Unsurprisingly, a third season of The Mandalorian is on the way. After wrapping up the tantalizing new spin-off The Book of Boba Fett, Favreau and co. will shift their focus to the continuing adventures of Din Djarin. In order to cement its longevity following the jaw-dropping events of “Chapter 16: The Rescue,” The Mandalorian season 3 might have to morph into a different show.
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian were defined by Mando’s father-son dynamic with Grogu. In the pilot episode, fans met a lone gunslinger who only looked out for himself. Then, in the episode’s final moments, he shot a droid in the head to protect a baby. After the mind-blowing “Chapter 3: The Sin,” the driving force behind the story – albeit constantly beset by side missions – was Mando’s quest to reunite Grogu with his people. In the bombshell final scene of “The Rescue,” Luke Skywalker arrived on Moff Gideon’s Imperial cruiser to take Grogu away and train him in the ways of the Force, so that storyline is over.
Effectively, this episode could’ve been a series finale, because it concluded the emotional crux of the show: Mando achieved the goal he set out to accomplish, Grogu managed to survive the Imperial Remnants’ manhunt for him, and the two had a heartbreaking farewell in which Mando finally showed Grogu his face (mirroring a redeemed Darth Vader looking at Luke with his own eyes in Return of the Jedi). Season 3 setups aside, if this had been the final episode of the series, it would’ve been a satisfying one. Mando’s tearful goodbye to Grogu was cathartic enough to mark the end of the story.
The cliffhangers in “The Rescue” – namely the fact that Mando has unwittingly claimed the Darksaber, the one thing Bo-Katan wants most in the galaxy, and the only way to acquire it honorably is in combat – could be from the pilot episode of a totally different Star Wars series. All the plot threads the season 2 finale left hanging are unrelated to the show’s established conflicts. The Darksaber conundrum has dragged Mando into Bo-Katan and Moff Gideon’s own ongoing conflict.
Moff Gideon has been the “big bad” presiding over the first two seasons of The Mandalorian. He was the Imperial bureaucrat who wanted to kidnap Grogu, extract his blood, and (seemingly) use his sky-high M-count to create a Force-sensitive clone army. But after the climactic events of the season 2 finale, Gideon is now a prisoner in Mando’s custody. It’s unclear where his arc will go next – maybe he’ll just be left to repent in a prison cell. Whatever the plan is, hopefully they keep the character around, because he’s already one of Star Wars’ best villains and Giancarlo Esposito is too great of an actor to lose. Gideon’s vast moff-level knowledge of the Imperial Remnants could be a useful asset in the New Republic’s fight against the Empire’s return – but he won’t give up the information easily.
It seems unlikely that Luke will train Grogu on the show. As fun as it would be for Luke to teach “Baby Yoda” after he was taught by an elderly Yoda, the de-aging CGI isn’t strong enough to sustain a full supporting role and, frankly, that storyline just wouldn’t fit into The Mandalorian. Luke would probably be lenient on the whole “no attachments” thing, given that he abandoned his own Jedi training to save his best friends, but even if Mando makes weekly visits to check on Grogu’s progress, it would ultimately be a detriment to the show. Saying goodbye to Grogu means Mando is a lone gunslinger once more. The show can explore how Mando’s time looking after the kid has evolved his personality through the changes he makes when he goes back to his old life.
Grogu might only make a cameo appearance – or not show up at all – in The Mandalorian’s third season. That storyline is over and if the show is going to have the kind of longevity it needs, it’ll have to cut Grogu loose (at least for now). Leaving the cutest character in the Star Wars universe behind won’t be easy, but he’ll be back. For now, The Mandalorian needs to refocus on Din himself. In season 2’s penultimate installment “Chapter 15: The Believer,” Mayfeld’s cracks about Mando’s creeds – and about creeds in general – seemed to really affect him and make him question the Mandalorian religion.
Season 3 is primed to chronicle the rebirth of Mandalore and the fight for the throne. Fighting for a throne is a tired fantasy story, but The Mandalorian has already put a neat twist on it: Din doesn’t even want the throne; it’s just that the person who wants the throne more than anyone has to best him in combat to claim it. The show can really dig into Mandalorian culture and the Mandalorian belief system, and whether or not Mando himself is still committed to the Way of the Mandalore after breaking it to save Grogu and having his life threatened by a silly technicality.