Something is bubbling in a galaxy far, far away and it could be hinting at the future for a long time. A long time.
The first three episodes of The Mandalorian season two have all felt, somehow, bigger in mythology than the first. Season one introduced the Child (our beloved scamp Baby Yoda), and with him, huge questions about his relationship with the Force. But beyond that, the show was pretty specifically linked to Din Djarin and his exploits. However, the sophomore season has opened up the scope significantly, introducing fan-favourite characters with more to come, and the whole thing got us thinking.
By our account right now we’ve got Boba Fett (probably), Bo-Katan (definitely), and we will almost certainly soon have Ahsoka Tano. As she usually is, Ahsoka is the key. Depending on if, when, and how the padawan of Anakin Skywalker gets introduced into The Mandalorian, she opens up almost infinite possibilities of where and how big this story could go. Possibilities that could lay outside of just The Mandalorian.
Ahsoka isn’t some random badass in beskar armour. She knew Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker. She fought Darth Maul. She knew Anakin had a relationship with Padmé Amidala, and that he eventually turned into Darth Vader (and fought him too). She also helped the Ghost team, which included two Jedi, join the Rebel Alliance. She’s a walking Wookieepedia of Star Wars knowledge, unlike almost any other character that’s still alive. Her seeing the Child (whose species is known to have served on the Jedi Council), Boba Fett, or other familiar faces could instantly inspire and change the way characters see themselves and the universe.
We also know that, just before the time The Mandalorian is set, Ahsoka teamed up with Mandalorian Sabine Wren to find Jedi Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn. That’s happening while a Force-strong Baby Yoda is floating around wanted by the Empire, Bo-Katan is planning on taking back Mandalore, and the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter (most likely) survived the Sarlacc and wants his armour back. Even more importantly, we also know none of these characters play any major role in the battle between the Resistance and the First Order that will, in the next couple of decades beyond The Mandalorian, see the rise and fall of Kylo Ren, the destruction of the New Republic, Starkiller Base, the return of Palpatine, and the fall of Exegol and its Final Order.
The problem you run into with all these stories happening in the same universe is fans know these other characters are out there and not interacting. So to some, it might seem cowardly for, say, Ahsoka to not help Rey defeat Palpatine. Well, outside of an inspirational Force groupchat at the end of The Rise of Skywalker. Because of this, storytellers have to come up with reasons for the characters not being around.
Clone Wars, Rebels, and Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni is the master at this. Why isn’t Kanan Jarrus there to help his fellow Jedi? He was killed saving his friends. Why isn’t Ezra Bridger around? He disappeared in a selfless act, taking Thrawn with him. Where was Ahsoka for Anakin’s fall? She left the Jedi Order. As The Mandalorian moves on now, and especially since it’s introducing more powerful, knowledgeable characters like Ahsoka and Bo-Katan, their whereabouts in the future will have to be covered too. (Not so much the Mandalorian himself though; we very easily understand why he wouldn’t be involved. It’s baked into his character.)
The best way to cover these story issues is to give the characters their own tales. Ahsoka, Bo-Katan, and Ezra can’t team up with Leia, Rey, Finn, and Poe if they have very important problems to deal with on the other side of the galaxy. In the case of people like Moff Gideon, their place in seasons of a grounded, smaller-scaled show like The Mandalorian feels right. But once we start talking about the Jedi, Grand Admirals, another of Yoda’s species, it feels bigger than that. Bigger than a show about a lone bounty hunter.
That’s why we think The Mandalorian is doing one of two things right now. It could be arranging not only the future of this series, but future Disney+ shows, or more intriguingly, setting up the future of Star Wars feature films to come. Don’t forget, there had been talk previously of Mandalorian characters appearing in movies and spin-offs. What better way to pay off some of these big ideas and connect canon than by having a few of these characters feature in a new Star Wars trilogy? We’d get a new, epic adventure while also explaining why their particular stories don’t impact the Skywalker Saga as we know it.
It’s easy to imagine some multi-part series that stars Ahsoka, Baby Yoda, and maybe Ezra, in which they help Bo-Katan and Sabine in one movie, defeat Thrawn in the next, and dive deeper into the Force and explore the Mortis storyline too. All the biggest and best dangling threads in the works of Dave Filoni all coming together as one? If the Skywalker Saga was the first phase of the Star Wars Universe, the current episodes of The Mandalorian strongly hint some kind of “Filoni Saga” could be next. Maybe The Mandalorian is nothing more than a modern version of the Prequels.
Of course, this is nothing but wild fan speculation at this point. However, the fact that more and more Filoni characters are being brought into live-action feels like it’s seeding something. Something that could be bigger than The Mandalorian or any streaming show. We just don’t know exactly what yet. The rest of this season of The Mandalorian will probably give us a hint, but whatever happens, we believe the clues are already there.