The Mandalorian Production Designer and Lucasfilm’s Vice President and Executive Creative Director Doug Chiang will present an in-depth talk about designing the characters, spaceships, and worlds for Star Wars’ first live action series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. He will share his design process and showcase rare artwork to offer insight into the Lucasfilm Art Department’s creative process. He will reveal the challenges they faced in developing memorable new characters like Grogu and the Mandalorian. Attendees will also have the chance to ask Doug their own questions.

Panel Recap

Doug Chiang: Designing THE MANDALORIAN gave fans a focused look at the visual development process behind The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Chiang, Lucasfilm’s Vice President and Executive Creative Director and production designer for The Mandalorian, presented rare artwork from the Lucasfilm Art Department and explained how the team developed characters, ships, creatures, vehicles, and worlds for Star Wars’s first live-action series.

The panel explored how The Mandalorian’s design language balanced the familiar and the new. Chiang described the goal of blending the visual legacy of the original trilogy with design approaches developed during the prequel era. He also discussed the influence of Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston’s original trilogy work, along with the way Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni contributed quick sketches and ideas that helped guide the art department.

Chiang discussed the design of Din Djarin, including the challenge of making him clearly Mandalorian without confusing him visually with Boba Fett. He also covered the Razor Crest, which was designed quickly but refined over a longer period, with practical production needs such as the boarding ramp shaping the final ship design.

Grogu was a major focus of the panel. Chiang explained that simply shrinking Yoda was not enough to make the character work. The design team revised Grogu many times, with the eyes proving especially important. Under Jon Favreau’s “ugly cute” direction, the team drew inspiration from dogs, giving Grogu large pupils with only a little white at the sides to help make the character appealing.

The panel also covered designs from The Mandalorian Season 2 and The Book of Boba Fett. Chiang discussed how the Eadu base from Rogue One helped inspire Moff Gideon’s base on Nevarro, how the Juggernaut design evolved into a land-train vehicle, and how the Krayt Dragon was designed even though the full creature was not shown onscreen. He also discussed unused and repurposed ideas, including a scrapped kaiju-spider concept and design connections to the rancor sequence and Scorpenek droid in The Book of Boba Fett.