It’s just two weeks into the second season of The Mandalorian and we still have no idea exactly what’s happening. While some of the rumours have been true, many others have yet to materialise, leaving fans anxiously awaiting where this story is going to take us. The fact that Lucasfilm isn’t releasing any information on the episodes until the Monday after they debut is keeping lots of those secrets too.
If you haven’t already signed up to Disney+ so you can watch The Mandalorian, you can do so here.
This past weekend though, I happened to find what I believe to be a very minor spoiler in the Star Wars Card Trader by Topps (which means it was officially approved by Lucasfilm). And since spoilers are so hard to come by for The Mandalorian, we figured it was worth discussing.
[referenced id=”1527701″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/11/this-is-not-the-way-baby-yoda/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/10/i3ckez90yc3efwlcuvhc-300×169.png” title=”This Is Not the Way, Baby Yoda” excerpt=”The second episode of The Mandalorian’s second season took its central bounty hunter and his infant space gremlin son from the deserts of Tatooine to a dangerous new locale as part of a mission to help save a family. But within its larger, horror-driven plot, “The Passenger” ended up drawing…”]
This weekend, Star Wars Card Trader debuted a new set called “The Mandalorian Static Series 2.” It includes a card that looks to be a ship that’s yet to appear on the show, which means it could only be from an upcoming episode. The ship is some variation of an Arquitens class ship, most frequently seen in The Clone Wars. Though that ship was frequently used by the Jedi, there were also Arquitens-class command cruisers, which were sometimes used by the Empire. This image looks a bit closer to that. Here’s a screencap of the card.
We can’t be 100% sure what it is but since these images are official and approved by Lucasfilm, it leads us to assume The Mandalorian will feature a big-arse Imperial ship soon. That fact alone gives this second season much more scope. But whose ship is it? What does it mean?
We assume the ship is Moff Gideon’s, considering he’s the only uniformed Imperial officer we’ve seen on the show (and he’s going to play a bigger role in the next few episodes). While it may have initially seemed as if he merely had a small band of Stormtroopers at his disposal, as well as a single TIE Fighter, we’ve seen glimpses in The Mandalorian’s recent trailers of Imperial bases. A command cruiser is something much bigger of course, and if this ship is his, it changes his power considerably. If this is his command ship, obviously he has a lot more weapons and soldiers at his disposal. He could even have links to what will eventually become the First Order, for all we know.
All of that would make it much more difficult for Din Djarin to protect the Child from Gideon on his own. Our Mando is a great warrior, but not many pilots can defeat an entire squadron of TIEs and a huge cruiser by themselves. Which then brings to mind the scene at the end of Chapter 10, “The Passenger.” We now know the New Republic knows about the Mandalorian. Could that mean he’ll request their help with his mission to save the dear Baby Yoda? Could they fight Moff Gideon alongside him? Are all of these possibilities a bit too big for a show like The Mandalorian? We don’t know.
The fact that this ship is presumably on the way is a tiny but insignificant revelation. But hey, it’s Star Wars. We just go with it.