Jon Favreau and his team have discussed how they realised the inner workings of Boba Fett’s Slave I ship in The Mandalorian season two.
For decades fans have been wondering how Boba Fett’s iconic rotating ship, the Slave I, takes off without everyone and everything inside falling over. The unique ship looks very cool but it never seemed practical for those inside. However, season two of The Mandalorian showed it taking off from the perspective of the crew, revealing an interior room that sits on a rotating axis, turning as the ship turns.
It’s very slick and in the special episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, it was shown how this was achieved. Creator Jon Favreau said (via ComicBook.com): “Nobody’s ever seen what goes on inside that ship when it rotates. We’ve only seen the outside, so that was one of the inspirations for doing it on the stage, taking advantage of what the stage can do.”
Executive producer Dave Filoni added, “Spinning’s a good trick,” in reference to the amusing Anakin Skywalker line from The Phantom Menance.
Production designer Andrew L. Jones, explained that the effect was achieved in camera via a combination of a practical set and Lucasfilm’s StageCraft technology, The Volume: “It was a bit of a challenge to see if this would work on the screens, but to do that with traditional special effects you can imagine would be this huge complicated rig. So we built an elevated deck with some seats on it and there’s a console as well, but that’s the set. All the rest of the vehicle is on the screens).”
Visual Effects Supervisor Richard Bluff added: “Instantly I knew that was going to be something we were going to try in The Volume and it got me incredibly excited because I think it’s something that kids back in the day would have played with that ship and wondered what it would be like on the inside when it rotates through. We got to ultimately shoot it on the stage against the LEDs and boy oh boy was everybody excited, I think that was the moment on season two that mimicked the hyper space being turned on in season one, in other words, it got everybody excited, everybody knew where we were and everybody felt like a child again.”
SEE ALSO: Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett confirmed as its own series
It was certainly a cool moment. Boba Fett fans were truly treated in season two and there is much more to come for the famed bounty hunter as he is getting his own series, The Book of Boba Fett in December 2021, shortly before The Mandalorian season three premieres.
