How ‘Shang-Chi’ Impacted ‘The Mandalorian’s Mythosaur Design

The Mythosaur was—as the name suggests—a creature of legend, even within the fantastical world of The Mandalorian. A gigantic, underwater-dwelling beast, it was spoken of in hushed tones by those like the Armorer (Emily Swallow). Its legend meant it was appropriate to be the symbol of the Mandalorian clans, one which could be worn by all. The imagery of the Mythosaur had existed in Star Wars long before Pedro Pascal donned his Beskar armour, first appearing on the shoulders of one Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Soon after, it became the official icon of the Mandalorian creed. When The Mandalorian debuted, the Mythosaur skull logo could be seen perched above the entrance to the Armorer’s covert.

Rachel Morrison, the acclaimed cinematographer who worked with Ryan Coogler on Black Panther and Fruitvale Station along with—perhaps more relevantly—future Mando executive producer and director Rick Famuyiwa on his movie, Dope, took the director’s chair for the third season episode of The Mandalorian, entitled “The Mines of Mandalore,” in which we see the Mythosaur for the first time.

After Pedro Pascal‘s Din Djarin, bathing in the waters of Mandalore to regain his honour and status, is dragged down into the depths, Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) dives down below to rescue the bounty hunter—before encountering the giant beast and causing Bo-Katan to have a crisis of faith about her place in Mandalorian culture. However, the moment could have looked very different, as Morrison has revealed in a chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, as she explains that the trailer for a Marvel movie made them very quickly change their plans for the big reveal.

RELATED: ‘The Mandalorian’: The Legend of the Mythosaur, Explained

The Shang-dalorian

“The interesting thing is, from where we had pre-vized, I think it was like we were all ready to go and then the trailer for Shang-Chi came out and there was a shot in the trailer that, I kid you not, was almost identical to our plan for the Mythosaur,” said Morrison. “And I mean, thank god that it came out in the trailer and [we] got ahead of it because we knew we immediately had to pivot.”

The reveal of the Mythosaur had wide-ranging consequences for the plot, due to its importance in Mandalorian lore. Manda-lore? We know the Mythosaur was the original dominant species of Mandalore, much like dragons in ancient fantasy, before dying out over millennia. But they are sacred beings in that Mandalorian history, which Morrison knew meant they had to make the reveal a special one.

“It was like, how do we get that same sort of suspenseful, just enough of a tease without too much information, but we have to take it in a completely different direction? So it was more the cliffhanger of, how do we do it differently? But that was always the intention was mystery, excitement, and really a cliffhanger that would take you into the rest of the season.”

The Mandalorian and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings are currently streaming exclusively on Disney+.