Shawna Trpcic, best known for her work on Firefly, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, passed away suddenly on October 4th while she was on vacation in the Palm desert. Her cause of death has not been disclosed at this time.

Trpcic began in films in 1990, first as an illustrator, then as wardrobe supervisor and assistant costume designer. Having found her métier in science fiction, she declared “I love working in sci-fi and fantasy because there are no rules as far as adhering to an already established style of a certain time period, but I truly love designing a character, no matter the setting.” As a costume designer in her own right she was billed under her birth name (Leavell) until 1993. Her best early work was in conjunction with Joss Whedon, notably on the TV shows Firefly (2002), Angel (1999) and Dollhouse (2009). Recently, Trpcic enjoyed an equally successful collaboration with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni on the Lucasfilm productions The Mandalorian (2019), The Book of Boba Fett (2021) and Ahsoka (2023). According to Filoni, Trpcic had a “deep love and appreciation for Star Wars”. She was reputed to have been fastidious in her research of techniques used in the making of earlier Star Wars films to create as authentic a look as possible, for instance “trying to find fabrics that were familiar in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, but use them in a more modern tech-looking way.”

Trpcic is survived by her mother Rana and her two children, Joseph and Sarah Trpcic and a memorial will be announced later. There is also a GoFundMe created by her children.