The Mandalorian hid Luke Skywalker’s cameo creating an alternate ending

On Disney Plus‘New single episode of the Making-of series Disney Gallery, The mandalorian Producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, along with director Peyton Reed and top Industrial Light and Magic artists, sit down to select the most talked about moment of December 2020: the return of that jedi.

In the final moments of The mandalorian In the season 2 finale, a Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy is revealed under a cloak and young Grogu is taken away for some proper Force training. Through a combination of anti-aging effects, Deep Fake technology, and Mark Hamill’s own performance, the ILM team revived a version of Luke that no one imagined he would see again. They were also able to keep it a secret.

“‘Luke Skywalker’ … we were never allowed to say it,” admits visual effects supervisor Richard Bluff in the microdocument. “Even now, when we talk about what we did, we talk about the code names.”

Image: Lucasfilm

While most of the 40-minute special focuses on the ins and outs of how Mandalorian The team pulled off their noble trick, literally Favreau diverges in a mini-lecture on how Deep Fake works, there’s a notable section dedicated to keeping Luke’s cameo a secret that says a lot about Lucasfilm’s philosophy on spoiler prevention. Bringing young Luke to life wasn’t the only goal. To really have the impact the filmmakers envisioned, no fan in the galaxy was able to perceive the plan.

“Everyone knew Rosario [Dawson] it was going to be Ahsoka, everyone knew that Temuera Morrison was Boba, ”says Favreau in an unexpectedly downtrodden tone. “Leaks arise and you just want to get the ship back to port.”

Seal Team 6’s operations sound less complicated than putting Luke Skywalker in an episode of The mandalorian. To start, Favreau and Reed went personally to Hamill’s house in Los Angeles to hand him the script and show him the Grogu doll, as a little chemistry test. With your approval, a select number of ILM artists and Mandalorian The crew members were aware of the development process, which involved both assembling assets for the digital doppelgänger and creating fake assets that would throw would-be leakers out of the way. Filoni says that his public love for the prequel-era Jedi Plo Koon became the obvious substitute for all the development materials. In fact, it’s Plo Koon’s name that appeared in the ending scripts, and various pieces of concept art and visual effects elements were created just to create confusion. Now that is a huge fake!

Image: Lucasfilm

“All it takes is one person to color-correct the film, one person to go on social media and say ‘guess what I saw today,'” Hamill says in the document.

Lucasfilm prevented leaks by blocking every inch of the set. The Hamill scenes were shot with basic equipment, when most of the main unit was in place for Robert Rodriguez’s Boba Fett episode. To build Deep Fake, ILM basically locked artist Landis Fields in a room to process thousands of images, 4K Star Wars footage, and old interviews. But even after the final versions of the character were shelved and the episode closed, anxiety continued to bubble through Lucasfilm; Bluff says “every day before the episode aired, people were googling The mandalorian”To check for leaks.

In addition to all the production details, Disney Gallery It gives Favreau a chance to reflect on the technology of it all. While the showrunner seems visibly upset about the leaks, he seems downright terrified of what could happen with the Deep Fake technology. In an extended digression, Favreau compares Lucasfilm and ILM Mandalorian Mickey’s cameo success in the segment “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Fantasy – Yes, they conjured magic, but one can imagine how everything could go horribly wrong in the future. Favreau has some great ideas on blockchain video image verification, and wow yeah, it’s as smart as creating a full Plo Koon Cut of The mandalorian. Lasted.

One thing the Disney Gallery episode doesn’t make clear is that the future of The mandalorian it’s hazy. The show will not return for a third season in 2021, with the miniseries Boba Fett’s book he hopes that he will take his place this December. And when The mandalorian come back, it might seem like a completely different show; Favreau refers to the ending as the end of a “two-season arc” about Grogu, and with other shows like Obi Wan, Andor, and Command spin-off New Republic Rangers and Ahsoka In the works, the OG Disney Plus Star Wars series feels less and less central to the company’s strategy. In theory, The mandalorian It will return in 2022, but Lucasfilm loves to keep secrets and leave surprises.

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