40 Startling Facts From Behind The Scenes Of The Mandalorian

You’ve probably heard of green screen, and how many movies and TV shows use it to transport their actors to another place. But The Mandalorian is not one of them. No, the series has utilized a new, innovative filming technique known as Stagecraft or The Volume. This method involves a huge LED screen which shows all the scenery that had previously been added in post-production. So, Pedro Pascal, Werner Herzog et al could actually see the universe they were in as they performed. Cool!

Game of Thrones and Narcos star Pedro Pascal was understandably thrilled to land the lead role of Din Djarin aka “Mando” in The Mandalorian. But did you know that the Chilean-American thespian actually got to try on the helmet in his first meeting? Yes, Pascal told the website Collider that donning the headgear was when it really sank in that he had become a part of the Star Wars universe. Growing up as a fan who played with the toys, the actor revealed it was “a super-pinch-me moment.”

For many viewers, Baby Yoda is the most adorable being on The Mandalorian. But did you know that it was famous actors underneath the stormtrooper outfits who thumped the little alien in Season One’s climactic episode? Well, you do now, because we’re informing you that it was comedic actors Adam Pally and Jason Sudeikis who threw their fists at Grogu when he bit them. Thankfully, droid IG-11 sorted the pair out, and saved the day.

Viewers of The Mandalorian are likely under no illusions that the series took a fair amount of cash to make. But did you know that the chief puppet of Baby Yoda cost $5 million big ones? Amusingly, Pally revealed to Entertainment Weekly magazine that during the shooting of the scene where his stormtrooper thumps Baby Yoda, Jon Favreau reminded him so. He recalled, “[Favreau] said, ‘I just want you to know that this is the [main] Yoda and it costs, like, $5 million.’”

What do you do if you're running low on stormtrooper costumes? We’re asking that rhetorically, as it’s likely not a problem that has ever cropped up in your lives! But the producers of The Mandalorian ran into that very dilemma when filming Season One. And thankfully Favreau and Lucasfilm found a creative solution to the question: reach out to members of a Star Wars fan club called the 501st Legion. We’re talking cosplaying aficionados who dress up as the imperial villains. Well, they seized their moment and the costume crisis was averted. Phew!

One of the most surprising casting choices in The Mandalorian is surely the madcap German director Werner Herzog. Yes, the legendary auteur of films such as Stroszek and Cobra Verde plays “The Client” in the series. But it’s fair to say he was no superfan fulfilling a lifelong dream in entering the Star Wars universe. No, in actual fact, the often-abrasive filmmaker admitted to news agency Associated Press that he’d never seen any of the numerous films in the franchise before he got the part. Charming!

Pedro Pascal has earned considerable praise for his performance as Mando in the The Mandalorian. But the Chilean-American revealed to ComicBook.com that initially he believed he would be playing another character: that somebody being the notable bounty hunter Boba Fett. But as he told ComicBook.com, Favreau looked at him and said, “You’re the Mandalorian.” Obviously he was delighted at the prospect of playing the lead, adding, “I couldn’t have imagined a better moment.”

Acclaimed composer Ludwig Göransson was a wise choice for the job of creating the The Mandalorian score. Still, the Swede made an interesting decision when making the music common to each of the episodes. Indeed, the inventive Scandinavian shelled out on some children’s recorders and used them to compose the main theme. He also produced a unique soundtrack for each of the show’s eight episodes.

You probably assume that the competition for the plum role of Cara Dune in The Mandalorian was fierce. You’d be wrong, though. Indeed, the actress who plays her, Gina Carano, revealed on Vanity Fair magazine’s Still Watching podcast that series creator Jon Favreau didn't even have any actors audition for the role. In actual fact, the character was even named with Carano in mind, Favreau picking the name “Cara” from her surname. Meant to be!

