Here is a Christmas gift for everyone who asked me what it’s like to hang out with Baby Yoda on the set of #TheMandalorian #The tragedy. Output check #DisneyGallery to learn more behind the scenes! pic.twitter.com/6ShINBxJAN
– Robert Rodriguez (@Rodriguez) December 25, 2020
Spoiler warning for the second season of The Mandalorian.
As if that weren’t enough, Rodriguez also told the story of how he went into his backyard and filmed his kids and some Star Wars action figures to illustrate his vision of the epic Boba Fett scene from The Tragedy for the team. We can even take a quick look at the video at the 42:10 mark on the special.
Beside these wonderful gifts from Rodriguez, the Mandalorian team reveals some very interesting details as they go through each episode, and you can check out some of our favorites below;
- The codename for the Mandalorian TV series is Huckleberry.
- The Volume, which is the innovative LED screen that is used in the set for backgrounds and immersion of the actors in the scenes, was 30 meters long and 7 meters high for this season.
- The Krayt Dragon at the season premiere was originally designed to be only 150 feet long, but the team decided it needed to have a lot more presence and ended up being a 180-meter monster.
- David Choe was brought in to help make the graffiti at the premiere look authentic. He even had a chance to play an alien this season.
- The ice spiders in Season 2’s second episode were inspired by the work of Star Wars legend Ralph McQuarrie. McQuarrie is responsible for much of what makes Star Wars look like Star Wars.
- Misty Rosas played with Frog Lady in season 2. Rosas also played with Kuiil in the 1st season.
- Dave Filoni purposely didn’t bring Ahsoka Tano to the first season of The Mandalorian because he didn’t want to mess up her introduction and hurry up about it.
- Ahsoka’s lightsabers went through many iterations, as Dave Filoni wanted them to be in a smaller form, similar to Samurai’s katanas.
- Ahsoka, who was created by George Lucas and Dave Filoni for The Clone Wars, was one of the first things Filoni designed for the project.
- Robert Rodriguez transformed Boba Fett’s battle scene into The Tragedy from a “3-page battle scene to a 9-minute battle scene”. He also wanted to make Boba Fett what we all thought he was.
- When comparing Boba Fett with the Mandalorian, Rodriguez said that if the Mandalorian is a gunman, Boba Fett is a barbarian.
- Boba Fett’s actor, Temuera Morison, born in New Zealand, asked the gafie stick he wielded to be inspired by Maori culture.
- While almost all scenes in The Mandalorian are shot on doors in front of the Volume LED screen, the team had to go to Simi Valley in California to film the battle scene in The Tragedy, as the indoor scene was very small.
- One of the most difficult parts of shooting in Simi Valley was that they were unable to use explosions due to the risk of causing a fire. The only exception was for the scene where Fennec is running along the rocks, as he was away from anything combustible.
- In The Believer, with the help of the The Volume LED screen, we can see the interior of Boba Fett’s Slave One spinning during takeoff for the first time.
- While many ship miniatures – such as the Razor Crest – in The Mandalorian were digitized for use in The Volume, Moff Gideon’s cruiser was built as a 5-foot-long miniature that was shot using techniques seen in the original films.
- The baton wielded by Bib Fortuna at the Jabba Palace has been removed from his action figure and is the first time that it appears on the screen.
For more information on the Mandalorian, check out our full review of season 2, our explainer for the end of the season and what it means for season 3, and the revelation of the spinoff series from Boba Fett’s Book.
Do you have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Send an email to [email protected].
Adam Bankhurst is an IGN news writer. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.