Now that The Book of Boba Fett has finally launched on Disney+, I’m curious about how much overlap of both cast and crew there is with The Mandalorian. Is there some way to compare the two cast and crew lists to see who’s in both?
What you seek is the Internet Movie Database, known informally as IMDb. It’s an amazing site for anyone with questions about movies, TV shows, streaming series, production crews, even box office results for films going back decades. It’s also a site that the pros rely on too, when they want to know what other productions someone’s been involved with, which special effects companies were involved in the CGI of a new film, shooting locations of an older fantasy show, voice cast for a popular video game, and much, much more.
I’ve been a big IMDb fan forever, which makes sense since I’m a media enthusiast too, both watching and writing about movies (over on my PlanetDave.com site, if you’re curious). It’s the perfect spot to answer questions like “What Films have both Brad Pitt and George Clooney been involved with?” or, as you inquire, “Who was involved in both The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian?”
Let’s have a look!
ADVANCED SEARCH ON IMDB – THE INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE
Start out by jumping over to www. IMDb.com, where you’ll see this search bar along the top:
Click on “All” and a menu of search options appears:
As highlighted, choose “Advanced Search” and you’ll find that there’s quite a bit of power hidden in this IMDb search feature. Here’s what is revealed:
You can see that the searches can get quite a bit more sophisticated. You can even search for movies that include “alligator” in their plot description or celebrities who mention “arrested” or “tattoo” in their biographies! Along the top the searches let you dial in a really specific search that’s the intersection of a variety of criteria, search for people with specific birthdays and other criteria and, the one we seek, search collaborations.
Choose “Search Collaborations” to proceed.
IMDB COLLABORATION SEARCHES: CAST AND CREW OVERLAP
The collaboration search box is pretty straightforward:
Let’s start with the left side; two people in the same title. As suggested, let’s try Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
Key to know: You must choo0se a suggested match when entering these names:
Enter Brad and George’s names, click “Search” and you’ll be astonished at how many times the two talented actors have appeared in the same movies, documentaries, TV interviews, and other productions:
Did you catch the number? The two have appeared in 56 productions together. Notice also that these search results include both the IMDb rating (7.7 for Ocean’s Eleven), Metacritic score (74 for Ocean’s Eleven), year of release (2001) and even box office gross ($183.4 million). You can definitely settle a lot of bets with this industry information, no question.
COLLABORATION: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT & THE MANDALORIAN
With all that explained, let’s go back to the collaboration search – and you can use the shortcut imdb.com/search/common/ if you prefer – and search for “Two Titles with the Same People”. Enter The Mandalorian, matching the 2019 release info, and The Book of Boba Fett, matching the 2021 release, as shown:
Before we proceed, any guesses about how many people appear in both cast and crew lists? 20? 45? Check it out:
353 names appear on both cast and crew lists. Basically, it’s all the same people; it might be more interesting to search for who doesn’t appear on both lists, but that’s not (yet) something IMDb offers. Suffice to say, there’s a reason both shows appear so similar; same cast, same production team, same producer, same sets, same special effects teams, probably the same catering company!
One more bonus search for you to do yourself: What’s the cast overlap between the gripping Korean phenom Squid Game and the new Korean sci-fi thriller The Silent Sea? Here’s the search:
Now you know exactly how to find out which cast and crew appear in both, right? Go to it!
Pro Tip: I’ve been a fan of IMDb since before it was acquired by Amazon.com, and have written about how to use it many times. It’s just one of the many topics you’ll find in my “None Of The Above” category. Please click thru and check it out!
