Season 3 was a journey, but they stuck the landing.
The third season of The Mandalorianwrapped on Wednesday, and it was exactly what the franchise needed. As a whole, Season 3 has had its ups and downs with some meandering storylines and wondering where things would go.
WARNING: Spoilers for the season finale of The Mandalorian follow. Continue at your own risk.
Well worry no more. Showrunners Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau stuck the landing in the final episode, getting back to what made The Mandalorian such a hit to begin with.
We had so much Grogu and Din Djarin screen time, impressive fight scenes and high stakes moments. After last week’s episode, fans were prepared for the worst: Another heartbreaking finale. The titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin, had been captured by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and the rest of the Mandalorians looked trapped and sweet baby Grogu was stressed by the proceedings while still moving about in his IG-12 ride.
For the first time in the show’s history, we got a finale that didn’t crush our entire spirit. Din Djarin, Bo-Katan and Grogu all traded fight assists, helping each other defeat (for now) Gideon and reclaim Mandalore. We saw Grogu employ skills learned from both his helmeted dad and from his days with Luke Skywalker, and we got a very Guardians of the Galaxy/Groot moment as our little green buddy used the Force to save the trio from deadly flames.
But most importantly, we got an official family happy ending for Djarin and the newly-adopted Din Grogu (we also learned that Din was his family name all along).
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect episode. The destruction of the dark saber seemed anti-climactic (all that anguish over something we lost so quickly?), and concerns about trying to connect the dots to the final trilogy that received mixed reviews.
While solo episodes like those that followed former Imperial officers on questionable searches or trips to meet Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd were hit or miss for many, this return to the formula down the back-half of the season helped close things on a high note.
We also now have an idea what we will see in Season 4 as Din Djarin will have to take his new apprentice and son Din Grogu on journeys to learn the way of the guild. Sign me up for Din family adventures.
Here, let’s save you five minutes of watching the credits for the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian (although I love seeing the painted stills from the episode and hearing that awesome theme song that slaps).
Why? I don’t have a good answer. But all I’ll say without spoiling anything is: It’s not a bad thing because the final scene of the season was just that good.
There you have it. Happy watching and hope you’re satisfied by what ended up being a great episode of television.
/ the mandalorian spoilers #TheMandalorian // – – – Me after watching all the credits to see there’s no post credit scene
First: The Darksaber was destroyed by Moff Gideon. That was kind of wild given its history and importance to the Star Wars universe. But maybe it ultimately wasn’t necessary in the end?
Second and way more awesome: Grogu is now DIN DJARIN’S ADOPTED SON! WHEEEE!
Of course fans of the show shared all the memes after the finale dropped on Wednesday:
Grogu, more affectionately known as Baby Yoda, has captured the hearts of The Mandalorian fans — and the Mandalorian himself — since his cute face popped up in November of 2019. Well, we’re now in the third season of the streaming Disney+ series, and 22 chapters later, he’s still the absolute best.
In the series’ latest episode, Chapter 23, Din Djarin and Grogu are reunited with their former droid pal, IG-11. Well, kind of.
If you remember, IG-11 was the bounty hunter droid that Mando stopped from killing Grogu in Chapter 1. It later was re-purposed by Kuiil to be a nanny droid whose mission was to protect our sweet green baby.
After IG-11 (voiced by Taika Waititi) sacrificed itself so the group could survive at the end of Season 1, Din Djarin made it his mission to once again bring it back to life.
Without the proper circuitry, however, IG-11 defaulted to the old murderbot settings. Not ideal. Enter the Anzellans, who came up with a pretty great fix: Let Grogu control the now-dubbed IG-12. What could go wrong?!
“Grogu is too young to operate heavy machinery.”
Immediately, our guy Mando knows this is a disaster in the making. Grogu, with a newfound voice, disagrees. It’s peak comedy and also the cutest thing we’ve ever seen.
Although things got much, much tenser later in the episode, everyone loved the entire sequence from seeing the Anzellans again (Bad baby! No squeezies!) to Grogu mashing that YES button all through the market.
Y’all. It’s finally here. It’s finally happening. The moment that all of the nerds like me who have been gobbling up the animated Star Wars content for years have been waiting for has finally arrived.
This is a character that those of us who watched the animated Star Wars content are more than familiar with. She was first introduced as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice in the Clone Wars series. Since then, she’s blossomed into a fan favorite.
Now, she’s got her own series held within the Mando-verse. And she’s hunting down the newest big bad in the series — Grand Admiral Thrawn.
As someone who has consumed every piece of Star Wars animated content possible, this is so fulfilling, man.
