've dug through Phil Szostak's recently released visual feast to share some of these with you.




<h2>Going Back to Basics</h2>


The use of concept art in The Mandalorian draws heavily on two of George Lucas's key principals. The first is letting the art guide the story, with initial story ideas generating concept art that then guides the direction of the story, creating what Szostak calls a symbiotic approach between the screen writers and the art department.

The second is in the use of silhouette to create immediately identifiable characters. As Doug Chiang notes:

Indeed, this concept is something that was on Favreau's mind when he decided that the Mandalorian would not remove his helmet:

The one key difference with George Lucas? Time. As Doug Chiang notes in his introduction, The Mandalorian requires as much art design as two or three feature films in a third of the time and with half of the budget. It's an incredible challenge, but one that the team has clearly risen to.




<h2>Mos Pelgo - Bringing the Wild West to a Galaxy Far, Far Away</h2>


One of the things the art team did a lot in season 2 of The Mandalorian was to expand the universe in ways that were new but at the same time familiar. We all know that George Lucas was influenced by westerns and Kurosawa, so seeing those influences in The Mandalorian instinctively feels like a natural fit. But The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2) dives a little deeper, examining what the team did to really bring those settings into Star Wars, how that design was influenced by the story, and how they used design to tie the trilogies together.

Those stilts gave the town a more Western look and feel, but they also served an in-universe purpose. According to Chiang, the stilts and decking helped the people of Mos Pelgo avoid vibrations that would attract the krayt dragon. There was a little cheating, as concept supervisor Ryan Church noted, wooden walkways don't make the most sense on a desert world, but the sound of feet on wood was desired for that Western vibe.



As well as something new, there was also something old to the design:

<h2>Jaws, the Krayt Dragon, and George Lucas's Swimming Pool</h2>


The original krayt dragon skeleton, glimpsed in the desert in A New Hope, was a diplodocus prop salvaged from Disney's One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing by set director Roger Christian and ultimately left in the Tunisian desert once filming was done. For The Mandalorian, the krayt dragon received a more monstrous upgrade.

Whilst the full dragon was designed, and can be seen in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2), the idea was never to show that on screen. Jaws is cited as a big influence on that direction, with Chiang noting that Favreau wanted 'to keep it very peekaboo,' and concept supervisor Christian Alzmann saying he was 'probably vibing off that [Jaws poster]' when designing the creature.



With Jaws as an influence, the designers toyed with the idea of a fin for the dragon as it swam through the sands of Tatooine. The fin would also be a call back to a creature from The Empire Strikes Back, with Alzmann revealing a surprising detail about just where some of that classic film's pickups took place:

<h2>Asian Elephants and Banthas</h2>


In a callback to A New Hope, Asian elephants again were used to bring banthas to life, only this time utilizing modern technology and 3D printing:

<h2>Nomad Boba Fett Inspired by Lawrence of Arabia and Sideshow Collectibles</h2>


Both Doug Chiang and concept artist Brian Matyas confirm that Boba Fett's nomadic look, with black robes and Tusken bandoliers, was inspired by the classic Lawrence of Arabia, but Matyas goes on to note that there was also another, perhaps more surprising, influence - Sideshow Collectibles!

<h2>All Fans on Set</h2>


Whilst technical ability is, of course, essential. Being a fan is just as important. Peyton Reed, who directed two episodes in the second season, was chosen by Favreau following a set visit by the Ant Man director during season 1.

A year after that set visit Reed, was behind the camera for Chapter 10: The Passenger, before coming back again to direct the season finale and the historic return of Luke Skywalker.



Diana Inosanto, who played the Magistrate in Chapter 13: The Jedi, would also turn out to be a fan. 'When we called her in, [we found out that] she's somebody who watches Clone Wars and Rebels with her kids,' Filoni revealed, 'And she was just ecstatic. I said 'Well, you know who you're going to fight, right?' She almost fell over right there.'




<h2>The Passenger - From the Background to Featured Character</h2>


Whilst most fans only came to know her in season 2, the Frog Lady actually appeared in The Mandalorian's first season as well.

<h2>McQuarrie's Influence</h2>


Star Wars legend Ralph McQuarrie influenced more than just the spiders in Chapter 9: The Passenger. He also influenced the hot springs through work done for one of the early Star Wars guide books.

His influence is also felt later in the season, on Corvus, where his early Return of the Jedi work helped to inspired the look of the city:

The eye, another nod to Jabba's Palace, remained in the middle of the main gate in the finished episode.




<h2>British Weather Inspired Trask</h2>


Maybe it's because I'm British, but this one just tickled me. Our infamous bad weather is now immortalized in Star Wars as the influence for Trask.

<h2>Jyn's Rogue One River Cruise</h2>


Taking a quick detour from The Mandalorian, it turns out that Jyn Erso was originally going to take a river journey to find Saw Gerrera. Does anyone remember the very first teaser for Rogue One? Shown way back at the Future Filmmakers panel at Celebration Anaheim in 2015, and leaked online soon after. The teaser was never officially released outside of the convention but, according to Chiang, the footage shown was (presumably concept work) for that river journey.



[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7CbqdBhO2A[/embed]



Whilst Jyn's river cruise may have been cancelled, the Star Wars design team never let a good design go to waste, so Thom Tenery's Rogue One design was tweaked and re-purposed for the fishing trawler in Chapter 11: The Heiress.

