The Mandalorian Took Surprising Scenes From Star Wars: A New Hope

The first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian came to an end in December, and it’s safe to say it’s one of the least divisive additions to the franchise in a long time. Fans seem to love the Disney+ series, especially considering the tone of the show is similar to that of the original trilogy. Well, according to a recent in-depth article from ICG Magazine about the show’s cinematography and technology, the series actually pulled footage from the original trilogy. The magazine spoke with ILM VFX supervisor Richard Bluff, who explained which surprising movie scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope made it into the show.

“For example, there’s a scene in episode five when Mando sees two Banthas off in the distance. I was adamant we shouldn’t build a fully animated and rigged furry Bantha for just two shots and suggested we pull out the plates from A New Hope‘s dailies. I knew I could come up with a shot design to leverage the Banthas from that,” Bluff revealed.

“When Mando flies toward Tatooine, we are actually seeing the [Ralph McQuarrie] matte painting seen early in the original film,” Bluff added. “We reused another painting of Mos Eisley for a fly-in; in that case, I sent a photographer out to the exact spot George [Lucas] shot his original plate, capturing high-res elements so we could up-res as necessary.”

While a few minor moments were pulled from the original films, the show’s biggest draw is obviously brand new, and that’s The Child, who has been affectionately nicknamed Baby Yoda. Recently, The Mandalorian‘s showrunner, Jon Favreau, spoke about the inspiration behind his show’s most popular character.

“I think what’s great about what George [Lucas] created is that Yoda proper, the character that we grew up watching, was always shrouded in mystery, and that was what made him so archetypal and so mythic. We know who he is based on his behavior and what he stands for, but we don’t know a lot of details about where he comes from or his species. I think that’s why people are so curious about this little one of the same species.”

The second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is expected to premiere in October. In addition to The Mandalorian, other upcoming Star Wars series will include a show that stars Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which is set to feature the return of Diego Luna as Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO.

The first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now available to stream on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.