Heartwarming Story About How 501st Legion Came to Appear in THE MANDALORIAN

The 501st Legion is a group of hardcore Star Wars fans who are dedicated to creating and wearing the most accurate stormtrooper and bounty hunter costumes. They have raised money for charities and donated their time to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting wishes all over the world. They are the biggest fans with the biggest hearts, so that’s what makes this story so awesome! While they have dedicated their lives to making other people’s wishes come true, a dream of theirs was made a reality.

While talking about the process of making The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni said they know that the 501st Legion already had perfectly accurate and awesome looking costumes, and acted completely in character while wearing them, so why not bring them in to fill out the cast? Here’s what Favreau and Filoni had to say about when they got there:

Jon Favreau: What’s so funny is how surprised some of them look because they weren’t told what this was for.

Dave Filoni: We told them it was some kind of function, like this. And then we realized everything we rolled out in front of them was like a test audience. And so when we rolled it out, we’d be like “Oh they like that.”

What a win-win! They got feedback from the people who care the most, and the biggest fans got to be in the first live-action series of the worlds greatest movie series of all time. I love stories like this. What would you do to be able to join a Star Wars movie or series?

The Mandalorian joins Disney+ on the streaming service’s opening day, November 12.