The Mandalorian has been away for over two years now — and if you’ve not been keeping up on, say, when Din Djarin and his little green friend decide to butt in on other people’s shows, a lot’s happened in the years between seasons two and three. This is what you need to remember ahead of tomorrow’s big Disney+ premiere.
Mando Has the Darksaber Now…
At the climax of season two, by besting Moff Gideon in combat aboard his cruiser, Din inadvertently takes ownership of the Darksaber — the ancient Mandalorian lightsaber that has, for centuries, been seen by his adoptive people as the physical rite to rule Mandalore itself as the unified leader of the clans, the Mand’alor.
… And Nobody Is Happy About It
The thing is, Din didn’t realise the weapon’s specific importance. So his new-ish ally Bo-Katan Kryze — the sister of Clone Wars’ Duchess Satine, the former ruler of Mandalore, and herself the brief leader of the Mandalorian resistance before the Empire ravaged the planet — is furious that he has it, because the only way she can now honorably acquire it herself is to defeat him in ritual combat, which Din does not want to happen. So her own plans to return to Mandalore and rule her people have been upended.
Also, he keeps slicing himself open trying to use a lightsaber he doesn’t know how to use, so there’s also that. He’s not even happy with himself!
Moff Gideon Is in New Republic Custody
That defeat at Din’s hands concluded with Moff Gideon in captivity, and we eventually learn in The Book of Boba Fett that the former Imperial Remnant officer is now in the custody of the fledgling New Republic, awaiting a trial for his crimes. Din believes Gideon will be executed by the Republic, but we’re going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that doesn’t happen in season three.
Mando’s Clan Has Disowned Him…
We also learn in Book of Boba Fett that the Armorer and Paz Viszla — seemingly some of the only remaining Mandalorian survivors of Din’s old covert — have now excommunicated Din as well. Not because of the whole Darksaber/Bo-Katan thing, but because he admits to having removed his helmet, showing his face to Grogu at the climax of season two. This is strictly against the clan’s rules, and so after a brief duel between Paz and Din over the Darksaber, he’s told he’s on his own.
… And He’s on a Mission to Change That
That is, unless he does one thing to win the Armorer’s approval back — in trailers for this season, we see her tell Din that he can reclaim his place alongside her and Viszla by journeying to Mandalore, and bathing in the waters of caves under the now-ravaged surface of the war-torn planet. Whether or not he’ll do that, or even embrace returning to the clan that has ousted him, remains to be seen.
Grogu’s Not With Luke Any More
Back in The Book of Boba Fett territory again, we also saw that Grogu was having a tough time learning about the Jedi approach to attachment after having gone with Luke Skywalker at the end of Mandalorian season two. Given an ultimatum by Luke, Grogu was offered the chance to continue training with him, or to return to his adoptive father figure — and he immediately chose the latter, making his way to Tatooine just in time to join Din on an adventure with Boba Fett.
Mando Has a New Ride Now
Before that happens, Din also decides in Book of Boba Fett to replace the Razor Crest, after Moff Gideon destroyed it during the events of Mandalorian season two. With the help of Pelli Motto, he heavily modifies a Naboo N-1 Starfighter to be his new ship of choice — with its Astromech port even reworked into a secondary passenger seat for a certain little green baby. Will it make his bounty hunting job a bit harder? Probably. But he doesn’t seem to care all that much.
Luke’s Busy Building His Jedi Academy
In between slicing up Dark Troopers and being fobbed off by Grogu, Luke has now also begun the process of building his Jedi Academy to train a new generation of students (that is unless he keeps offering them the choice of training or getting the hell out). It was established in the novel Shadow of the Sith that the planet we see Luke and a veritable army of insectoid-looking worker droids building the facility on is Ossus — a planet that was formerly a major location in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, and a site of the New Jedi Order’s own Temple during the Yuuzhan Vong war.
Ahsoka Is Going Off to Find Grand Admiral Thrawn
Ahsoka formed a major part of The Mandalorian’s second season, pushing Din in the eventual direction of Luke after the Bounty Hunter tracked her down to the planet Calodan, hoping that she would be the one to train Grogu as a Jedi. Ahsoka had other plans, as we learned there that she was seeking information on the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn — the Chiss Imperial last seen in the finale of Star Wars Rebels, where he, his flagship the Chimera, and the young Jedi apprentice Ezra Bridger were whisked away to parts unknown by some hyperspace-capable space whales.
We’ve known since Rebels’ climactic epilogue that Ahsoka would eventually go on an adventure to try and find Ezra, but in the years since — and since her appearances in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett — we’ve come to learn that she’ll be getting her own self-titled Disney+ series to do so.
Boba Fett and Fennec Shand Are… Doing Something on Tatooine, I Guess
If all the times we’ve mentioned Book of Boba Fett so far makes you think you should watch it, well… not really, no. All this is dropped in an episode that might as well be an episode of The Mandalorian and everything else is just Boba and Fennec vaguely vibing as the new criminal rulers of Mos Espa. They’re not great at it, and that’s all you really need to remember.
There’s Apparently Been Way More Time Since Season 2 Than Anyone Thought
Thought putting a bunch of story and theme-critical exploration in a completely different show was weird? Well, Jon Favreau made it even weirder today in the run up to the season in a press interview, where he made it seem like The Mandalorian has been taking up a much larger part of Star Wars chronology than anyone had previously assumed. The producer referred to Grogu and Din’s adventures as having taken place over “many years,” before noting that it had been two years since Grogu went to go train with Luke.
Does he just mean it’s been two years since season two? Maybe. Does he mean that it’s really been that long and then suddenly a lot of things that happened during The Book of Boba Fett make much less sense? Also maybe. Guess we’ll start finding out tomorrow!
Cara Dune Died on the Way Back to Her Home Planet
Remember when Din and Greef Karga had a big, burly ex-Rebel mercenary on their side named Cara Dune at the end of season two? Not any more you don’t, because actress Gina Carano and Lucasfilm permanently parted ways after filming on season two concluded, after she became the centre of multiple social media rows where Carano disparaged pronoun use, peddled in anti-mask-mandate rhetoric, and boosted conspiracy theories about the integrity of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Dune was meant to eventually spin off into her own separate series, Rangers of the New Republic, but that is now no longer happening and the character has essentially vanished into the ether.
She’s now making movies with Ben Shapiro. Lol. Lmao, even.