When it debuted on Disney+ last year, The Mandalorian proved to be a completely refreshing change of pace. Creator Jon Favreau pleased fans old and new with a series that embraced the humor, uncomplicated adventure, and weird background characters in rubber masks that made the original trilogy an organic phenomenon in the seventies and eighties. Unlike the prequels and the two final installments of the sequels, The Mandalorian also won hearts because it looks like Star Wars. The ship, environment, and creature designs are all spot on, picking up on the muted color palette and simple geometric shapes that defined the old movies. Favreau fully realizes this and spotlights the show’s production paintings during the closing credits of every episode.
Such art is further spotlighted in Phil Szostak’s gorgeous new book The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian. I figured the book might just be a compilation of all those beautiful, Ralph McQuarrie-indebted paintings that roll under the credits, but it’s a lot more than that. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian bursts with storyboard excerpts and scrapped costume, creature, ship, and even scene designs that are just as lushly realized as the art depicting the approved ones. Mando duels with an enemy while astride some sort of snow dinosaur. An early costume design owes a conscious debt to Jon Snow’s fur coat on Game of Thrones. Mando presents Baby Yoda to his helmeted brethren.
The text is also more than worthwhile as Szostak explains the series’ background as a tribute to both the enticingly underused Boba Fett and a manga called Lone Wolf & Cub. He and artists such as Doug Chiang and Brian Matyas also get into the first season’s production and design. We learn which classic creature Greef Karga was originally supposed to be, how The Dark Crystal and Looney Tunes influenced Baby Yoda, how Ray Harryhausen influenced that ice creature in episode one, and why the trandoshans’ eyes are so inappropriately human-like in episode two. A terrific read and an absolute treat to gawk at, The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a fitting companion to the best thing to zoom down the Star Wars pike since The Empire Strikes Back.
