Why Do Jawas’ Eyes Glow?

Throughout their «Star Wars» franchise appearances, Jawas predominantly appear on Tatooine. They sell the Lars family some droids, wander around Mos Eisley seeking out people in need of their trinkets and treasures, and bother Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) in her hangar from time to time. One named Teeka (Leilani Shiu) is even responsible for giving Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) a model T-16 Skyhopper, which he gifts to Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) during their first meeting. In all of these instances, they look pretty much the same — orange eyes and all.

However, Season 1 of the Disney+ hit «The Mandalorian» takes the Jawas in a new visual direction. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) encounters a group of them not on Tatooine, but Arvala-7. These ones still don tattered robes with hoods, ride around in a towering Sandcrawler, and scrounge for sellable scrap, but they look slightly different. Their clothes are brownish-gray rather than reddish-brown, and their eyes glow red instead of orange. It seems they simply adapted to their new surroundings and opted to cover their eyes with a different kind of gem — or perhaps, red is the true color of a Jawa’s eye.

Though it has been decades since their «Star Wars» franchise introduction, mystery still surrounds the Jawas and their true canonical appearance. Maybe someday we’ll know more about their culture and what they look like beneath their hoods and behind their glowing gemstone glasses.