'The Mandalorian' Was Inspired By Disney's Literal Garbage

That show featuring the alien baby you secretly love more than your own family is back. (Yes, even more than you NanNan. Sorry.) Yup, apparently even a global pandemic can't stop The Mandalorian, probably because it's literally about a guy who won't even sleep, bathe, or poop without wearing a giant face-shield. The newest episode finds Mando and Baby Yoda heading to Space Deadwood, where they team up with "The Marshal" (played by professional Marshal impersonator Timothy Olyphant) to kill the vicious Krayt Dragon. Which is exciting if you're a Star Wars fan but less exciting if you've seen any of the roughly 500 Tremors movies.

You might remember some references to the Krayt Dragon from way back in A New Hope; we hear Obi-Wan go full convention cosplayer, impersonating the Dragon to scare away a handful of Tusken Raiders. And we also see a giant Krayt Dragon skeleton poking out of a sand dune.

The Krayt Dragon wasn't actually part of George Lucas' elaborate world-building plans, but rather, like so many things that have become focal points of the Star Wars universe, it was a half-assed production decision made with little forethought by some random nobody. The skeleton wasn't even created for Star Wars; it's actually a prop from the forgotten (and super-racist) 1975 Disney comedy One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.

It turns out that the crew at Elstree Studios inadvertently stumbled upon Disney's diplodocus skeleton, which was presumably stashed away along with a bunch of fake "Chinese" mustaches. When the time came to journey to Tunisia for the Tatooine scenes, a last-minute flight carrying a load of forgotten equipment wasn't quite full, so they decided to "just throw on the plane."

George Lucas cared so little for the Krayt Dragon skeleton that it was abandoned in the desert like much of the Tatooine set, only to be exhumed nearly two decades later.

But since that discarded prop exists inside a few fleeting frames of a Star Wars movie, naturally, it's now been painstakingly brought to life in a multi-million dollar, Emmy-winning television show. 

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Top Image: Lucasfilm