A Brief History of Star Wars’ Mandalorian Warriors
Disney is expected to release its first public trailer for its upcoming Star War TV series, The Mandalorian later today. The live-action series, set to debut on November 12th on Disney+, will take place a couple of years after Return of the Jedi, and will follow a “long gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.” That lone gunfighter strikes a familiar profile for fans of the franchise: the Mandalorians were famed as warriors and bounty hunters, and have particularly attracted a devoted fan base of readers and costumers.
The Star Wars Trilogy (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)
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The Star Wars Trilogy (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)
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The Mandalorians are a long-standing fixture of the Star Wars universe. When The Empire Strikes Back introduced Boba Fett in April 1980, Donald F. Gult described him in the novelization as a figure “dressed in a weapon-covered, armored spacesuit, the kind worn by a group of evil warriors defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars.” Lucas wanted another villain for the sequel, noting that Darth Vader had originally been conceived as a sort of intergalactic bounty hunter, before he became the evil dark lord seen in the films. “The Boba Fett character is really an early version of Darth Vader,” he says in J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, “He is also very much like the man-with-no-name from the Sergio Leone westerns.”
The Mandalorians are a long-standing fixture of the Star Wars universe. When The Empire Strikes Back introduced Boba Fett in April 1980, Donald F. Gult described him in the novelization as a figure “dressed in a weapon-covered, armored spacesuit, the kind worn by a group of evil warriors defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars.” Lucas wanted another villain for the sequel, noting that Darth Vader had originally been conceived as a sort of intergalactic bounty hunter, before he became the evil dark lord seen in the films. “The Boba Fett character is really an early version of Darth Vader,” he says in J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, “He is also very much like the man-with-no-name from the Sergio Leone westerns.”
The character’s design went through a number of changes during the film’s preproduction, according to artist Joe Johnson. “Boba Fett was part of a force we called supertroopers; they were like these high-tech fighting units and they all looked alike. That eventually evolved into a single bounty hunter.” An early version of Fett appeared in 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special, and debuted in his present form two years later, in The Empire Strikes Back, played by actor Jeremy Bulloch. Fett also appeared in The Return of the Jedi, only to quickly face an unceremonious end.
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Star Wars Tales of the Bounty Hunters
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The character, anonymous behind his mask and array of weapons, radiates danger and suspense. He was mysterious, and more importantly, cool. As the Star Wars Expanded Universe grew in the 1990s, various authors found ways to delve into his backstory, spinning out tales of his work as a bounty hunter. He appeared in Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire, the novel that bridged The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as well as in a pair of short stories in Kevin J. Anderson’s Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace anthologies. When A.C. Crispin explored the origins of Han Solo in her trilogy about the character, Fett was naturally part of the criminal underworld that shaped Han solo. And in 1997, K.W. Jeter featured the character in his Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, set in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi. As Star Wars costuming grew in popularity, Boba Fett became a popular costume for cosplayers — including Jeremy Bullock, who became a member of the 501st Legion, attending conventions and events dressed as his character.
The character, anonymous behind his mask and array of weapons, radiates danger and suspense. He was mysterious, and more importantly, cool. As the Star Wars Expanded Universe grew in the 1990s, various authors found ways to delve into his backstory, spinning out tales of his work as a bounty hunter. He appeared in Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire, the novel that bridged The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as well as in a pair of short stories in Kevin J. Anderson’s Tales of the Bounty Hunters and Tales from Jabba’s Palace anthologies. When A.C. Crispin explored the origins of Han Solo in her trilogy about the character, Fett was naturally part of the criminal underworld that shaped Han solo. And in 1997, K.W. Jeter featured the character in his Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, set in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi. As Star Wars costuming grew in popularity, Boba Fett became a popular costume for cosplayers — including Jeremy Bullock, who became a member of the 501st Legion, attending conventions and events dressed as his character.
Along the way, other authors had begun to delve into the culture that Boba Fett emerged from. During Marvel’s run of Star Wars comics in the 1980s, David Michelinie introduced the planet Mandalore and its backstory as a society of warriors who fought during the Clone Wars. Author Kevin J. Anderson later incorporated the planet in his Tales of the Jedi comic series, set thousands of years before the events in the films, where he revealed that the Mandalorians were an early adversary for the Jedi Knights.
