Countdown to ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3: Revisiting Chapter 6 “The Prisoner”
As we start to gear up for the release of The Mandalorian season 3 in February 2023, we’re taking a look back at each episode of the show so far through the lens of concept art. This will be a weekly series of reviews taking place each Thursday until the premiere of season 3 next year. You may find our previous entries in this series here.
While we will be revisiting all of the artwork displayed in the episode’s credits, bear in mind that this is not a fully conceptualized review of the episode. We still have those from when each episode came out, and will link to them at the end.
To this day, The Prisoner remains one of my favorite hours of live-action Star Wars television. Rick Famuyiwa returns to the director’s chair after helming Chapter 2 to craft a tense thrill ride as Mando navigates a mission with a team of mercenaries. I’m that weird guy who generally doesn’t like Star Wars underworld stuff, but Famuyiwa made me a believer. This chapter also marks the final “filler” episode before picking things back up on Nevarro.
Looking back, season 1 spent several episodes laying the chess pieces that would later matter between The Mandalorian and beyond. The big one in this go-round is its direct introduction of the New Republic. While small here and throughout the show, their inclusion is welcomed as a means to fill this section of the galaxy. Bill Burr’s Mayfeld also remains funny to now recognize as a probable recurring character, given the comedian-based antics he pulled prior to joining Star Wars. All water under the bridge at this point.
The first piece of concept art is the calm before the storm. There always seems to be at least one hyper-realistic piece that leaves you wondering if it was pulled straight from the movies. The detail on the space station itself is exquisite. However, the episode opens with the Razor Crest landing inside the station, which still feels a bit jarring to me. Storytelling 101 says you typically want to establish where you are at before jumping into things.
If you look down near the bottom, you can spot a classic X-Wing — which are not seen until the end of the episode, when Mando is free and clear of the space station. Perhaps the point of just starting inside the station was a way to hide the New Republic’s involvement if the idea was to just have them on patrol.
The next piece starts us off with the episode. Mando enters the hangar bay, which essentially is just a sweat shop. I love the contrast in the concept art between the sparks of those hard at work and the cold (yet free excess) of space. We then meet Ran, an old acquaintance who details the job he needs Mando and the Razor Crest for.
The job? Infiltrate a New Republic prison ship to break someone out with this motley crew of mercenaries seen in the art which spearheads the article. We meet Mayfeld, who introduces us to the droid Zero, the Devaronian known as Burg, and Xi’an, a Twi’lek who happens to be another former acquaintance of Mando. There isn’t a whole lot to break down with this piece, but it is funny seeing Clancy Brown’s face on Burg before they finished the final look of the character and buried the veteran Star Wars voice actor in prosthetics.
The voyage to the prison ship is laced with an early dose of tension as everyone tries to figure out one another. Meanwhile, Grogu remains hidden but eventually is revealed when a fight breaks out after Burg tries to rip Mando’s helmet off. Before Mayfeld can pry too deeply into the identity of the stowaway, Zero pulls the Razor Crest out of hyperspace without warning and docks.
Mayfeld is tasked with making sure the coast is clear. Conceptually, the ship had a red tint, while in the episode the place is as nice and shiny as it can be. In fact, between the pieces above and below this paragraph, it’s interesting to see the interior looking the kind of bleak and dire you would expect from a prison transport, but only for the real thing to be like any other official government transport. Of course, that red tint would end up being used in a different way, so the idea wasn’t lost.
The mission commences, but the team is quickly caught after Burg destroys a mouse droid. A legion of sentry droids comes down upon them and backs everyone into a corner. Mayfeld calls upon Mando to do what he was brought here to do. Our hero answers the call, taking out all the droids by himself, no thanks to Mayfeld and the others, who were content to let Mando sacrifice himself if it meant they could get his share of the payday.
The team then would come across the ship’s other security droid force. Weirdly enough, between these guys and the sentry droids, it feels like the prison doesn’t have a whole lot of said security. In the Aftermath trilogy, Mon Mothma worked to demilitarize the New Republic once she took over. Perhaps that played into leaving a small force of droids to look after this group of prisoners as they went to their destination.
Whether that’s head canon talking or not, it doesn’t appear the prisoners would have had much success breaking out by themselves in the first place. In the concept art above, you can see a couple little hands poking out in desperation. Inside StarWars.com‘s trivia gallery for this episode, it was stated concept supervisor Christian Alzmann had those classic spaghetti western train robberies in mind when designing the ship, with its cell doors acting like a bank vault. It was going to take something special to break into those bad boys.
Despite a tense confrontation with a Matt Lanter (The Clone Wars) cameo as a New Republic prison guard standing in their way, the team reaches their goal. They set free Qin, Xi’an’s brother. The concept art of Qin definitely makes him appear a lot older, with a more Thanos-esque (from Marvel fame) jawline. However, in the show it was his two forehead lumps, similar to Bib Fortuna’s, that were his most defining feature.
After being alerted earlier via a tracking beacon, the New Republic is now on its way. With the clock ticking, Mando is betrayed and thrown into Qin’s cell, with the seemingly unbreakable door trapping him in.
Well, it doesn’t take long before Mando escapes. In the concept art above, a sentry droid opens the door to find Mando inside, so you can envision the initial idea being the droid confronting a prisoner who doesn’t belong. In the episode itself, we’ve already seen Mando take out several, so that might not be too interesting. Instead, Mando decides to take one by surprise and rip its arm off through the door, using it to get out.
From the concept above to screen, the basic idea definitely translated even if some of the species seen in the art didn’t make the cut. It’s Mando versus everyone, and he goes full slasher villain. After shutting the primary lights off and creating the stark visual of the ship bathed in red, Mando continues to make life hard for Mayfeld and company. He engineers the blast doors to close all around the station, cutting his prey off from one another.
Looking at the art and how it all played out on screen, Famuyiwa made this episode — and especially this sequence — his own, and it remains an utter joy to see. After a quick showdown with Burg, Mando takes out Xi’an. And for good measure, Famuyiwa uses the horror trope of a ghost using the flashing lights to disappear, only to reappear a moment later upon an unsuspecting Mayfeld.
The mission is a success. The Razor Crest returns, and Mando gets the money for the job for returning Qin. However, Ran orders Mando killed after leaving the hangar bay. Out comes a gunner as detailed in the concept art above. Quick aside to just say again that it’s wild to see the level of detail some of these concept artists went to, even if the actual episode uses it just for a moment.
However, Mando is no fool. Planting the tracking beacon on Qin, the New Republic arrives, and it’s here we get some fun cameos. The team of Trapper Wolf, Sash Ketter, and Jib Dodger — more commonly known as Dave Filoni, Deborah Chow, and Rick Famuyiwa — cripple the space station and put a halt to Ran’s operation.
The episode ends with a cutback to the prison ship and the reveal that Mando killed nobody, instead trapping them in a cell together. How did Mando get all of them into the cell and then get out in time before the New Republic came? Did more sentry droids wake up and clean up the mess? We’ll never know. All that matters now is that Mando and Grogu got a boost to their morale as they head into the next crucial part of their journey.
If you are interested, you can find our original review of Chapter 6 of The Mandalorian, from December 2019, right here.
Our “Countdown to The Mandalorian Season 3” series will continue next week, when we’ll be revisiting Chapter 7. Stay tuned!
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
