‘The Mandalorian’ Fans Hope Better Special Effects Can Fix the Season 2 Finale Someday
Star Wars is without a doubt one of the most lucrative franchises of all time. When Disney acquired the rights from George Lucas, they began expanding the franchise. One of the most popular spin-offs is The Mandalorian. The show takes place after Jango and Bobafette, two well-known bounty hunters from the original movies.
With the addition of one completely adorable character known at first as only The Child and then later given the name Grogu (who also happens to be the same species as Yoda), the series has become a sensation and fans are chomping at the bit for the next season. However, some fans were disappointed with the last episode of season 2.
Fans take to Reddit to discuss concerns
One fan on Reddit took note of some subpar digital effects used for the scene. According to the Reddit user The_Color_Urple, “I really hope they redo these effects 10 years from now. This moment could be so impactful with some better tech.”
This is in reference to the final scene that shows a much younger Mark Hamill reprising his role as Luke Skywalker. Some felt the effects could have been cleaner. In fact, one Deep Fake video, when compared side by side with the original, is considerably better than the effects supplied by Disney, which undoubtedly cost much more.
How the scene was shot
The scene actually included actor Mark Hamill in costume reprising his role as Luke Skywalker. However, de-aging software was used to make him appear young in the scene. Some scenes were also shot with lookalike Max Lloyd-Jones. Fans have argued that with the budget that the show has, better effects could have been used for the scene.
And let’s face it, that scene was epic. No one was expecting to see Luke Skywalker show up. With such an important and poignant scene, one would think the creators could have done with a few less murderous droids to make room in the budget for better effects. Luke deserved better, and so did we.
Human faces are hard to recreate realistically, but the CGI version of Luke we got when juxtaposed with real human emotive faces made it hard to look at. Hopefully, in the future, we will get another official version of this scene that is much more convincing as CGI software improves.
What’s next for The Mandalorian
There is no release date for season 3 as of the date of this writing. In fact, filming hadn’t even begun. However, a new spinoff, The Book of Boba Fett, will be airing sometime around Christmas. Disney has committed to finishing another Star Wars spinoff Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi before they begin work on The Mandalorian season 3. Filming on The Book of Boba Fett wrapped on June 8, 2021, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is currently finishing up production.
The newest series starring Ewan McGregor, who reprises his role as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, is set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith. The Mandalorian season 3 won’t start filming until after this show has finished filming, so it could be as late as early 2022 before it even starts.
For now, fans will have to be content with the image of a young, lackluster Luke Skywalker who sweeps in to take Grogu away to begin his Jedi training. Hopefully, the series will see an updated version such as what we saw in earlier Star Wars movies, such as the improvements and added scenes we saw in A New Hope where a deleted scene was added back into the original with CGI technology that wasn’t available when it was originally released.
