Last month, Jon Favreau confirmed prior reports that The Mandalorian will see the long-awaited return of IG-88 of Empire Strikes Back fame, and it looks like the fan favorite assassin droid may not be the only bot to enter the fray for the first live-action Star Wars TV series.
Jason Ward from Making Star Wars sent New Year’s blessings in the form of an artist’s rendering of an unusual new character that was reportedly spotted on the set of Jon Favreau’s show. And while MSW has a good enough track when it comes to Star Wars intel to suggest that this latest report is probably legit, it still feels like something that has to be seen to be truly believed, because this design looks crazy in the best way. I mean, for crying out loud, it’s an R2-D2-style astromech droid with human-sized legs, four arms, and a big stick. We need a proper look at this thing as soon as possible.
Whether or not the droid will be a regular character in the series or just part of the scenery remains to be seen, but it certainly looks like a design that would take a fair amount of effort to move around the set. Then again, just over a month ago, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo teased that Favreau’s show is “at the forefront of cutting edge tech, and he is shooting this in a way that no one has ever shot anything ever before.” With that in mind, maybe giving one of R2’s cousins a pair of skinny robot legs to walk around with won’t be the most dazzling feat of technology the show has to offer.
Regardless, we’ll hopefully see this character in action when The Mandalorian comes to Disney Plus later in the year.
