‘The Mandalorian’ Concept Art Hints At ‘Star Wars’ Duel With Luke Skywalker

Here's how concept designers kept it a secret!

The Mandalorian Star Wars Mark Hamill Luke Skywalker Plo Koon The Book of Boba Fett

Concept art from Season 2 of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian hints at a duel with Luke Skywalker.

The Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian caught many fans by surprise. Seeing the triumphant return of Luke Skywalker roughly five years after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was a sight to behold, and the appearance of the legendary Jedi Master was kept a secret from as many people as possible.

Some exciting new pieces of concept art from Season 2 of The Mandalorian for the upcoming book The Art of The Mandalorian (Season 2) gives fans a new look at the incredible artwork that imagined this Star Wars return for Luke Skywalker was brought to life:

Phil Szostak, the creative art manager at Lucasfilm, revealed how the concept artists approached designing the pivotal sequence with Luke Skywalker, and how another Star Wars character was portrayed in the designs to preserve the epic surprise of The Mandalorian Season 2 finale:

“As you can see in the book, no art that really clearly depicted Luke was actually created. And honestly, some artists were left completely in the dark up until the episode aired. It was really only a small group of us that knew all along. There was no mention of Luke in the script, either. It was all Plo Koon. But there’s that one image in the book where it’s Plo Koon in Luke’s robe and it’s like, “Hmmm.” [Laughs] And Plo Koon surviving makes a lot less sense than Luke, who we know is still around.

But yeah, for Luke, especially the aesthetic of his look is just about being faithful to what you know. But it’s more what you think you know, versus what it actually is. It’s almost like an elevation or a sketch of your memory versus being exactly, precisely one-to-one with the last time we saw him in the timeline, which would have been, you know, Return of the Jedi, and the supplemental narrative material that he was in for Battlefront II.

You don’t want to just assume that Luke only has like, one pair of clothes. [Laughs] So, you know, something that would be appropriate to who Luke was, and that’s recognizable and as iconic as his Jedi look in Return of the Jedi. But also updating it and bringing it to the modern age, and just making slight tweaks. It’s that balance between remaining faithful yet bringing something new to it, or just translating it into something that will work for the purposes of this particular show.”

In this new age of Star Wars, Lucasfilm opted to keep certain elements of their new series a secret from viewers. When The Mandalorian was first being promoted, marketing materials featuring Grogu AKA Baby Yoda was kept under wraps, in order to give audiences a pleasant surprise. Given the epic reveal of Luke Skywalker in the Season 2 finale, it was nice that they went all out in keeping his role a secret, making it all the more impactful when he shows up.

Here is the synopsis for The Mandalorian:

“After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travels of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic….”

The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Giancarlo Esposito, Temuera Morrison, Katee Sackhoff, Ming-Na Wen, Bill Burr, Timothy Olyphant, and Carl Weathers, with Rosario Dawson joining the series as Ahsoka Tano ahead of her spin-off series. The series was created by Jon Favreau and executive produced by Dave Filoni, with season two episodes also directed by Rick Famuyiwa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Peyton Reed, Carl Weathers, and Robert Rodriguez.

The first two seasons of The Mandalorian are available on Disney Plus. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the future of the Star Wars show, as well as the possible return of Luke Skywalker, and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.

Source: StarWars.com

Noah Villaverde

Noah Villaverde

Cinema lover. Saxophone player. Coffee consumer. Chronic complainer. Oh, I also write. #TeamHeroic