We’ve met the Ahsoka character — played by Rosario Dawson — in live action before in The Mandalorian series. Now, she’s taking the spotlight for a spell and it looks great. This trailer is jam-packed with lots of lightsaber action.
Not only is Ahsoka showing up in this series, but the series is basically doubling as a Star Wars: Rebels reunion, too. That series was set in the years following the fall of the Republic and Order 66. It starts slow but gets pretty great and ends unbelievably well.
So many of those characters are showing up in this series.
It’s going to be an absolute treat. But the big thing to note here is that Grand Admiral Thrawn is back. And that’s a huge deal.
For those of you who don’t know Thrawn, he’s a military genius and an absolute conqueror. He isn’t Sith, but he’s just as sinister. If there was a big bad who was just a step below Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, it’d be Thrawn.
The newest episode of The Mandalorian hit the streaming platform Disney+ today as Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Baby Yoda (Grogu) and Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) continued on their journey across the galaxy. Last week, the trio set off in order to reunite with Bo-Katan’s former Mandalorian clan and fold them in with the rest of the always-helmeted group.
This week, Bo-Katan tracks her faction of Mandalorians — who are now mercenaries-for-hire across outer space in the Imperial ships they stole back in Season 2 — to a very lavish world with a battle droid problem.
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUT CHAPTER 22 FOLLOW!
We get three incredible cameos as Din Djarin and Bo-Katan are roped into handling the rogue robots. The leaders of this opulent planet? No other than the iconic singer/flautist Lizzo and actor Jack Black. Their head of security that has a bunch of misbehaving machines on his hands? That would be… Christopher Lloyd.
Unsurprisingly, everyone lost it at the appearance of the eclectic-yet-incredible trio.
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The Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian featured one of our absolute favorites.
If you haven’t watched the Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian, stop right now and go do watch it. We’ll wait. Go on.
Ok, you good? I hope so, because there will be spoilers for The Mandalorian going forward.
If you didn’t watch The Book of Boba Fett — or just forgot what happened — our favorite little green munchkin Grogu (although he’s always going to be Baby Yoda to us) gave up Jedi training and reunited with his (and the internet’s) favorite Mandalorian dad, Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal).
Ok, so it’s likely not Babu Frik — instead just another member of the Anzellan species — but man it was amazing to see anything that reminds us of our little droid mechanic back on the screen. Since Mando is using the Anzellans (yes, plural! There were many!) to try and repair the IG-11 unit that we got to know and love during Season 1, it stands to reason that we will see them at least one more time.
The internet LOVED the re-appearance of our favorite little critters.
The Mandalorian is in one of the most interesting spots of the Star Wars timeline
As an avid Star Wars fan, I must admit that the saga can get extremely confusing at times.
The continuity is filled with so many different characters and different timelines. It’s easy to get things mixed up here and there — especially when it comes to actually placing the moments we’re all watching together on an actual canonical timeline.
All of what I just said can be used to describe how most people feel about The Mandalorian at this point. Everyone loves the show, but no one is exactly sure *when* it is in the Star Wars timeline.
Yes, we know what’s going on in the series (and if you don’t here’s a quick catch-up). And we also generally know when it takes place. But specifically? Not really. We’re not even sure if Jon Favreau — the show’s creator — actually knows. He’s just telling us as he goes along.
The general answer for some would be probably, with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens rocket launching the galaxy back for five movies (so far), plenty of television shows (so far) and little doodads like that Baby Yoda/Studio Ghibli collab.
The over-saturation that has plagued the Marvel Cinematic Universe of late seems to be creeping itself into the Skywalker saga, with last year’s The Book of Boba Fett basically an honorary season of The Mandalorian that some folks seemed to accidentally skip over.
If you’re lost, all hell broke loose for Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin (er, the Mandalorian) when he took his helmet off to say goodbye to Baby Yoda (…Grogu) at the end of The Mandalorian‘s second season.
The challenge for The Mandalorian going forward might also be its appeal.
Disney/Lucasfilm
We’re going to get a loosely threaded grand narrative, as Djarin has to go find a magic bath on his ransacked home planet to get back in good graces with his people. However, there’s now also space pirates chasing after him for something that happens in season three’s first episode. Taika Waititi’s IG-11 robot might not be dead. Little Babu Friks and Salacious B. Crumbs show up. Star Wars Carl Weathers is still doing Star Wars Carl Weathers things. Apparently Star Wars has Lake Placid-sized crocodile turtles now, too.
