Lit Books The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide

*sigh*. Well, crossing this off my list of things to look forward to this year.
And they weren't going to cancel the book because a minor character's contract wasn't renewed.

 

@Coherent Axe

TFA's visual dictionary being the most prominent examples

Sad but delicious irony.

The ST's have...A Spin-Off cartoon in Resistance, a bunch of books, a successful Poe Dameron Comic, still on going IDW adventures and Lego Holiday Special.

 

Another thing is, what would a "Mandoverse" Guide be billed as a guide to? Given that we have to have to put it in quotes just to describe it and there's no official, discrete umbrella title for it as of yet (and as far as I'm concerned it can stay that way). It seems unlikely that they'd do a book called "STAR WARS LIVE ACTION TV SERIES SET DURING A CERTAIN TIMEFRAME: THE COMPLETE VISUAL GUIDE", or "THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE MANDALORIAN AND THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT AND RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC AND AHSOKA AND OTHER RANDOM BITS OF LORE". There's probably a fairly IU-seeming way to describe it, like just the post-Endor galaxy, but given that ANDOR and OBI-WAN would be excluded just for starters... it really feels that the cleanest (and most lucrative) way is a book for each show.

There really does seems to be a strangely ST-like reticence to go all-in on lit in the Mando era, except that unlike the ST there's no real reason for it. I mean, the art books are great, there just aren't any stories other than the onscreen stuff so far. Maybe the launch of the High Republic plays a role in that, though.

 

I mean is it that strange they wanna go all in

 

I mean it's the same company that released the Ultimate Visual Guide like one month before TROS. I don't see why they wouldn't release that one without a good reason. I think there is enough stuff to talk about too.

 

It's really disappointing if we don't get this. Star Wars Visual Guide books are filled with so much content that it's a shame we just get re-releases and no new information.

 

Well in terms of tie in stories, shows are a bit of a different beast. For film trilogies tie in stories usually focused on events between the films. That's not an option with a show. Of course they could go with the option of "this is an adventure that took place between episodes". Lots of Star Trek and Doctor Who tie ins go this route. But those shows have a structure where usually every episode is a different adventure with no relation to the previous episode. The Mandalorian is a lot more serialized, with one episode leading into the next. And if they want tie in stories around this era but not centered around this character . . . well that's where the new shows come in.

So that explains the seeming reluctance to have other tie in stories for this era. That just leaves world building visual guide type books. And with Season 2 out they definitely have enough content, which is why the speculations for why they're dragging their feet make no sense to me. If it's for continuity errors, well visual guides are usually light on big ones. (The ST ones are an exception, but that's just because no one working on those films had any idea where they were going). Like I said before the only way to avoid them completely is to wait till the show is over, in which case what's the point of tie ins anymore?

And if it's to get a Visual Guide that talks about 4 shows at once, it sounds messy and like they'll have to cut a lot out.

 

Yeah, I don't like the idea of stuffing all of the "Mando-verse" shows into one guide...but maybe that won't be happening. Nothing's suggested it; just that the S1/S2 guide is being held back/replaced/revised because of these future shows. Which could be as simple as they're still figuring out details of those shows, so writing up the lore at this stage is too early.

Hopefully this'll see a release eventually, with revised info, as well as either dedicated books for Boba, Ahsoka, Rangers, etc or a separate single volume for those three if perhaps there's not enough material to justify one each. Though we still haven't had Visual Dictionaries for each film of the OT, so.

 

As of moments ago both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were still accepting pre-orders for this book, and DK still lists it on their site along with additional pre-order links for Books-A-Million and IndieBound. If this book has been canceled, a lot of people (including its publisher) would seem to have not gotten the message yet.

 

Amazon UK is still taking pre-orders as well.

 

Huh. Well, I'm used to bogus leaks being about bigger things, and more obviously bogus, but maybe this is the exception and the book is still good to go.

 

DK is still listing this, complete with pre-order links. I don't know about y'all but I'm starting to doubt that cancellation rumor.

 

Same here.
I'm not preordering, but I'm adding it back to my "Looking For To..." list for 2021.

 

just found this

 

Yeah - a similar statement came out for the adult novel.

 

LOL they actually copypasted the same message just changed the names

 

So the Ziro page was telling the true.

 

I think this weird, it looks like that they will do a mandoverse, for do this, you need plan, DK and Del Rey announce the books, to cancel like this, in the end, both shouldn´t be announced.

 

And I was looking forward to a cross section for this...

 

Fine, now I will believe the Visual Guide has been canceled. That's a bummer, but hopefully we'll see that material in some other form, whether it's a more broadly-scoped "Mandoverse" guide or what-have-you.

 

I stand by what I said before. It is annoying when "complete guides" quickly become outdated. (If the New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels had waited a year or 2, they could have included all the ships introduced in ROTS). Or when we get the literary equivalent of Paid DLC, and a complete book is chopped up into smaller books so you have to pay more for the complete package. So I understand if they're doing this to wait until they have enough material for a "Mando Verse" book.

However, I have two concerns: A) If they already had enough material for 1 book, I hope they don't cut out material for the first two seasons to make room for the material B) With tie in merch it's best to strike while the iron is hot. If you wait until we have the "complete story", that usually means the show is over and fan interest has waned.

Me too, I was hoping to see how that clown car looked on the inside.

 

@JediBatman

I disagree with this point slightly...Maybe with Films....But with TV series I honestly want the Tie-In stuff...AFTER the series is over because I know they won't be making more episodes but I still want more stories.

I feel this way very much with She-Ra after it ended.


Oh and on your first point TCW 2008 got a visual dictionary in 2008 and it ONLY EVER covered Season 1...and it never got a new one .

 

I've said it before...they should have blocked them. Eps 1-6 as a volume (the first Complete Vehicles) and then 7-9, R1 and Solo as another volume. Still waiting on the animated series complete vehicles book.

As for the clown car...I read 36 troops could be carried...so 9 against each hull with 18 back to back down the middle.