The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian – Review

In the Disney era of Star Wars, the “making of” book has gone out of fashion, with the “art of” book become the all-in-one for those looking for a behind the scenes information on the creation of new Star Wars material.  There have been “art of” books for the new Episodes as well as the Story films and now fans are being treated to The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian covering the inaugural season of Star Wars’ first live action television show on Disney+. Like the previous “art of” books for the Disney era, this one is also written by Phil Szostak who is the senior content and asset specialist at Lucasfilm Ltd..

One of the stand out things in the book is the behind the scenes look Szostak is able to give readers. Star Wars has always been about letting no designs or ideas go to waste. The genesis for The Mandalorian goes back as far as 2005 when Lucas announced that there would be a cartoon series call The Clone Wars as well as a live action show dealing with the Underworld on Coruscant. Many of the elements that would play into the live action show were seeded in The Clone Wars, yet would never be brought to fruition as the live action series was shelved for budgetary reasons. Yet many ideas from The Clone Wars and the live action series would find there way into other Star Wars projects. And the idea of a live action Star Wars show was the first thing Disney+ would use to launch it’s new service. Szostak is able to weave the story of The Mandalorian, it’s creators Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni collaboration as well as the art for the series perfectly.

It is also fascinating to see just how important the art of Dave Filoni is in this process of creating the look and feel of the show. His visual acumen helps bring things to life so that Jon Favreau and the other artists have a good frame of reference for where they want to go with the designs as well as shot compositions. This brings to mind a great “art of” book idea, The Art of Dave Filoni!

There are plenty of juicy details in the book about the series, but they are best left to the reader to be discover themselves. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is a wonderful companion to the series and a fantastic addition to any fan’s library. Here’s to hoping that they continue to do these books for each season! The book is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars.

This review was completed with a review copy of The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian from Abrams Books.

Author: Matt Rushing

Matthew Rushing is the host of Trek.fm‘s The 602 Club and co-host of TheNerdParty.com‘s AggressiveNegotiations: A Star Wars Podcast. He can be found on Twitter @mattrushing02.