Eagle-eyed viewers of The Mandalorian may have noticed a hidden reference to another gargantuan movie franchise in the first season episode “Sanctuary.” But did you, reader? We didn’t if we’re honest, but that episode’s director, Bryce Dallas Howard, admitted she had sneaked a sly nod to a movie in which she’d previously appeared. Howard told The Hollywood Reporter magazine, “With all the AT-ST stuff, Jurassic [World] is definitely a really great reference for that – when you’re on the run from a monster in close proximity and that monster is 30 feet high.”

Baby Yoda lights up every scene of The Mandalorian he is in. But did you know that the lovable toddler needed four puppeteers to control his movements? Well, it’s true. The third episode of the behind-the-scenes show Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian revealed as much. After the special effects company Legacy Effects created the puppet, young Grogu was brought to life by individual puppeteers controlling his arms and body, ears and mouth, eyes and head, respectively.

Herzog has never been afraid to voice his opinion on things. And the German would do so again on the set of The Mandalorian, when he strongly disagreed with the idea of Baby Yoda becoming a predominantly CGI-based character. Indeed, when the Baby Yoda puppet was taken away during shooting so that the crew could get a “clean plate” if computer animation was required, Herzog barked, “You are cowards. Leave it. Leave it.” Erm, we’re guessing no-one argued much with the legendary filmmaker.

If you’ve been thinking how perfect Pedro Pascal is as the lead character in The Mandalorian then you’ve got one man to thank. Yes, Oscar Isaac, who portrayed Poe Dameron in the Star Wars movies told WIRED magazine that he pushed Pascal to go for the role of Din Djarin. He told the website, “You're welcome. I convinced him to do [the show].” Cheers, Oscar!

As we’ve established, Pascal is astonishingly good as Din Djarin in The Mandalorian, bringing emotional weight to the character despite wearing a helmet most of the time. But did you know that it is not always him underneath the armor? Well, it’s true. Pascal, you see, is an in-demand thespian with a number of different projects on the go. Indeed, the Chilean-American didn’t appear in the fourth episode of the first season, due to Broadway rehearsals for William Shakespeare’s King Lear, adding his voice for it later on!

So, who was under the mask when Pascal was away on other business, you might be asking? The answer is one of the two stuntmen employed by Disney for the project, Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne – the latter being the grandson of Western legend John. Those two dudes covered for Pascal while he was rehearsing for Broadway, and actually teamed up with him to develop the character of Din Djarin.

When The Mandalorian first aired, many Star Wars fans were thrilled to discover the Baby Yoda character. And they have one man in particular to thank for that bolt from the blue: Childish Gambino himself, Donald Glover. Yes, as Favreau revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor and musician implored him to keep the character quiet when they were on the set of the live action version of The Lion King in 2019. Favreau said, "We were talking about music and pop culture, and he was saying that what people really like now is to be surprised, because it didn’t happen much.”

How Favreau and co ensured Baby Yoda remained a secret is interesting in itself. Firstly, the show’s creator made it clear that no merchandise would be produced before the premiere, and the usual press viewings of The Mandalorian were denied. But there was another potential problem – excitable kids on set. Director of several episodes Dallas Howard told streaming network People TV, “All the kids that were on set, I had conversations with each one of them, just about keeping Baby a secret.” Including her own!

The Mandalorian is without doubt a seismic television event. Indeed, such was anticipation of the series that numerous A-listers from Hollywood ambled on set to check on its progress. We’re talking about people such as the comic actor Seth Rogen and celebrated director Steven Spielberg. And, of course, Star Wars head honcho George Lucas, of whom Favreau later uploaded a neat photo of holding the Baby Yoda puppet like a proud dad!

Given its place as the newest series entry in the Star Wars universe, its cutting edge filming and stellar cast, The Mandalorian was never going to be made with chump change. But it might surprise you just how much was shelled out on it. For instance, the entire first season of eight episodes required about $100 million to make. So roughly $13 million per 30-minutes. A good job Disney charges a hefty subscription fee to watch it, then.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else taking the roles they play in The Mandalorian. But Carano didn’t think she would be Cara Dune. No, as the former MMA star explained to Vanity Fair, she assumed that she’d be “the female Chewbacca.” Carano explained, “I was ready to put on the fur outfit and be the female version of that. That's what I thought. I was surprised to find that I was one of the few people that you were actually going to see her face.”

