Star Wars: The Mandalorian Turned to the 501st Legion When They Needed More Stormtroopers

Star Wars: The Mandalorian ended its first season with a thrilling final. Episode 8 saw Mando (Pedro Pascal) and his rag-tag team of bounty hunter cohorts (Gina Carano’s Cara Dune and Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga) in a desperate standoff against the forces of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), with the fate of Baby Yoda hanging in the balance. As Star Wars fans learned first hand, the final standoff on Planet Nevarro was the biggest action setpiece The Mandalorian delivered, and pulling it off was no small feat. In fact, the showrunners of The Mandalorian found themselves short-staffed when it came shooting the Standoff on Nevarro sequence – so some dedicated Star Wars fans got the opportunity of a lifetime!

Check out what happened when Star Wars cosplay group the 501st Legion got a chance to appear in The Mandalorian finale episode:

“So fun fact: for episodes 7-8 of #TheMandalorian, they didn’t have enough costumes for all of the Storm Troopers needed in a scene. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni enlisted the help of a local 501st Legion chapter, comprised of fans with their own costumes, to fill in those spots” —@TweetinJoshBe

If you are unfamiliar, the 501st Legion is a global Star Wars fan group that was first started by Albin Johnson. The group has gained notoriety due to the fact that members put almost slavish effort into creating film-worthy Star Wars Imperial Trooper cosplay. The group has expanded to include any Star Wars villain cosplay, whether it’s the Stormtroopers, Sith Lords, bounty hunters, or other villain characters from official canon or Expanded Universe. The organization’s name is an ode to the elite Imperial trooper legion known as “Vader’s Fist,” that served under Darth Vader’s command during the Imperial Era.

Needless to say, this local 501st Legion chapter getting the chance to appear in The Mandalorian is pretty much the dream of any cosplayer out there. It’s nice to see such dedicated fandom rewarded positively – and those 501st Legion extras did their job well – the showdown on Nevarro was truly one of the crowning achievements of The Mandalorian’s first season.

The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now in theaters.