The unnecessary business of plot threads’ past and the delightful dorkiness of serialized Star Wars storytelling will come to blows with this latest Mandalorian season, and which side of this approach wins out will be critical to whatever future these live-action television shows have.
Disney will undoubtedly want the Lucasfilm fanfare back in theaters sooner than later, and with so many television shows in development, it begs the question: will people ever tire of watching this at home?
The easiest remedy is letting The Mandalorian be itself and keep grander narratives on the back burner, which thankfully happens in spurts during the third season’s first go-around.
Disney/Lucasfilm
If you’ve watched this latest episode, then you know that Mando and Baby Yoda have the general goal this season to get to the remnants of Mandalore and save Mando’s helmet-removing butt by washing him in their holy pools. This, apparently, is the way for redemption. It’s all a little extra, but then again, if the helmet removal is that big of a deal, then so be it.
The new wrinkle looks to be space pirates, led by the plant-based pirate king Gorian Shard. Shard looks like if someone crossed Boss Nass from The Phantom Menace with Old Gregg from The Mighty Boosh. Shard is irate with Mando now that he’s killed a bunch of his space pirates in both a confrontation on Nevarro City (where Weathers’ Greef Karga now runs the show) and in a space battle by Shard’s big pirate ship.
So keep a tab on the most evil pirate fern in the galaxy for later in the season.
Also, we get to meet the disembodied remains of IG-11, who died in The Mandalorian‘s first season. The robot’s resurrection is now a side quest for Djarin and Grogu as they try to find all the little Babu Friks in Nevarro City some sort of memory processor thingamajig so that the little aliens can fix him to help Mando with the main mission on Mandalore (say that five times fast). Note: apparently, these little Babu Friks (Anzellans) aren’t the Babu Frik from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As you were.
Disney/Lucasfilm
As the episode closes, we also get a side detour to where Bo-Katan is hanging out at her big Mandalorian castle. If you’ll recall from the show’s second season, Bo-Katan was the leader of a rogue group of Mandalorians that Djarin knew from back in the day. They allow themselves to take the helmet off, which seems very logical and Djarin should’ve just teamed up with them so he could take his helmet off, too, but whatever.
In season three’s first 30 minutes, we cover a lot of ground. Those absolutely befuddled as to what’s going on will have to take a few hops back on the Star Wars game board to The Book of Boba Fett to update yourself on what’s going on. For those “in the know,” you know what you came for.
While the dialogue remains a bit stilted and the grander stakes a bit low on tread, watching Baby Yoda hug a Babu Frik and seeing Djarin zip around in his space cruiser and blast space pirates into asteroids to Ludwig Göransson’s techno-thumping score remain the kind of joys that make this show worth coming back to.
At least one episode in, The Mandalorian is doing everything it used to do. It’s become the safest bet for Lucasfilm in the Disney era, but one wonders if safety will keep this show from ever really taking some risks. If The Mandalorian is tasty Star Wars comfort food, then that’s what it should be. It just begs the question of when folks will get full on frog eggs and want more franchise divergence like Star Wars: The Last Jedi or Andor.
For now, fun adventures with Djarin and Baby Yoda will certainly scratch the itch. The more spirited and disconnected these episodes are, the better.
WARNING: POSSIBLE MANDALORIAN SEASON 3 SPOILERS AHEAD!
Ready? OK.
So: I’m a huge Star Wars fan. But for some reason, even when everyone told me The Book of Boba Fett was really just a half season of The Mandalorian squeezed in, I completely forgot to watch and figured it’d be fine to start Season 3 without it.
Turns out that’s not the case. Because when we last saw Grogu, he was going to be trained in the Force by some guy named Luke Skywalker.
But apparently some stuff happened that got Grogu back with Mando — our Mitchell Northam has a great recap of what happened to them in Book of Boba Fett — and so fans are mad, understandably so!
Perhaps even sillier than the leads of two other Arrow-verse shows getting married in an episode of Legends of Tomorrow. Not everybody watches every series in a franchise, guys. https://t.co/ZQ8A2LnYcZ
A moment of silence for all the casual viewers of #TheMandalorian who tune in today without seeing the Book of Boba Fett and getting confused about why Grogu is suddenly back with Mando pic.twitter.com/2WFA7A2KM2
#TheMandalorian Season 3 got off to a great start, although the 'Previously On' didn't recap nearly enough of what went down in The Book of Boba Fett. There's also a fun treat in this episode that #StarWarsRebels fans will enjoy.
Solid opening to season 3. RIP to those people who skipped Book of Boba Fett, just dropped back in the middle of things with 0 explanation unless you watched it 🤣 #TheMandalorian
