‘The Mandalorian’ Proved There’s No Need to Fear the OG ‘Star Wars’ Monsters

When you think of scary movies, odds are Star Wars ain’t on that list. The franchise has earned the rep as a family-friendly sci-fi adventure, and justifiably so. But that doesn’t negate the fact that there are plenty of terrifying moments in Star Wars: A New Hope… if you’re a six-year-old.

That was definitely my deal when I first became obsessed with Star Wars in late 1990. I was six and you better believe that I wore my VCR out, replaying my copy of Star Wars on VHS (a fullscreen CBS/FOX edition). But there was always one moment in Star Wars that freaked me the hell out. It scared me so much that I would pause the tape and run and get a grownup to watch this part with me! The moment?

Not George Lucas putting an old-fashioned jump scare into his space western!

Just hit pause and think about this moment for a second. This scene has a wildly different energy than the previous 28 minutes. Sure, Darth Vader was also frightening to kids, but he was a slow-moving terror. He was a threatening presence. He wasn’t jumping out of nowhere and bludgeoning people with rapid reflexes. This scene is some fast-paced, Texas Chainsaw-style mayhem to a little kid—and it’s all happening to the blond farm boy who’s an audience stand-in! It’s meant to feel like this Tusken Raider is coming for you!

Making it even worse? That damn guttural, celebratory howl!

Ya hate to hear it!

The Tuskens appear just this once in the entire original trilogy, but they definitely left a scar on the minds of generations of kids. They’re the OG monsters of Star Wars, and they remained that way for a long, long time—until The Mandalorian Season 2.

The Mandalorian is rad as hell for a lot of reasons. The action! The effects! The characters! The gradual dismantling of one man’s very recognizably real religious zealotry! It’s also rad as hell because it takes pieces of existing Star Wars lore and presents them from a different angle. Case in point: the Tusken Raiders! First they were vicious monster people in A New Hope and then they were carved up by Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones. Finally, 43 years after they laid Luke out, The Mandalorian showed the Tuskens respect and dignity.

Honestly, the first time they pop up in “The Marshal” is enough to establish that these bruisers have a softer side.

Here they are, just chilling with the Mandalorian. Look at the parallel between this and their debut in 1977; in that film, they attack the audience surrogate character. In this one shot of The Mandalorian, they’re at peace with the audience surrogate character (which Mando kinda is by default since he’s the only regular character on the show). He’s even speaking their language—their actual language.

That’s the biggest shift between how the Tuskens were portrayed at first and how they’re portrayed today. Language implies intelligence, the ability to be reasoned with. Back in ’77, the Tuskens just shoved and grunted. Their language was intentionally inhuman. So, how does The Mandalorian round out the Tusken culture? By establishing that those grunts are more or less complementary to their actual language—which is a form of sign language! It’s a language that Din Djarin knows, too. And through our fave Mando, the Tuskens get to voice their grievances for the first time. The humans (re: colonizers) keep stealing their water! No wonder they’re pissed! That one Tusken probably went ham on Luke because he was just the latest in a long line of humans who wandered onto their turf looking to steal resources.

Fun fact: the Tusken language is a variation of actual sign language that deaf actor Troy Kotsur helped develop when he was cast as a Tusken Raider. BTW, if you want to see Kotsur in a non-alien role, you gotta watch his fantastic performance in the incredibly heartwarming film CODA.

But that’s just the first of many things that The Mandalorian does to make us pro-Tusken. There’s the fact that almost every time we see them standing up, they’re standing up straight.

Again, when your only point of reference for an alien species involves them hunched over and ready for battle, you tend to only remember them as aggressive. But seeing Tuskens relaxed and signing with the series lead—it’s another way that the show establishes dignity that the Tuskens were long denied. They’re down to chat if you’ll just watch (and also not trespass on their territory).

But my fave bit of Tusken Raider business in The Mandalorian? The brief shot of one of them using the sharp end of a gaffi stick to pick food out of a Bantha’s teeth.

All of this characterization doesn’t even conflict with what we’ve previously seen, either. There are still Tuskens with tempers, evidenced when a brawl nearly breaks out because Timothy Olyphant gets combative and won’t drink their dusty gourd drink.

By the time you get to the end of the Season 2 premiere, The Mandalorian actually has you rooting for the Raiders as they face off against an even bigger monster: a Krayt dragon!

My heart goes out to them! They just want to stop getting gobbled up by a giant sand dragon!

After watching “The Marshal” last year, I gotta admit: I kinda love Tusken Raiders. This is proof that all any monster needs is context and time. It’s kinda like how Bride of Frankenstein took its own terrifying monster and gave him a healthy relationship with a live-in boyfriend… until things went to hell, obviously. It’s a horror movie! But that’s my own journey with Star Wars‘ OG monsters. They went from violent, faceless creatures to a generally chill people who don’t like invaders and take good care of their animal companions. You love to see it.

Stream Star Wars: A New Hope on Disney+

Stream The Mandalorian on Disney+