The Mandalorian's newest monster is based on old Star Wars concept art

 Spoilers ahead for The Mandalorian season 2 episode 2 'The Passenger'. 

After a season premiere filled with interesting creatures, characters, and references, The Mandalorian continues to be a love letter to all things Star Wars. Last episode, the big bad was a Krayt Dragon. Fans may have recognised it from from A New Hope, where the Krayt Dragon is first seen in the form of a skeleton on Tatooine, and the video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, where it made its first live appearance.

The newest episode of Disney Plus' hit TV show continues to introduce us to fearsome creatures, this time in the form of giant white spiders with gaping mouths full of sharp teeth. The Mandalorian, accompanied as ever by The Child and harbouring 'Frog Lady' and her eggs, comes across these horrifying arachnids after crash landing on an icy planet. 

In The Child's seemingly unending search for food, he eats an unhatched spider from out of its egg, and in the process provokes every single one of the creatures in the ice cave. These spiders are terrifying simply because of their arachnid form. It has proven an extremely popular and effective monster to use in fantasy and sci-fi film and television, and these spiders evoke memories of various eight-legged creatures from the likes of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. 

What you might not have known is that The Mandalorian's spiders first appeared in concept art for The Empire Strikes Back, drawn by Ralph McQuarrie. The creatures were meant to appear on the planet Dagobah, where Luke meets Yoda. Yet they never made into the film. 

The giant white spiders finally saw the light of day when the art inspired creatures that appeared in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. They were known as Krykna and were included in several episodes throughout the series. This is the only on-screen appearance that the creatures have made, and given that they were resistant to blaster bolts it seems unlikely that the spiders in The Mandalorian are the same species. 

These spiders are clearly directly inspired by the concept art, as you can tell from the eggs surrounding Luke in the picture, similarly to how Mando and The Child are surrounded in the latest episode. They were fearsome foes, just like the Krayt Dragon from the episode before. 

Let's hope that The Mandalorian continues to reference creatures and characters from throughout the Star Wars universe that we can look forward to spotting. Episode 3 debuts next Friday, 13th November, on Disney Plus.