After 9 years, The Mandalorian and Grogu is bringing Star Wars back to the big screen in style. Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and Grogu were trailblazers for Disney+, and the movie is carefully resetting everything back to what worked so well for The Mandalorian‘s first two seasons. The most surprising example is the return of Din Djarin’s Razor Crest, with Din picking up a new version of the starship he lost in Season 2. It’s a pristine version of the vessel, with gorgeous fresh yellow paintwork.
Speaking on a recent Star Wars LEGO livestream, Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang has just dropped a tantalizing hint that explains why Din has a new Razor Crest. According to Chiang, this is an “off the factor floor version” that’s come straight off the assembly line with “the proper paint markings.”
Doug Chiang confirms that the new Razor Crest we see in The Mandalorian and Grogu is "a pristine version, the off the factory floor version.. what it would look like coming off the assembly line with the proper paint markings" & confirms the patterns align with the OG Razor Crest pic.twitter.com/IB7Xa8hMcP
It’s important to understand that the Razor Crest is an old, pre-Imperial design. According to The Mandalorian Visual Guide, the Razor Crest is “a former military craft used to patrol local territories in the time before the Empire.” Din Djarin’s first Razor Crest was so old that the Imperial Space Ministry didn’t even have a record of its transponder, meaning it broadcast no identification and could fly as a “ghost” – an anonymous craft whose business remained unknown.
Given the first Razor Crest’s age, and the way it was treated as unusual, it’s reasonable to assume production had stopped during the Imperial era. The New Republic must have recommissioned it, returning to an old design that the Empire had abandoned; that’s the only real explanation for a new Razor Crest “assembly line” being in the works. The New Republic Rangers would have likely needed patrol ships to supplement their fleet of X-wings, given the Razor Crest has living quarters and armament storage.
This perhaps explains an oddity collectors have noticed; that some Razor Crest merchandise have come with Din Djarin and Grogu, while others have been accompanied by models of Steve Blum’s Zeb Orrelios and Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward (the LEGO set comes with all four, as well as an Imperial Remnant stormtrooper). It’s likely The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s Razor Crest actually belongs to the New Republic, serving as a mobile base for a mission conducted in the movie. It’s likely to wind up with Din Djarin in the end, of course.
The interesting question is whether, like Din Djarin’s original ship, this one has a transponder. If it doesn’t, then the Razor Crest would suggest Colonel Ward is working off-the-books espionage missions, albeit ones officially signed off by the New Republic given she has a budget to acquire such a ship. It would be the perfect vessel to slip into Imperial Remnant space, or even to get to the Hutt homeworld of Nar Shadda.
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