The Mandalorian's inaugural season served as a successful launchpad for the live-action series division of the Star Wars franchise. Din Djarin and The Child's first wave of adventures earned a massive following while also diving deep into the bounty hunting lore. In lieu of the booming success of the first season, the current Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian series from Disney+ has been providing fans a lot of exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at the inner workings of the show.
From early concept art of Baby Yoda to fun banter between the cast and crew, there has been no shortage of reveals from the Disney Gallery series. It seems that the secrets keep on coming, as the latest episode provided a bunch of huge reveals along with a hidden cameo from one of the franchise's biggest stars.
CONFIRMATION
During an episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, along with a breakdown from Slash Film, it was revealed that Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Skywalker Saga, had a secret role during the first season of The Mandalorian. In Chapter 5 of the inaugural season, a droid in the form of EV-9D9 was voiced by none other than Hamill himself as explained by Slash Film:
There’s a droid bartending who looks exactly like EV-9D9, the droid that was responsible for registering new droid acquisitions in Jabba the Hutt’s palace in Return of the Jedi. In fact, the bartender is EV-9D9, and he just so happens to be voiced by none other than Mark Hamill, who has made several little voice cameos throughout the new trilogy of Star Wars movies, in addition to reprising his role as Luke Skywalker.
In the same episode where Hamill's voice cameo'd, the cantina scene featured a familiar droid from the movies in the form of R5-D4, which was the unit that Luke's Uncle Owen tried to purchase from the Jawas before it was revealed that the droid had a bad motivator. The Disney Gallery episode revealed that executive producer Dave Filoni ordered the prop department to give the droid a "little extra detailing with some oil and grease stains" to emphasize the aforementioned motivator.
A slew of other new details has been revealed about the show's first season. The episode shared that Kuiil "didn't speak English" during the early stages of the show's development, which meant that having his dialogue subtitled was once considered.
It was also revealed by executive producer Jon Favreau that George Lucas was not fond of the reference of the show to the Star Wars: Holiday Special, with him sharing that "he didn’t really have anything to do with that." For those unaware, one of The Mandalorian's weaponry includes a long rifle with the electric prongs, which was an obvious callback to Boba Fett's debut in the Holiday Special.
More so, the episode also disclosed that the 501st Legion, a real-life group of fans who build and wear Clone Trooper suits, had no idea that they were supposed to appear in a scene from The Mandalorian:
Jon Favreau remembered preparing to shoot that scene, and they realized that they would need more than the 30 Stormtroopers that they had at their disposal. So he and Dave Filoni, who was already a member of the group, decided to call up members of the 501st to appear in the scene. Those who answered the call were given quite the surprise because many of them weren’t told in advance that they were needed to shoot an actual scene in The Mandalorian, so they were expecting another publicity appearance. Instead, they were turned into real Stormtroopers, and their homemade suits are now screen-used props, which is pretty damn cool.
Lastly, the Disney Gallery episode unveiled that The Mandalorian borrowed an X-Wing from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge during Chapter 6 of the first season. This was also the episode where three of the first season's directors made a guest appearance as Rebel pilots:
The X-wing used on set was ready to be shipped off to Orlando. But before it made the journey, The Mandalorian crew had to tear it apart a bit and modify it so the three directors could hop in the cockpit and shoot their scenes. There was a steel bar where the pilot would normally sit in order to provide firm reinforcement for the vehicle so it could withstand being outside for an extended period of time in the elements. The bar was removed, some lights, switches and levers were added, Favreau gave the directors their dialogue on the day of shooting, and the rest is history.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Given that Star Wars has been a longstanding franchise, the presence of easter eggs and references should be a no-brainer. It seems that The Mandalorian took it up a notch while also being creative along the way. Mark Hamill has been vocal about his passion and love for the Star Wars franchise over the years, and the surprise reveal of his cameo on one of the franchise's successful properties should be a welcome sight for fans everywhere.
While Hamill is officially done with the role of Luke Skywalker, it seems that his commitment to the space opera franchise is still alive. To an extent, Hamill already did double-duty during The Rise of Skywalker where he lent his voice to one of the alien characters from the film. There's a chance that the voice work that he did during The Mandalorian will not be the last due to the wide array of potential characters that he might voice in the future.
The callbacks that were revealed during the first season of The Mandalorian not just showed the commitment of the crew behind-the-scenes but also their passion when it comes to providing solid content to Star Wars fans. The addition of the 501 Legion and the X-Wing reveal further proves that the crew is thinking outside the box when their backs are against the wall while filming. More so, the bit from Kruiil is evidence that ideas are gradually being developed over time, ultimately leading to an amazing end result.
It seems that things are looking up for the much-anticipated season 2 of The Mandalorian. Given the references that were unpacked from Disney Gallery, many would argue that there will be more during the upcoming season.
