Though The Mandalorian took a niche corner of Star Wars lore and brought it into the mainstream, it took some time for Mandalorian culture to get a true spotlight in live-action. For most of the series, lone wolf Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) was alone in representing the Mandalorian name. He and his young ward Grogu were a clan of two exploring a galaxy where the devastated Mandalorian race lived in permanent obscurity.
Season 2 changed that, however, with the addition of Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), a legacy character from The Clone Wars and Rebels. She made the world of The Mandalorian much bigger, as she and Din returned to the planet Mandalore and united disparate groups of Mandalorian warriors under one banner.
Season 3 featured a handful of Mandalorian tribes, each with their own subculture and aesthetic. It was an undeniable treat for fans, but The Mandalorian’s creative team had just as much fun designing the many new looks.
Behind-the-scenes docs like Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian have already given fans a taste of the creative process, but Lucasfilm will soon have more to share from its flagship series. The third season of The Mandalorian is getting a physical release on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, and one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes details what it takes to design over 60 new Mandalorian warriors. Check out an exclusive clip from “Forging the Covert: Part Three” below.
“Forging the Covert” spotlights costume designer Shawna Trpcic and props master Josh Roth, both instrumental in creating so many new Mandalorian looks. Per Trpcic, The Mandalorian Season 3 features three different warrior tribes: the covert “Tribe” led by the Armorer (Emily Swallow), Bo-Katan’s Nite Owls, and the Mandalorian clan hiding out below the surface of Mandalore.
“Creating 60 brand new Mandalorians from three different tribes was amazing,” Trpcic says. Such an assignment must have been daunting, but the costume department did have some source material to draw from. As the Nite Owls appear in The Clone Wars and Rebels, Trpcic and her team were able to study old designs. “It was very much inspired by animation,” she said of the new Nite Owls.
Roth describes Bo-Katan’s crew as a “well-funded” group of warriors, which allowed the props team to create sleeker, more powerful weapons for the team. Their equipment was a far cry from the pistols and rifles that the Mandalore Survivors used. “Their blasters were decrepit,” Roth says. “They’re still living on Mandalore ... so we wanted to make it feel like they’re just getting by.”
The brief for the Survivors was similar for the Coverts, who’d long been on the run from the Empire. Many of their weapons were also repurposed, and Trpcic worked closely with painters on the costume team to give their armor a “mish-mash” paint job. It’s clear that plenty of work went into the design of each Mandalorian tribe, and that work definitely shows up on-screen.
