The Mandalorian: Amazing Behind-The-Scenes Shots Reveal An Inventive VFX Technique

It has become standard over the past few decades for filmmakers to use green (or blue) screens to help create scenes in which the actors appear in front of amazing backgrounds. Anyone who has seen behind-the-scenes footage of recent Star Wars or Marvel movies will know how much of the world around the actors is added digitally. But fascinating new behind-the-scenes shots from the recent Star Wars series The Mandalorian has revealed that the series took a different approach.

The Mandalorian's CG supervisor Ian Milham tweeted the images. They show the actors performing in front of photo-realistic digital screens, meaning that they were actually in front of something they could see, as opposed to a blank green screen. This actually has more in common with the way backgrounds were created in movies in previous decades--via matte paintings or back projection--than more modern digital background replacement.

Milham accompanied the images with a message that reveals that Industrial Light & Magic had been planning to make the Mandalorian this way for some time. "So a couple years ago I had a talk with @ILMVFX about real time environments," he said. "They wouldn't share too much, but I still joined up. Next thing you know, they hand us the keys to THIS." Check the images out below:

The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+ in November and completed its eight episode run at the end of December. The show has been greenlit for Season 2, which will premiere in the Fall of 2020.

In related news, it was reported that the specialty stuffed animal retailer Build-A-Bear will be releasing a build-your-own Baby Yoda in the next few months. Baby Yoda was the break-out "star" from The Mandalorian, and Star Wars creator George Lucas himself recently got the chance to meet him.