The Mandalorian has seen a number of Disney firsts. And one of them was achieved by Deborah Chow. After directing Episode Three of Season One, Chow became the first female to helm a live-action Star Wars production in history of the franchise, which had covered 43 years at the time. Incidentally, Dallas Howard would follow her trailblazing lead just one show later, directing Episode Four: “Sanctuary.” So close, Bryce. So, close.

Jurassic World wasn’t the only movie getting a nod from Dallas Howard. No, the director and actress also took the liberty of referencing another of her movies, The Village. The supernatural thriller from M. Night Shyamalan was not particularly well received but constituted Howard’s acting breakthrough. And she referenced it during the scene where Mando and Omera survey the children, as herself and Joaquin Phoenix similarly did in that 2004 film. Incidentally, both of those like-for-like scenes utilized the “French Overs” filming technique, where the action is shot from behind the protagonists’ heads.

Whilst they were shooting the first season, the crew of The Mandalorian were the victims of an on-set crime. Yes, somebody made off with an important piece of filming equipment from the Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles County back in 2018. Lucasfilm reported it to the cops, but although they obviously wanted the camera back, the bigger concern was that spoilers contained on the memory card would be publicly released. Thankfully, this never happened.

The Mandalorian contains a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to a piece of equipment that featured in the second original Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. The episode is “The Sin,” and the item is the comtono, a container which sort of resembles an ice-cream maker. Favreau had Mando pass it to Herzog’s The Client, but it is filled with money, not ice cream, unfortunately.

The weapons on The Mandalorian have created quite a bit of debate among Star Wars fans. But those fanboys and indeed yourselves might have missed what prop guru Josh Roth revealed about them on Episode Five of the Disney Gallery. Chiefly, that they were based on guns from World War II. Roth noted that in the original trilogy “they rented surplus weapons from World War II and modified them.” The events of the series occur not too long after those movies on the increasingly complex Star Wars timeline.

Seen Episode Five in The Mandalorian’s first season? Yeah? Well, you may recall that particular one, entitled “The Gunslinger,” has a scene with a droid bartender. He serves Mando in the Mos Eisley cantina that also appeared in the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope from 1977. Have a few listens to the voice of the droid EV-9D9. Ring any bells? It should, as it is that of Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill! Cool, huh!

One of the many interesting characters in The Mandalorian is Kuiil. He is (spoiler alert) eventually taken out by imperial scout troopers in Episode Seven of Season One but entertained us all until that sad moment. But did you know the very masculine character actually had a woman underneath the carefully puppeteered mask? It’s true, and her name is Misty Rosas. Yet actor Nick Nolte would provide the voice for the doomed Ugnaught.

Baby Yoda is almost without question the show-stealer in The Mandalorian. Sorry, Mando. And the creators of this already-iconic Star Wars character went to great lengths to make him special. This extended to his speech, which sound editors Matthew Wood and David Acord have revealed was generated from recordings of a kinkajou and a bat-eared fox. Later, though, series creator Favreau requested that his voice be more “relatable,” so human baby noises were added.

The Mandalorian features a number of cameos from within the Star Wars universe. Several of these come courtesy of Dave Filoni, a writer and director of both The Clone Wars and Rebels. Aside from appearing himself as an X-wing pilot, he brought in Matt Lanter with him. He portrayed Anakin Skywalker on the six-season run of The Clone Wars, and made his live-action debut in The Mandalorian. The same is true of Katee Sackhoff, who also played her cartoon character Bo Katan in non-animated form.

Here’s a nugget from the very first episode of The Mandalorian. You may recall the moment where Mando sees a Blurgg down the scope of his gun. Interestingly, it was revealed during the “Practical” chapter of Disney Gallery that the strange creature was achieved via stop-motion animation. In layman’s terms, that’s taking multiple pictures of a 3-D model moved incrementally between each snap. Favreau and co really did utilize methods both old and cutting-edge to communicate this Star Wars yarn.

