Nearly three years have passed since Star Wars' first Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, debuted alongside the platform itself. It's still unclear which factors most contributed to its success -- was it the surprise appearance of Baby Yoda? The compelling story? The stunning work of Pedro Pascal and the other men who bring the iconic suit to life in his absence? Of all the potential building blocks that structured the series into a hit, it's one piece of technology the show's creators credit for making The Mandalorian possible. It's affectionately called The Volume. And it's changing the way shows and movies are made right before our eyes.

The Volume -- officially called StageCraft -- was developed by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) division. A recent Vanity Fair story opened fans' imaginations to the possibilities of the wall capable of creating entire worlds. The curved LED surface can create whole foreign environments as if film crews were actually somewhere else. But with several Volumes now in Los Angeles and others being built elsewhere, there's no need to scour the globe to find what storytellers are looking for; they can craft it all digitally on a single sound stage.

RELATED: Is Grogu the Key to Force-Sensitive Clones?

The cost reduction over time, though only one of many benefits, may be responsible for The Mandalorian's consistent, impressive quality. According to Vanity Fair, The Volume largely if not completely eliminates the need to film on location. There's also less set-building involved, since backdrops and other elements can be created and displayed digitally with the enormous LED screen. A major concern when first developing the series was that it would end up costing too much -- and if Lucasfilm couldn't afford the massive investment, what it did produce instead would fall short of expectations in the way that gets shows canceled too soon.

The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau also spoke of another benefit to using The Volume over traditional sets: filming gets done faster. It doesn't matter the time of day; if a scene needs to be shot at night, The Volume can create artificial nighttime. Daylight will never run out like it would filming on location. Weather will never interfere with call times. Compared to filming a movie or show without the newer technology, the writer and producer said such projects can wrap filming in "half the time" one season of a TV show would normally take. At another point in the Vanity Fair story, Pascal mentioned that the uniqueness of Din Djarin spending most of his time wearing a helmet allows the actor to pursue other projects more freely. With less time spent on set thanks to The Volume in the future, who's to say actors across genres won't find themselves with newfound freedom to explore more opportunities than they've been able to before? Star Wars fans are always begging their favorite actors to make cameos in a galaxy far, far away; perhaps this is how their wishes will be granted.

RELATED: How The Mandalorian Can Benefit From A Broader Focus

The Seeing Stone on The Mandalorian

Without The Volume, Lucasfilm likely would have still found a way to make The Mandalorian happen in some capacity. But its existence eliminated the limitations that would have prevented much of the cinematography and effects that have brought Din Djarin's story to life. And The Mandalorian was really only the beginning. The Book of Boba Fett accomplished a lot visually in just seven episodes, taking viewers to multiple worlds rather than stranding them on Tatooine to theoretically save real-world money. Multiple additional live-action Star Wars shows are arriving within the next few years on top of what Disney+ will already continue to deliver with subsequent seasons of The Mandalorian. The more The Volume gets used, the more creators behind-the-scenes will learn about its capabilities.

Star Wars is only going to look better from here. It's what George Lucas likely always dreamed of while standing behind the camera bringing his own space opera stories to life. With lower production costs and faster production windows, it's possible the days of extended gaps in new Star Wars content are becoming a thing of the past.

The Mandalorian is available to stream exclusively on Disney+.