Last month, Jon Favreau shared a photo from the set of The Mandalorian that confirmed the return of bounty hunter IG-88 from The Empire Strikes Back, and as it turns out, the upcoming Star Wars spinoff show has at least one more Original Trilogy droid lined up for a comeback.
R5-D4 is best known for his brief appearance in 1977’s A New Hope as the astromech that Owen Lars initially intended to purchase from the Jawas, only for Luke’s ill-fated uncle to go with R2-D2 instead when R5 started to malfunction. In various other canonical fiction, however, it’s revealed that R5’s breakdown was a deliberate means of helping R2 in his high-stakes mission. Regardless, in a new photo posted to Favreau’s Instagram, R5 is looking a little worse for wear, but the fans seem happy enough to witness his return, whether his role amounts to an Easter egg or something bigger.
The droids won’t be the only somewhat niche-y callbacks to the Original Trilogy to feature in the first live-action Star Wars TV series. Last year, Favreau also shared images of the bucket-shaped “ice cream maker” prop first seen carried by Wilson Hood in The Empire Strikes Back, as well as the two-pronged weapon that Boba Fett wielded in 1978’s The Star Wars Holiday Special. There’ve even been some unconfirmed reports lately that a few classic aliens will be returning, including the Jawas.
Indeed, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo claimed after a set visit a couple of months ago that The Mandalorian is “at the forefront of cutting edge tech,” and that Favreau “is shooting this in a way that no one has ever shot anything ever before,” suggesting that we could be seeing quite a few nonhuman characters impressively rendered for the small screen. But whatever left the helmsman dazzled, all will be revealed when the show premieres on Disney Plus later this year.
