Countdown to ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3: Revisiting ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Chapter 5 ‘Return of The Mandalorian’
As we start to gear up for the release of The Mandalorian season 3 on March 1, 2023, we’re taking a look back at each episode of the show and its spinoffs so far through the lens of concept art. This will be a weekly series of reviews until the premiere of season 3. 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 each episode, and we’ll link to them at the end.
Return of The Mandalorian was a fantastic episode of The Mandalorian, which is slightly odd considering it’s the fifth episode of The Book of Boba Fett as well. Some of you may remember that Boba Fett doesn’t make a single appearance in this episode, but the storytelling on display is still up there with some of the best episodes of The Mandalorian.
Chapter 5 reintroduces us to Din Djarin, who has returned to a life of bounty hunting since turning over Grogu to Luke Skywalker. His character seems to have regressed without having a little one to watch over, turning back to his shady profession. We see him kill a bunch of Klatooinian gangsters with the Darksaber, a weapon he is by no means proficient in yet. He lets the rest of the workers go, so we can rest easy that he’s still the good man we remember.
As Din makes his way to the client, we see an external shot of the cityscape, which thankfully was also drawn up in the concept art. Star Wars live-action hasn’t really given us too many space cities before, so this is a fairly novel concept for the franchise. It’s reminiscent of the ring world from Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, and while the episode never names this location, the Star Wars website tells us it is the Glavis Ringworld, a space station that encircles a small star and uses its solar energy to power itself.
It’s not quite a ring world, as the city only stretches to a semi-circle, but we won’t quibble on this. The concept art doesn’t quite get this across, but the cityscape we see in the episode is incredibly reminiscent of the Telos Citadel Station from the Knights of the Old Republic II video game, with its boxy cubed buildings organized in a compact layout. Considering Dave Filoni also made the planet Malachor canon in Star Wars Rebels and gives a BD droid its live-action debut later on in this episode, it suggests to me that he’s a big Star Wars gamer too.
Din delivers the head of his bounty to the client in a bar on the space station in exchange for information on where the local Mandalorian covert is hiding. The client gives him the information, and he quickly heads to the bowels of the station, discovering that the only remaining members of his old covert are The Armorer, who somehow survived the events of the season 1 finale and escaped Nevarro, and Paz Vizsla, who helped him escape that same planet with Grogu in Chapter 3.
Paz then heals Din’s wounds while The Armorer talks to him. It seems a strange moment to want to capture in concept art, but it does get across the dynamic that returning director Bryce Dallas Howard needed to capture during filming.
It should be mentioned that what we see of this part of the station in the concept art is almost identical to what we get in the show. It’s nice to see the art make that journey to live-action with minimal changes.
The Armorer initially welcomes Din back into the covert after learning that he completed his quest. She melts his beskar spear into some tiny beskar armor for Grogu, and they spar together on one of those infamous Star Wars catwalks with no safety railings. She berates Din for fighting against the blade, rather than being in sync with it. He complains that the blade is getting heavier, and it’s clear that he is struggling with it.
Paz Vizsla decides to seize his opportunity to reclaim the lost blade that was created by his house’s ancestor, Tarre Vizsla, and passed down to Pre Vizsla, who was presumably Paz’s father (this isn’t confirmed, so we can’t rule out uncle or grandfather either, or any other kind of family connection for that matter). Paz clearly feels the blade belongs with his clan, so he challenges Din to a duel.
Paz has the upper hand through most of the fight as Din is sluggish with the blade, and it’s not until Paz disarms him that Din turns things around. It seems Vizsla is no more suited to wield the blade than he is, and Din uses his speed to get the better of him. The Armorer quickly calls the fight to an end before Din can kill him, though it seems he was reluctant to do so anyway.
She then asks Din if he has ever removed his helmet, and he answers yes. She immediately exiles him from the covert, saying that the only way to redeem himself is to atone for his sins in the mines of Mandalore. Din remarks that the mines were destroyed in the Night of a Thousand Tears, but The Armorer doesn’t seem to care.
As an aside, it’s a shame that there’s no released concept art of the Night of a Thousand Tears flashback, as the imagery of dozens of TIE bombers raining explosives down on Mandalore’s capital city is striking, as is the other shot of KX droids searching the burning rubble for any survivors. The latter shot in particular is reminiscent of the apocalyptic future from Terminator, and it would have been interesting to see that drawn up in concept art.
Din leaves the covert intent on clearing his name, and boards a transport to Tatooine. It’s there that he visits his friend Peli Motto, intending to purchase a new ship to replace the Razor Crest.
It’s notable that Peli Motto looks a lot more like Amy Sedaris in the concept art now, compared to the first concept art of her introduction in Chapter 5 of The Mandalorian. Her BD unit is perched behind her shoulder, just like BD-1 does with Cal Kestis in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video game, where it debuted. Again, Dave Filoni must be very familiar with the Star Wars video games. Sadly though, this shot of the BD unit on her shoulder is never replicated in the show. Presumably, it was too technically complicated for such a small moment.
We also get some concept art of the womp rat — surrounded by Peli Motto’s pit droids and R5 — with the BD unit in its jaws. The rat seems even bigger here than it does in the show, though admittedly we never get a good look at the creature in the final product. It mostly stays hidden behind some crates until Din shoots it dead.
Peli shows Din an unfinished Naboo starfighter, and after some reluctance, he helps her prepare it. The concept art of him lying underneath the fighter with BD providing a light source is translated well in the show, though the BD unit is slightly less reliable and gets easily distracted.
Once completed, Din takes the Naboo starfighter out for a test drive. He first flies it across the desert, even visiting Beggar’s Canyon in what is a nice nod to The Phantom Menace, letting us see the old podracing circuit again. Never underestimate Tatooine’s ability to deliver more Star Wars nostalgia.
He then takes the ship into space, flying next to the transport ship that took him to the planet, and giving a nod to the Rodian child who interacted with him on the flight over. It’s a nice touch, although the concept art here suggests that the child wasn’t necessarily a Rodian when it was initially envisioned.
The child in the concept art looks human, and I’m not sure the Rodian is playing with a toy X-Wing in the finished episode either. Interestingly, the transport ship interior is drawn more like a cartoon than the other pieces of concept art. Perhaps that’s because there’s a bit more detail required of the ship interior than of other indoor and outdoor environments.
Finally, Fennec Shand drops by at the very end of the episode to hire Din on behalf of Boba Fett. It’s the only link this episode has to the rest of The Book of Boba Fett, and Chapter 5 ends when Din says he has to visit Grogu first. The concept art here looks almost cell-shaded, with thin grey lines visible on the edges of the pit droids, the starfighter, and some other random objects around the hangar bay. It’s an interesting deviation that’s unlike most of the other concept art we’ve seen from The Mandalorian.
You can find our original review of The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5 right here.
Our “Countdown to The Mandalorian Season 3” continues next week, when we’ll be revisiting ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Chapter 6!
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
