Kotsur’s work appears in “The Gunslinger,” chapter five of The Mandalorian. The episode finds the titular character (Pedro Pascal) reluctantly agreeing to help young bounty hunter Toro Calican (Jake Cannavale) capture Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). While tracking Shand across the deserts of Tatooine, the pair arrives in Tusken-controlled territory. Where Calican suggests they just shoot their way through the Raiders, Mando treats the Tuskens with dignity and bargains with them for safe passage. For Kotsur, the entire project began with finding a way to portray the Tuskens with respect. While developing the language, he “did research on the culture and environment of Tusken Raiders.” This work made him realize that he must “avoid ASL (American Sign Language)” and ensure that the characters used “Tusken Sign language based on their culture and environment.” Through Kotsur’s work, the Tuskens were shown to be fully-developed people, with needs and culture, all relayed to the audience through the use of the actors’ bodies. That’s a big difference from audiences’ first introduction to Tusken Raiders, way back in 1977’s original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker encounters them for the first time while looking for the runaway droid R2-D2. Derisively calling them “sand people,” Luke describes them as if they were merely slightly-evolved animals or barbarians. The film seems to bear that out when the first Raider leaps into Luke’s sight, attacking him with a guttural bark. Thanks to the work of Kotsur and others, Star Wars fans now see another side to Tuskens, one with far more dignity. “When I was eight years old, I dreamed to be part of Star Wars. Many, many years later, almost 40 years later- it is fate.”
