New 'Disney Gallery' Episode Reveals Plo Koon Was Used To Keep Luke's Cameo A Secret From Everyone Involved

So Much Secrecy

By Culture SlatePublished 3 years ago • 3 min read

Following the success of The Mandalorian, Disney and Lucasfilm began the series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, which provided a look behind the scenes of the series. The newest episode focused on the season 2 finale, specifically around keeping Luke Skywalker's cameo a secret, and it was full of emotion. We also found out just how far they went in order to keep it secret and avoid any spoilers.

Interviews with Peyton Reed, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni went into detail regarding just how difficult it was to keep the cameo a secret, considering they had to do it for a full season, but film it way beforehand. It turned out the idea of a Jedi turning up was always there, but they just used a totally different Jedi for production - Plo Koon.

For those who don't remember, Plo Koon was a Jedi Master who sat on the Jedi Council during the events of the prequel trilogy and became a huge fan favorite thanks to his appearance in The Clone Wars TV show. But having him be the red herring was both a surprise and not, at the same time.

As many fans know, and Filoni himself points out, Plo is Filoni's favorite character, so many understood why he would want him back. The problem, however, was Plo is one of the many Jedi we see being killed after Palpatine enacts Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith, so many were skeptical as to just how they could pull it off. It wasn't even just a case of them telling production crew it would be him; they had a fake script and concept art to make the lie very believable. Only a very small group of individuals knew what the real plan was. You can check out the script and concept images below:

This just highlights how difficult it can be for creators to keep cameos a surprise for everyone. As Mark Hamill himself points out in his interview, he did have some practice in keeping secrets with the whole Vader being his father reveal. Hamill was one of only three people at the time to know this secret and had to keep it for over a year. He does point out, though, it was a lot easier at that time as social media didn't exist.

Since social media started, it has become so hard for big productions to avoid spoilers nowadays as literally thousands of people do everything they can to get a hold of any information they can. As much as it is cool to find out what the plans are, personally, I prefer to be surprised as I'm watching whatever it is. I'm very glad the cameo wasn't spoiled for me as I genuinely got so excited at the thought of it being Luke. By the time he dropped the hood, the emotions were running so high that I had a tear in my eye. And that's why Star Wars continues to outlast tons of other franchises. The ability to continually surprise us is what keeps a lot of us coming back.

The other great part about this specific episode is the way Filoni and Favreau are just so honest about why they are doing what they are doing. They have created a bunch of new stories, branching off the main series, but at the end of the day they are just huge fans and that's the reason why I believe their projects do so well. They understand the characters, the setting, the story, and this shows in their work.

Now that we know they are going to be involved in Star Wars projects for a good time to come, fans can rest easy knowing it is being handled by very safe hands.

Until next time!

Written By Jordan McGlinchey

Source(s): CBR

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