It’s full of concept artwork, poster art, and photographs from Chapters 9-12 of The Mandalorian–and it has page after page of the galaxy’s favorite green, long-eared sidekick. It has a long title–Star Wars Insider Presents: Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season Two Collectors Edition Vol. 1—and it’s a worthy look at the first part of the Disney+ series’ second season. As with the past editions from the first season (discussed here and here), it has more mock-ups of Topps trading cards, and more beasts, planets, ships, battles, armor, and characters. It’s available now in a glossy paperback magazine format here at Amazon.
You haven’t yet seen the best of the concept artwork behind the Star Wars series The Mandalorian. Fans of the series saw the first swath of those images in the eye candy-filled first season look at the artwork behind the series in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian–Season One, which we reviewed here at borg. Coming next month you’ll get to see the inspiration behind the return of Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker in the series, and the first live-action appearances of Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan, all found in the pages of Abrams Books’ The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian–Season Two. It’s now available for pre-order here at Amazon.
In the hour-long second “season” of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian–Making of Season 2, executive producer/director Jon Favreau says he hoped to bring all the kinds of Star Wars fans together for a special moment, and he seems to have done that in this year’s superb second season of The Mandalorian, although it’s difficult to compare Disney Gallery‘s eight-episode first season of behind the scenes glimpses to the single, albeit packed, episode fans got from Disney+ this year, released on Christmas Day. As far as making all the groups of fans happy, expect that fans of the last episode’s special climactic scene won’t get to see a “making of” feature on that component yet.
It really is the ultimate holiday gift for your favorite Star Wars fan. The nostalgia in the ideas for the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, as illustrated and explained in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is exactly what fans were hoping for in their next Star Wars experience, probably dating all the way back to the anticipation of the release of Return of the Jedi back in 1983. There’s a reason for the universal praise for the series, and why it’s one of the best television series of the past ten years, if not one of the best Westerns ever. Jon Favreau, Doug Chiang, & Co. figured out how to please a diverse fandom. By including the concept artwork in the end credits for each episode, they took us back to the Ralph McQuarrie paintings that inspired the first Star Wars film. But those images are only the beginning.
If you’ve been watching the new season of The Mandalorian, you might agree that this week’s new episode, The Passenger, may be the best episode yet. Heck, if we’d have seen it back in the 1970s and 1980s with the original trilogy, we might have rated it even better than the films. When we reviewed Abrams Books’ last behind the scenes look at the Star Wars franchise in The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, we mentioned we were hoping that the publisher would get the rights for The Mandalorian series so we could get a close-up look at the costumes, props, and production art–and continue with a sixth volume of Abrams’ superb series of behind-the-scenes looks at the franchise. Well Star Wars fans are in luck. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now available for pre-order here at Amazon, and we have a preview for borg readers below.
At Disney’s annual “D23” Expo this weekend, attendees can expect to get another big fix of Disney, and that includes costumes. The costumes are from the more recent Disney years, with one display showcasing the new Mary Poppins Returns outfits, Time from Alice Through the Looking Glass, and Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa’s costumes from the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Another wing featured Disney’s recent animated-turned-live action movies, and another focused on the villainy of the live-action films, all within a gallery of dozens of costumes foreshadowing a new book coming next month, The Art of Disney Costuming: Heroes, Villains, and Spaces Between, available now for pre-order here at Amazon. Check out a 16-page preview of the new 176-page hardcover volume below.
The book isn’t about Star Wars costumes (for that, we recommend Brandon Alinger’sStar Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy, reviewed previously here at borg, and Trisha Biggar’s Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars, reviewed here). But that didn’t keep Disney and Lucasfilm from showcasing a dozen costumes of Star Wars armor tracing back a design history of Star Wars stormtroopers. Check those out below.
Lucasfilm also previewed the new hero cast costumes from The Mandalorian streaming series from Disney+ (previewed here yesterday). And note: Ewan McGregor confirmed he will be reprising the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in a forthcoming Disney+ series.
