'The Mandalorian' And Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Art Books Teased By Lucasfilm Publishing [NYCC 2020]

When it comes to upcoming Star Wars books, there's a lot of interest in the publishing initiative known as The High Republic. But since new details on that upcoming roster of stories set 200 years before the Skywalker saga arrived yesterday, today's Lucasfilm Publishing panel from New York Comic-Con focused on some of the other upcoming books from a galaxy far, far away. The two we're most excited to see are The Art of The Mandalorian (Season One) and The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and a little peak at each of them was teased by writers Phil Szostak and Amy Ratcliffe respectively.

During the Lucasfilm Publishing panel, This Week In Star Wars host Kristin Baver asked Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak to pinpoint one piece of concept art that encapsulates the entire series. That sounds like a difficult task, but Szostak, and he picked the piece that you see above by Christian Alzmann, which wasn't included in the credits of the episode where the scene comes from.

The art in question shows the titular character himself, Din Djarin, as a child being rescued by a Mandalorian. Szostak said:

"We're seeing the back of a Mandalorian, Din Djarin as a child, his face, over the shoulder of that Mandalorian who's rescuing him. You can see the fire all around them. The city wherever Din Djarin is from is burning. Battle droids have just come through. And he's got tears in his eyes. It's just a really emotional piece. And I think it encapsulates the show because it shows Din Djarin, when he was young, needed to be rescued in the same way that The Child does in the present day."

Szostak saw the piece as being so integral to defining the first season that he gave it a two-page spread. And it's just one of several great pieces of art collected in this book. In fact, this book might end up being even more packed with concept art than the usual Star Wars movie art books because the first season of The Mandalorian has roughly five and a half hours of Star Wars to cover. You can pre-order The Art of The Mandalorian (Season One) right now, and it arrives in December.

Speaking of five and a half hours, that's how long you might have to wait to ride the attractions at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. But since you're probably not going to be heading back to theme parks anytime soon, the upcoming book The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (available for pre-order) might be as close as you get to Batuu for while. Thankfully, the book by Amy Ratcliffe will take a deep dive into the making of the theme park expansion, and it's kind of incredible just how much thought went into the smallest details.

Ratcliffe explained one of the things that fascinated her the most while working on the book was just how much art was generated for the theme park. Doug Chiang, vice president and executive creative director of Lucasfilm, said the amount of concept art created for Galaxy's Edge was the equivalent of the concept art created for three feature films. That art doesn't usually get released to the public, but you'll be able to see a bunch of it in this book. Ratcliffe added:

"The things that surprised me and that I just ate up were is learning – of course, they have the market, and they're walls there, and they want Black Spire Outpost to reflect thousands of years of history. So when they construct a wall, it's not just, 'Hey, let's make it look weathered and cool.' [They're thinking] what if this has been damaged at some point and rebuilt. What if, maybe, a vendor moved their cart too close and it crumbled? What if it rained? What if pack animals have gone by here and their fur has left oils on this corner where they turn? How would that look? It's that, but for everything in the land, from the spires to the toilets."

Sounds like we'll get to learn a lot more about the meticulous creation of this theme park when the book arrives towards the end of April next year.