6 The Mandalorian and Grogu design reveals that quietly explain the movie’s Star Wars magic

A Lucasfilm panel at LightBox Expo pulled back the curtain on The Mandalorian and Grogu in a way that went far beyond simple concept art. Across ships, creatures, city streets and battered armor, the artists described a movie built on a very Star Wars balance: familiar reality with just enough weirdness to make it feel new.

1. Grogu’s tiny Anzellan ship was designed to get a laugh, then proved surprisingly real on set

One of the most unexpected designs shown was the little ship Grogu squeezes into, built for the Anzellans and almost too small even for him. Concept artist Benjamin Last said the assignment stood out right away because the craft’s main purpose was comic relief inside an otherwise serious scene.

That created a different kind of Star Wars challenge. Instead of making something grand or sleek, Last had to find a level of detail that still felt right for the galaxy while working at a much smaller scale. He was developing the outside and inside together, aiming less for coolness than for something that would make audiences smile.

John Romulo, who moderated the panel, noted that the art department visited the set and saw the ship in person. Last said he was surprised by how much had been built practically, including complete interiors with functioning screens. He also said the design really locked into place around one early image of Grogu in the cockpit, which became the picture that sold the idea. Fans may already have seen the vehicle at the Lucasfilm booth at San Diego Comic-Con or D23.

2. A new city called Shikari became so big its artist had to switch tools in the middle of the job

If the Anzellan ship was tiny by design, Shikari pushed in the opposite direction. Jama Jurabaev described it as a sprawling city and said he started the work in Blender before realizing the scale of the buildings was more than the software could comfortably handle for what he needed.

He made the risky decision to move the project into Unreal Engine, even though he did not consider himself an expert with it. One of the hardest problems turned out to be something simple to describe and difficult to solve: windows. Rather than create interiors behind an enormous number of them, he wanted frosted glass, which would also help when production built the set. Because Unreal did not have a frosted glass material ready for that purpose, he wrote his own shader.

Jurabaev said that sort of technical improvisation comes with working on a film this ambitious. Once the city existed as an environment, he could place a camera inside it and search for useful angles, then pass pieces to teammates when the work went beyond his own strengths.

3. Shikari’s crime world leans into a 1930s Chicago mood, right down to a villain’s pet

Christian Alzmann expanded on Shikari by explaining that the location draws heavily from a 1930s Chicago gangster aesthetic. Its crime boss, Goin, even has a small pet meant as a nod to the classic image of a villain calmly holding a white cat.

For Alzmann, a Star Wars creature should communicate personality immediately. He connected that approach to creature work from the early 1980s, including The Dark Crystal, the Muppets and Return of the Jedi. In this case, he wanted viewers to take one look and understand that the animal was, in his words, a “little SOB.”

The finished creature combines an on-set puppet with CG. Alzmann also has a quote in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, due out November 3, where he says he knows a creature design is working when it makes him smile or giggle. He said this one passed that test, and he acknowledged that it carries a bit of a Salacious Crumb feel.

4. The movie’s background aliens follow one simple rule: keep them grounded, then twist the silhouette

Brian Matyas focused on the people filling out Shikari’s streets, using the environment and creature language already established by Jurabaev and Alzmann. His task was to create fast silhouette studies for aliens who might only cross the frame briefly, while still making sure they could actually be built.

That practicality shapes the costumes. Matyas said the designs often begin with recognizable clothing such as trench coats and business wear, then alter the upper half of the figure just enough to tip it into something alien. He tied that approach to a principle associated with Lucasfilm design head Doug Chiang: Star Wars should feel 80 percent real and 20 percent fantastical.

Matyas said that same philosophy applies to weapons as well. He pointed to the original trilogy’s habit of taking World War II and Vietnam-era firearms and changing them with scopes and added mechanical detail. In his view, that narrow gap between real and unreal is where the style comes alive.

5. Imperial Remnant Snowtroopers are not pristine anymore, and that changes everything

Matyas also worked on the Imperial Remnant Snowtroopers, and his description makes them sound far removed from the polished look of the old Empire. Because the story is set roughly five years after the Empire’s fall, he said these troopers should show wear and patina rather than spotless armor.

His version is dingy, a little smelly and marked by personal use. The key idea is that no Imperial officer is standing over them insisting on perfect presentation anymore.

Matyas, who described himself as a cosplay fan, said he brings a fabrication mindset to design work and always thinks about cost. Here, the changes came mostly through paint, costume adjustments, extra accessories and modified blasters, rather than a complete rebuild. The result pushes the Snowtroopers toward a scrappier, Vietnam-era edge without abandoning what makes them recognizable.

6. Even dejarik got reimagined on a much larger scale, including an arena built like ancient Rome meets smoky fight night

One of the panel’s most intriguing ideas involved the dejarik creatures, the holochess pieces first seen on the Millennium Falcon. The art department has to adapt designs from animation for live action, and that means turning iconic shapes into forms that obey real-world anatomy and engineering.

With the dejarik monsters, that challenge was especially dramatic. The original Phil Tippett versions were tiny stop-motion puppets, barely the size of a hand. For this film, the team had to imagine them as believable living creatures, with some reaching as much as eight feet tall, while preserving the silhouettes that made them instantly recognizable.

Alzmann also designed the arena where they fight in Shikari. The idea behind the brief was that the Falcon’s dejarik table was based on an actual sport. He began with that game board, looked at the Colosseum, and then folded in the smoky interiors of 1930s boxing matches to keep the city’s gangster influence intact. It is a very Star Wars kind of leap: a familiar detail from the saga’s past, expanded into an entire world with its own spectacle.