Lit Books The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide

Ugh. Oh well... I guess 2021 is a wash for SW guides.

 

My main concern is ship information and cross sections...the least they could do is put those up on their website.

 

I know concept art and such for canceled works is sometimes posted online, but that's usually years afterwards. Rumor is the whole reason they canceled this visual guide was because they're going to make a giant visual guide with all the material from the upcoming shows as well. But even if that's not true, there's always the possibility this book will be uncancelled, or it will be released in a different form, or the cross sections will be used in some other project. No sense putting that stuff on their website right away when it might get repackaged later.

 

Gonna be honest as someone who remembers the 2008 TCW visual dictionary ....I'm kinda okay with them waiting on this.

 

I miss the guide Season by Season thing. Think of the MONEY they'd have made and the INFO we the fans would've gotten!

 

Pablo Hidalgo, now with an alternate public twitter account, just confirmed why the book was cancelled: Indeed, it was because all the new shows coming out meant that such a project was put on hold as things developed.

 

I don’t suppose he went on to explain why shows that aren’t The Mandalorian prevented them from releasing a guidebook about The Mandalorian?

 

It’s already there in the tweet: It grew from one show to multiple, related shows.

 

Many of the shows that aren't The Mandalorian will still frequently be crossing over with it. The Favreau/Filoni stuff could almost be treated as one massive project.

 

As far as I know The Mandalorian, Ashoka, Boba Fett, etc. are all their own shows rather than the same show. Apparently there was enough material to make a book about The Mandalorian before those shows were announced, so all of that same material should still exist afterward. Just don’t include information from those shows that don’t exist yet. I remember them making multiple guidebooks for The Force Awakens even though we already knew they were making two more movies that were somewhat related. I’m skeptical that these tangentially connected spin-off shows about secondary characters are going to completely subvert and redefine everything that could be covered in a guide to the first two years of The Mandalorian.

 

I guess this means that most upcoming comics and books in the next few years, not just guide books, will not take place during events in the years between the OT and ST.

 

Or they'll have to create their own new cast of characters in a different part of the galaxy in that time period, like the Thrawn Ascendancy books but set in the Hapes Cluster or the Corporate Sector.

 

I’m all for that. I really like the cast of Chiss that Tim Zahn created for his Ascendancy novels.

 

I'm ok with this...Glad to see them policing these areas a bit more now.

 

It's so weird that Pablo has a public account again. He just really seems like someone who doesn't have the stomach for interacting with the public, getting mad at fan reactions and questions and the like. I wonder how long it's going to take before he responds bitterly, angrily, or offensively to someone. Hopefully never, but who knows.

 

I’m honestly surprised that he just outright confirmed what was going on with publishing. I expected obfuscation at the very least.

 

That's an actually good reason to delay something. Was worried maybe Gina The Brat threw a fit about the book using her likeness/character, since the cancellation story broke right after she was fired.

 

Why would you think that? I'm no expert on copyright law, but I'm pretty sure anything with Cara Dune is a publicity issue and not a copyright issue. Think about it, why would they not be allowed to sell a book filled with still images of her character from the show, but still be allowed to air the show those images came from?

If they didn't still own the character, they'd have to edit her out of the show. Like when Hasbro reprinted early Transformers comics and had to cut out the guest appearance by Spider-Man.

 

That's the more realistic of the two, but I think it is also the continuity thing. Not that it's been much of an issue before, but perhaps they think it would become obsolete too quickly, and sales would then drop off too soon? We haven't had on-screen content release this frequently in the past.

 

Yeah if Gina being moved on was the issue it would likely come from disney removing stuff that was setting her up for other stuff that now they won't do.

 

This Visual Guide remains dead, but some of the information that would have been in it may yet see the light of day in Star Wars The Mandalorian Handbook: Explore the Galaxy with Grogu, a newly-announced young-readers guidebook from DK. The Amazon preview hints at this by not only offers a clear look at the "ravinak" creature that attacked the Razor Crest in episode 1, but reveals the name of the ice planet in that episode (Pagodon), which to the best of my knowledge is new info.

 

Huh, I know there was confusion that the Ice Planet in the first episode was identified as "Maldo Kreis," and then the Ice Spider Planet in season 2 was also identified as "Maldo Kreis," though there was nothing in the episode to confirm or deny that Din had been there before. Nothing was explicitly wrong but my initial reading of the intent of the episode was that they were different planets. I'm curious if changing the ice planet in the first episode to Pagodon is either a correction to a misidentified planet, or an attempt to sort out that little bit of weirdness.

 

This is such an awesome design:

 

Wonder if we might get combined New Republic Era tv show source books covering Mandalorian, Ahoska, Book of Boba Fett, and Rangers of the New Republic if it comes out or whatever replaces it if something does.

Big trouble is coming up with a catchy name for the collective of shows.

Kind of a shame really. I liked the idea that Maldo Kreis, while still an ice planet, had some different environments with the town being over an ocean area and the ice spiders being in a volcanic area.