R2-D2 appeared alongside Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in The Mandalorian season 2 finale, and the episode actually re-used footage from Return of the Jedi in bringing him back. Luke's return in The Mandalorian was a chance to see the Jedi in his prime, as he came to take Grogu away for training. It was only fitting, then, that Artoo was along for the journey with his master, and it provided an opportunity to show the astromech droid after the events of Return of the Jedi as well.
It was the appearance of Luke that understandably commanded attention, for more than one reason. Not only was this one of the biggest Star Wars characters of all time coming into the Disney+ show, but also a major development for the story of Grogu, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), and The Mandalorian as a whole. On top of that, there was also the amount of digital tricky required to bring Luke back, with Hamill coming back but stand-in Max Lloyd-Jones also being used for the de-aging process.
It wasn't just with Hamill's return as Luke, though, where there was some intriguing techniques used for the footage. In Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian season 2, episode 2, "Making of Season 2 Finale," Trent Claus, who is part of the VFX team on the show, explains how they brought R2-D2 to life and used part of Return of the Jedi to do so, saying: "In post, we re-animated his little lights. That was a lot of fun actually. For his lens that's right in front and moves around, and kind of gives you an indication of his mood and what he's thinking, we took an animation directly from Return of the Jedi and re-animated it for the scene and got to put it in there. So we got to use some Return of the Jedi directly on Artoo."
The Return of the Jedi scene in question is when Artoo and Threepio are outside Jabba's Palace, being inspected by the eyeball-esque gatekeeper droid, with his lens changes colors a couple of times. That was then repeated for when R2-D2 met Grogu in The Mandalorian season 2 finale. This no doubt made it easy for the animation rather than creating something brand new, but it also meant the spirit of the original trilogy was retained with R2-D2's appearance. In the doc, executive producer Dave Filoni says he wanted the scene to be similar to Artoo meeting Wicket the Ewok, and that does come across and explains why they used part of that same movie for the scene.
It was clearly important when bringing back Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 to capture the essence of Return of the Jedi and stay true to that movie, since it's what The Mandalorian is building upon. That was very much the case in the design of Luke, who has the same outfit and largely the same appearance, as well as advancing his powers in a way that feels in keeping with his progression. But R2-D2 is just as important, with Jon Favreau getting emotional at using the character in his show, and while it might've been easier to spend a bit less time on him since he's a droid, it's great they put the same level of care in.
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August 26, 2021 at 12:13AM
