'The Mandalorian' Season Three Is Already Heading In a Totally New Direction
The following contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season Two finale. This is the way.
In the closing moments of The Mandalorian Season Two, Jon Favreau once again changed everything. Though it was largely disconnected from the main movies and the Skywalker Saga in its first two seasons, The Mandalorian did the impossible, bringing a young Luke face-to-face with Baby Yoda and Mando.
With a heartbreaking goodbye, Luke takes lil Grogu away from Daddy Mando to get trained in the Jedi ways. Giancarlo Esposito's Moff Gideon remains in Mando's custody. There's some tension between Mando and Bo-Katan over the Darksaber, which must be won in combat and makes its owner the leader of the Mandalorians. And Boba Fett, along with literally everyone else, is getting his own Star Wars spinoff. It's an entirely new future for The Mandalorian, so what's going to happen in Season Three?
When Will The Mandalorian Season Three Be Released?
The good news is that there will be no shortage of Star Wars content going forward, with a number of spin-offs coming in 2021. The slightly bad news is that The Mandalorian Season Three will return slightly later than normal, with Disney confirming that the release date is Christmas 2021. That's all we know so far.
What Will The Mandalorian Season Three Be About?
This is the fun part. Between Season One and Season Two, we knew that The Mandalorian would pick up with Mando trying to return Baby Yoda to his Baby Yoda people. However, with this ending, Mando's path is a lot less clear. Baby Yoda is off to train in the Jedi ways with Luke Skywalker. So what is Mando to do next, now that he's presumably completed the adventure he began when he touched fingers with the little guy in that Imperial base?
One would presume that somehow Baby Yoda and Mando will be reunited again, because what would The Mandalorian be without the only good father-son relationship in the whole goddamn Star Wars universe? I would also be stunned if The Mandalorian included a lot more CGI young Luke Skywalker. In this brief cameo, the CGI wasn't the best, and Disney can't have this turning into The Questionably CGI Young Luke Skywalker Series.
So how do Baby Yoda and Luke part ways? Does Luke screw up another pupil, sensing the dark side in Baby Yoda that we've seen and banishing him from his new Jedi Temple? Does Mando have to step in to stop Luke from killing his own pupil like he tries to do with Ben Solo? That would be insane. Could there be something of a time jump to Teen Yoda, who misses his adopted daddy and abandons Luke to go find Mando? Does Mando get into some shit and Teen Yoda sets off to save him this time? There are 19 years between The Mandalorian and the moment Luke's Jedi Temple gets destroyed by Ben Solo. Could there possibly be a 19 year time jump, and Mando must reunite with Baby Yoda who survives after Luke's exile?
That's only one part of the equation. When we leave our heroes, they're just hanging out on the deck of an Imperial destroyer with a high profile target in their custody. What the hell are they gonna do? Well, for one thing, we know there's more Moff Gideon ahead.
"In some ways, history repeats itself," Giancarlo Esposito told Esquire in an interview ahead of the Season Two finale. "I think Moff Gideon is very elusive and has had a piece in every part of the Empire. I think you'll start to see that and it'll be a real clue when you see the finale."
There's obviously some tension between Bo-Katan, who wants the Darksaber, and Mando, who won it off Moff Gideon. Even though there has to be a peaceful way to solve that problem, it likely wouldn't make for good storytelling. So, I'd imagine that will be a major plot point going forward.
Anything could happen at this point, and that's what makes this such a fun, game-changing finale. The Mandalorian, when it returns, will be an entirely different show.
You Might Also Like
