The Mandalorian and Grogu will soon be hitting the big screen as the first Star Wars movie in seven years – but it has also arrived to Fortnite.
Thanks to The Mandalorian & Grogu Watch Party Island, you're now able to see the first 10 minutes of the new film and hear from director Jon Favreau.
That's not all you can do in the collab, either. You can also explore Nevarro, hang out with Grogu, accept quests from IG-11, and take on the role of a Deputy to battle Imperials.
"Oh, we were very involved," Favreau tells us when we meet with him in London to discuss the movie and the collaboration. "I saw the opportunity of the partnership between Disney, Lucasfilm, and Epic as an important one. And the company that I work with, Fairview Portals, which deals with gaming and also deals with immersive and deals with new technologies, new media, as it relates to storytelling, we saw an opportunity to really lean into this.
"We'd already been working a lot with Unreal and with Epic, because even the Volume that we created for The Mandalorian was using assets from Unreal Engine," he continues. "We use a lot of Unreal Engine in the development on the front end of the process, with both the film and the shows. We use game development technology as part of a workflow that borrows a tremendous amount from animation. So, before we ever roll camera, we build out this experience."
As Favreau explains, it was all about crafting the most immersive, true to Star Wars experience possible. "We saw an opportunity, now that we have the opportunity to do a partnership with Fortnite, to take those assets, and create as close to an authentic experience of immersion that we could on the planet of Nevarro after season 3," he explains. "And so we pulled in all of our art department, we pulled in Doug Chiang, we pulled in Andrew Jones, the entire team that works on the films and the shows.
"And we wanted to build something that, yes, was a gaming experience, and you drop in with, I think, up to [12 players], and it's a fun adventure, but the backdrop is a very immersive one," he adds. "And you could choose to go on the adventures within it, but you could also choose to explore. And we even developed other areas that we had either explored [or] thought about, so that you can actually explore and go throughout that planet."
According to Favreau, this might only be the beginning, too. "Clearly, the scale is not one to one, but the finishes, the look: it was an opportunity to begin exploring what I think is going to have greater potential, which is not just using these tools for a backdrop of a gaming experience, but also to start to create immersive environments and communal environments," he says.
"And so this was a first step of what I think is going to be a much larger project when it comes to that partnership. We're also going to be showing 10 minutes exclusively with an amphitheater that we created on Nevarro before the film comes out."
This May 26, you can return to the amphitheater for a fan Q&A with Favreau, too. And, after 20 minutes in the island, you'll unlock the Mandalorian Sanctuary Loading Screen, while the Mandalorian Pen & Ink Outfit is available in the Shop from May 21. This is the Way...
The Mandalorian and Grogu is in theaters this May 22. While you wait, check out our guide to all the other upcoming Star Wars movies for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store, or see our roundup of all the ways to watch the Star Wars movies in order.