<h2>Mini Monster</h2>


This is one of those world building details that would never have even crossed my mind without this book. It turns out that Grogu's cockpit attacker at the end of Chapter 11 is a younger version of the monster from the trawler:

<h2>The Cantina Became the School</h2>






Another fun piece of world building, or world evolution I guess in this case, is that the school on Nevarro is actually the cantina that Mando and Greef Karga used to do business in. An idea that came from Jon Favreau himself.

And, on the subject of the school, they also spent 'a week or so' designing the cookies for Gorgu to steal.




<h2>Nevarro's Imperial Base Links Rogue One and The Force Awakens</h2>


In another example of using design language to link the saga together across all eras, the art team drew on both Rogue One and The Force Awakens when it came to establishing the look of the Imperial base on Nevarro.

Digging into the rock allowed them to utilize another idea first seen in The Force Awaken's Starkiller Base:

Another link to sequel trilogy design would be seen in Chapter 14: The Tragedy, with the new Imperial transport designed as a precursor to the First Order troop transports first seen in The Force Awakens.




<h2>Ahsoka and The Child / Filoni, Favreau and Lucas</h2>


Bringing Ahsoka from animation to live action was a possibility that was on Dave Filoni's mind from very early in production. 'There were a lot of things that I wanted to do with the character,' he said,  'But how can I do it, make sure I'm getting it right, and have as much control over the situation as possible?'



And then there was the issue of Grogu, and his back story. Where had he come from? How much did he know about Force? As the story of season 2 progressed, it seems these two threads naturally came together.

Though The Art of Star Wars: The Mandaloran (Season 2) does not reveal what Lucas thought of the solution Filoni and Favreau arrived at for Grogu's past training, it seems reasonable to assume he would be happy with it given that Filoni is unlikely to have done something if he knew it went against Lucas's understanding of how the Star Wars universe works.




<h2>Ahsoka's Cloak and the Depth of Her Character</h2>


If you look very closely at Ahsoka's cloak in Chapter 13: The Jedi, you will see that actually isn't gray. At the request of Dave Filoni the art team drew inspiration from artist N. C. Wyeth's Winter, with her cloak shot through with hidden color. It's an effect that is arguably more noticeable in the concept art that the finished costume, but if you look closely you can see the multiple colors woven subtly into the fabric.

<h2>Grogu's Force Powers</h2>


Going off the concept art Grogu was originally going to show greater strength in the Force during his meeting with Ahsoka, with early sketches featuring him lifting rocks like Rey on Crait and bringing flowers back to life on the industrially pillaged world.

Though both have precedent from the show's first season, where he stopped the mudhorn and healed Greef Karga's wounds, the moment was ultimately toned down for the final episode.




<h2>Michael Biehn Helped Develop His Character</h2>


It's always interesting to hear how much, or how little, input actors get into their characters, so I found it very insightful to read Filoni discussing what Michael Biehn brought to Lang and his honest acknowledgement that Biehn brought the character to life in a way that his script didn't.

<h2>Common Designs Between Jedi and Sith</h2>


When designing the ruins of the Tython's 'Force-henge' the art team wanted a natural look but also something that was unique to Star Wars. The design brief was essentially 'Stonehenge mixed with Vasquez Rocks [Natural Area Park] in Southern California,' but to get that Star Wars look they went back to Rogue One, again seeking that common design language that helps to subconsciously tie the universe together.

<h2>Grogu's Cell is Inspired by Leia's</h2>


If you've see one Imperial cell, you've seen them all. As noted by Doug Chiang, Leia's prison cell on the Death Star prison cell served as inspiration for Grogu's on Gideon's ship. The only difference? They needed to make this one a little bit bigger so Grogu had room to throw around the stormtroopers.








<h2>The Volume Doesn't Like Direct Sunlight</h2>


This one surprised me! As much as we hear about the volume, many scenes taking place in direct sunlight are actually filmed on the backlot as 'that quality of light remains difficult for the StageCraft volume's LED screens to replicate.'



Chapter 15: The Believer features several examples of this, including the main action sequences on top of the transport and the rooftop escape from the refinery. These backlot shots then layered in pre-existing photogrammetry of the Maldvies, which had originally been taken for Rogue One, to create Morak's thick jungle environment.




<h2>Bo-Katan's Ship was too Big</h2>


Translating things from animation to live action can be a fine balance, and when the time came to recreate Bo-Katan's Gauntlet starfighter in live action the art team found that size definitely matters.

It's still a big ship for a starfighter, but a little more proportionate than the animated original.








<h2>Luke Returned as Filoni has Other Plans for Ahsoka</h2>


Perhaps one of the most intriguing nuggets of information comes near the end, when the book examines the arrival of Luke Skywalker in the series as he came to save the day and take Grogu away to restart his training.

Of course Filoni has plans for Ahsoka! And, whatever they are, from his comment here it seems that they've not been altered too much by bringing her into the world of The Mandalorian.








<h2>Razor Crest Rescue</h2>


During the early development of the season finale, concept supervisor pitched the idea of the Razor Crest ramming into Moff Gideon's Imperial cruiser and crashing through the bridge as part of the heroic rescue attempt.

As cool as that sounds, there was of course one small problem that the art department didn't know at the time. The Razor Crest was to be destroyed a few episodes earlier. Still, it sounds like a fun idea and, as this book has shown, the art team often return to ideas and concepts when working on future projects, so who knows where a version of this may turn up one day.



This is just a small taste of what The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2) has in store. Phil Szostak has put together an incredible selection of artwork from across the entire season, along with fascinating insights into the world of the show and what goes into bringing that world to life. I would highly recommend it to any fan of the series.



The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 2) by Phil Szostak is available now.



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