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Hard Contact: Star Wars Republic Commando #1
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While Mandalore had a face and a bit of a backstory, the greatest contribution to the story of the Mandalorians came from author Karen Traviss, who incorporated the culture into her Republic Commando series. A tie-in to the video game, her novels were one of several that bridged the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. In the former, Lucas made an interesting revelation: Boba Fett was really a clone of another intergalactic bounty hunter, Jango Fett, who wore a set of Mandalorian armor and who was the originator for a vast Clone Army that was commissioned for the Galactic Republic.
While Mandalore had a face and a bit of a backstory, the greatest contribution to the story of the Mandalorians came from author Karen Traviss, who incorporated the culture into her Republic Commando series. A tie-in to the video game, her novels were one of several that bridged the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. In the former, Lucas made an interesting revelation: Boba Fett was really a clone of another intergalactic bounty hunter, Jango Fett, who wore a set of Mandalorian armor and who was the originator for a vast Clone Army that was commissioned for the Galactic Republic.
In her novels, Traviss explored the motivations of soldiers that made up the clone army, developing a rich backstory for the Mandalorian culture. Bred for a singular purpose, they later learned about their genetic heritage from the Mandalorian instructors brought in to help train them. Traviss would later explain how she came to incorporate the culture deeply into her novels:
“I decided that Mando fighting skill was so much a part of their culture, language, and philosophy that they’d teach all of that to their lads, especially as the [Republic Commandos] were Jango’s clones; they also saw Mando identity as being a really important spiritual thing to pass on to their trainees. It was one of those accidental inventions born of necessity that gave me one of the best storylines.”
Along the way, she developed an entire language and history for the culture, and incorporated it into her novels. She wrote extensively about the language for StarWars.com, allowing fans to learn the language themselves. In an interesting twist of fate, the culture that Traviss envisioned jumped into the real world: fans, led by Tom Hutchens, created the Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club, in which cosplayers created their own, unique costumes that drew inspiration from Traviss’s work. It’s since become one of the largest Star Wars costuming groups in the world.
Star Wars The Bounty Hunter Wars #1: The Mandalorian Armor
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Star Wars The Bounty Hunter Wars #1: The Mandalorian Armor
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Traviss would later stop writing Star Wars novels: the launch of the Clone Wars TV series brought with it differences: depicting the Mandalorian culture that had a militarized history, but which was now deeply pacifistic, something she wasn’t able to reconcile with the culture and story she created. During the events of the TV series, militant factions threatened that long peace, and eventually came under the rule of the Empire. The Mandalorians would later be depicted (along with the originally-imagined Imperial Supercommandos) in Star Wars Rebels, which introduced other characters, like Sabine Wren, who joined the growing resistance movement against the Empire. Other traces of the Mandalorians would pop up in other stories: a set of armor (later explained as an artifact from the Old Republic) pops up in the background in Solo: A Star Wars Story in crime lord Dryden Vos’s personal collection.
Traviss would later stop writing Star Wars novels: the launch of the Clone Wars TV series brought with it differences: depicting the Mandalorian culture that had a militarized history, but which was now deeply pacifistic, something she wasn’t able to reconcile with the culture and story she created. During the events of the TV series, militant factions threatened that long peace, and eventually came under the rule of the Empire. The Mandalorians would later be depicted (along with the originally-imagined Imperial Supercommandos) in Star Wars Rebels, which introduced other characters, like Sabine Wren, who joined the growing resistance movement against the Empire. Other traces of the Mandalorians would pop up in other stories: a set of armor (later explained as an artifact from the Old Republic) pops up in the background in Solo: A Star Wars Story in crime lord Dryden Vos’s personal collection.
The intrigue in the Mandalorians might have continued on the big screen. On the eve of the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, word broke that James Mangold (Logan) would write and direct a new standalone film featuring the franchise’s famous bounty hunter, Boba Fett. But as the box office returns for Solo underwhelmed, Disney put future standalone film projects on ice, and as the company began plans for its own streaming service, Lucasfilm decided instead to focus on developing its first standalone TV series, The Mandalorian, also about an anonymous, mysterious bounty hunter in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi. That show will undoubtedly continue to show off the legacy of the Mandalorian warriors, and might bring fans new revelations of its past.