The Pulse Blaster in The Mandalorian was cool, wasn’t it? But did you know that the idea for it came from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special? Well, you do now! Yes, according to Favreau, the signature electrocuting rifle of the series’ titular character was inspired by the animated version of Boba Fett carrying it in that Xmas broadcast. He told Disney Gallery this, anyway.

Remember when Mando takes off his mask at the end of the series’ first season? Well, it might surprise you to learn that Pascal had also hurt himself whilst this scene was being shot. He told Disney Gallery that when he was deeply engrossed in his script, he wandered out of the makeup trailer and straight into a piece of plywood. The actor cut his nose and needed a hospital visit and seven stitches on his hooter. So some of the blood you see in that scene is from his genuine injury!

The adorable Baby Yoda we see in The Mandalorian wasn’t arrived at in an instant. No, Favreau has revealed that it was a painstaking process, with a number of drawings and designs made and considered before a decision was made. Then designers then spent roughly three months creating “The Child,” as he’s called on set. Months well spent, we’re sure you’d agree.

Giancarlo Esposito shines in The Mandalorian as the villainous Moff Gideon. And the Breaking Bad star has revealed to IGN that he “found out early on” in production that (spoiler) he’d have the opportunity to wield the awesome darksaber. But hilariously his own children warned him not to hurt Baby Yoda with it! Anyway, (more spoilers) Moff had the darksaber taken off him by Mando, as the baby was rescued from his evil clutches.

As we’ve established, The Mandalorian makes use of some futuristic, groundbreaking and downright expensive filming techniques. But the crew are not completely against using cheaper, old-fashioned ways of doing things, either. For instance, some of the images of Mando’s ship The Razor Crest in the series are of miniatures. This was done for lighting reasons, and John Knoll of Industrial Light & Magic revealed on Disney Gallery that the mini version of Mando’s craft wound up in about 15 shots across the season.

The Mandalorian certainly makes use of CGI, but interestingly it is only sparingly used for Baby Yoda. And on those rare occasions, Favreau told The Hollywood Reporter that he and his crew have ensured that it follows the same physical laws as the puppet. He said, “I think a lot of times CGI makes itself too obvious where you don’t create parameters creatively that allow the character to keep the same identity and charm.”

You probably recall the scene in Season One’s “The Reckoning” episode where Carano’s Cara Dune is choked by the Baby Yoda, who is using the force. Well, while shooting this dramatic moment, rather weirdly ex-MMA star Carano reportedly passed out, not once, but twice. Remember, this tough woman only lost one pro UFC fight in her career – to Brazilian Cris Cyborg in 2009. But she got KO-ed by Baby Yoda twice!

The Mandalorian set got a visit from a legendary Jedi Master in full costume. Yes, Ewan McGregor – who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel movies – turned up, telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “It was funny walking on set because it was a lot of The Mandalorian crew and I walked on, and it was a big moment. I walked into the dressing room and there were my beige cloaks and my belts and boots and it was like, ‘Oh my God, it was my old costume.’ It was amazing.”

Creating Cara Dune’s costume wasn’t an easy process. On the contrary, there was a lot of thought put into it by Carano and Dallas Howard. How to express hardiness without losing femininity was the main conundrum. Carano had a mold taken of her body, and later told Vanity Fair, “They [the producers and costume people] found the most incredible balance, hopefully little girls and/or boys can put it on for Halloween.”

Quiz question for you: who is the first person to appear as a Disney princess, a Marvel superhero and a Star Wars character? Any idea? Well the answer is Ming-Na Wen. Her casting in The Mandalorian was announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger at the D23 Expo, where she was honored as a Disney Legend. The Chinese-American actress remarked as she looked at Iger, “Please just keep acquiring all these different franchises. Because I just keep getting employed by them. I have hit every bucket list thanks to Disney.” Indeed!