'The Mandalorian' Goes Full Western In New Concept Art
The Mandalorian is Star Wars' first live-action TV show and, judging by this concept art, it owes a lot of its existence to some big-screen westerns.
If Leone's Westerns and Star Wars had a baby (Yoda), it would be The Mandalorian.
Disney+'s first Star Wars live-action series, from writer and executive producer Jon Favreau, is slight on character development and emotional stakes but it has a surplus of movie western influences -- which Favreau has acknowledged while making press rounds for the landmark series. Watching Star Wars' version of "The Man With No Name" employ his wrist-mounted flame thrower and trade blaster fire in a post-Return of the Jedi has clear inspirations to Once Upon a Time In the West, A Fistful of Dollars, and Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning film, Unforgiven. These inspirations are made all the more clear with recently released concept art.
The official Mandalorian Twitter account is a mini-treasure trove of behind-the-scenes images and their peek at this exceptional production art from "Chapter One" and other installments will make you want to hang these pictures in your home. Check it out below:
The art is more detailed and intricate than usual design work from TV shows, and the extra care and design work here makes sense. It's a freakin' Star Wars show -- the first live-action one ever for the franchise. The art feels more like comic book covers than that which hangs up on production bungalow walls; it also feels like great care went into its execution and that is a vital takeaway from this aspect of the production process. If you have the time and budget and talent to execute visuals and tone in such a way, to help sell the intent and world of such an ambitious show like Mandalorian, more is more.
The Mandalorian rolls out new episodes every Friday -- until the week of release for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That week's new ep will air on Wednesday, December 18.
