One of the most memorable new elements introduced in the Disney+ live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian is undeniably bounty hunter Din Djarin’s ship the Razor Crest. With its unique design and featured role in the show, this spaceship is sure to go down in Star Wars history as one of the franchise’s most instantly recognizable vehicles. Heck, it even already has its own excellent LEGO set.
Today on the YouTube channel for Lucasfilm’s in-house visual effects department Industrial Light & Magic, the technical wizards who made the Razor Crest a reality on The Mandalorian took a 17-minute deep-dive into how the ship was created, from conceptualization to execution, in which they combined CGI effects with an actual, physical miniature built by the incredibly talented ILM team.
Watch Inside ILM: Creating the Razor Crest:
What’s happening:
- Industrial Light & Magic (AKA ILM) has released a behind-the-scenes featurette on its YouTube channel about how they created the new ship the Razor Crest for the Disney+ live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
- Series creator and showrunner Jon Favreau revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago that ILM had built a miniature Razor Crest to use in some shots of the show, a process the company hadn’t utilized for a number of years due to the advent of digital rendering technology. This video explores that process more thoroughly.
What they’re saying:
- The Mandalorian design supervisor Doug Chiang: “Jon Favreau was adamant that this felt like old-school Star Wars. Everybody was all-hands-on-deck. We were just trying to create the most incredible imagery on-screen as possible.”
- The Mandalorian animation supervisor Hal Hickel: “It’s fun to continue to dig into those old films and learn stuff about them you never knew before. It also speaks to one of the things I love about Industrial Light & Magic, which is the history of this place.”
- The Mandalorian visual effects supervisor Richard Bluff: “The collaboration was exceptional, and the team was exceptional. And that’s [why] I enjoy working with Jon and Doug and everybody else– the freedom you’re given to be creative, to know that we are really just all playing with Star Wars toys like we’re kids again.”
The Mandalorian returns for its second season on Friday, October 30 exclusively on Disney+.