• Mark Hamill – Luke Skywalker himself – played the voice of the bartender robot, EV-9D9 in the fifth episode, “The Gunslinger.”
• The series was co-written by Iron Man veteran Jon Favreau. His prior connection to the Star Wars universe was voicing the character Pre Vizsla on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He and the other writers and directors ended up doing cameos.
• The eponymous character's rifle was inspired by the rifle that Boba Fett had on his person in the animation segment of the infamous The Star Wars Holiday Special

• The show is set five-to-seven years after the events of Return of the Jedi.
• Yes, that was a Kowakian monkey-lizard you spied roasting on a spit. You might recognize them as being the same as Salacious Crumb from Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi.
• The lead character's ship is known as the Razorcrest and is a practical effect.
• The dude frozen in carbonite at the end of the line of blocks is Moralo Eval who was featured in The Clone Wars.
• Disney canceled the ill-fated Josh Trank-directed Bobba Fett feature film in favor of this show.
• Spoiler: the creature of the same species as Yoda that is “rescued” by the Mandalorian represents the third time such a creature has been spied on in a Star Wars feature – Yoda of course, and Yaddle from the original version of The Force Awakens and now “Baby Yoda.”
• Lead actor Pedro Pascal was the thirteenth actor from Game of Thrones to appear in the Star Wars franchise.
• The score is composed by Ludwig Göransson who, amongst many recent popular projects, worked with Donald Glover on his Childish Gambino identity. He recently won an Oscar for his work on Black Panther.
• Nick Nolte auditioned for the original role of Han Solo 40 years ago.
• Carl Weathers plays Greef Cargam, the head of a guild of bounty hunters. He has the contacts and contracts for the Mandalorian.
• Producer Jon Favreau gave Pascal the esteemed movies of director Akira Kurosawa to watch before filming began. Kurosawa's movies inspired George Lucas' original ideas for A New Hope.
• In the second episode, some of the parts the Jawa can be seen holding are Volkswagen fuel injection rails.
• Boba Fett appears to make a sneaky blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. When the eponymous character visits the underground Mandalorian settlement to have his new pauldron forged, a Mandalorian wearing a suit of armor that looks a lot like the legendary Boba Fett can be seen. Update: It was a similar-looking Mandalorian, not Fett, but here's the picture anyway:

• Boba Fett does return to Star Wars canon in the opening episode of season two, Temuera Morrison plays the role of Boba (he originally played Jango Fett). With Boba, being his “natural” clone, it makes sense for Morrison to play this aged version of Boba.
• Pascal was inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name character from the Sergio Leone spaghetti western movies. This is no surprise given Boba Fett has the same inspiration.
• The ship is called the Razor Crest.
• Writer and producer Jon Favreau had written four of the scripts for The Mandalorian before he even had a deal to make the show.
• The reference to Life Day is the second time the “new canon” refers to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special television movie – the same one in which Boba Fett first appeared. The other reference was in Solo: A Star Wars Story when we learned Chewbacca's father's name.
• Clone Wars veteran storyteller Dave Filoni makes his live-action directorial debut with the first episode being his to direct (he also does a cameo as an X-Wing pilot in “The Prisoner”).
• In the first episode, The Big Bang Theory’s Brian Posehn plays the snowbound speeder Lyft driver who gets eaten by the ice creature.
• In the second episode, when the Jawa drops the item on Mando's head, a distinctive bell clanging sound is heard – this is a straight lift from the classic Looney Tunes style of comedy when a dropped anvil hits someone's head.
• Deborah Chow directed the third episode and will direct the full Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
• Episode four was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard – star of the Jurrasic Park remakes and the daughter of Ron Howard – who directed Solo: A Star Wars Story.
• The container in which the Imperial Steel is held is actually the same as the infamous “ice-cream maker” that was carried during the evacuation of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back:

• Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waiatiti has directed an episode and voiced the IG killer robot assassin:

• The Mandalorian's weapon is modeled on a Bergmann pistol. In the same vein, The joystick in the Razor Crest is a commonly used Thrustmaster joystick.
• Cara Dune is the badass Rebel Shock Trooper that gives Mando some grief before teaming up to save the fishing village by bringing down the AT-ST. Played by Deadpool actress Gina Carano, we suspect the character's name is a play on Carano's last name and a subtle reference to the Dune novel which had a massive influence on the original scripting of A New Hope.
• Season one's fourth episode, “Sanctuary,” is basically one giant reference to The Magnificent Seven and the movie that inspired it, Seven Samurai. This is classic Star Wars – many Western movies have inspired the past films (John Wayne's cowboy in The Searchers, for example) and the Mandalorian is not short on positioning itself as a Western.
• That's Dave Filoni as an X-wing pilot in the episode “The Prisoner.” Filoni directed two episodes of the first Season of The Mandalorian and of course, he wrote and directed most of The Clone Wars animated series:
• But that's not all, the other X-Wing pilots are directors of season one shows – those being Rick Famuyiwa and Deborah Chow.
• British comedian Richard Ayoade voiced Zero in the sixth episode.
• Matt Lanter who voices Anakin in The Clone Wars played the New Republic officer on the prison ship in the episode “The Prisoner.”
• That's Anakin's pod racer you see the Marshall riding in the episode “The Marshall.” You also see R5, womp rats, and the sound of the Krayt Dragon was the same projected by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the special edition of A New Hope.
• Rosario Dawson plays Ahsoka Tano – this will be the live-action debut of the character, best known to fans as the lead character in The Clone Wars.
• If you're wondering when the show takes place in the Star Wars timeline, the first season takes place six years before the birth of Rey (Skywalker).

This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.