Pedro Pascal reprises his role as a bounty hunter who befriends a young mighty in The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian returns in March for a highly anticipated third season. We had a brief teaser last fall during Disney’s annual D23 Expo, but the Mouse House unveiled the full trailer last night during the halftime show of the NFL Super Wild Card matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
(Spoilers for the first two seasons and The Book of Boba Fett below.)
The series is set a few years after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. In season one, Pedro Pascal’s lonely bounty hunter was hired to deliver a youth, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), to a shady client who wanted to conduct experiments on the child. Mando instead rescued Grogu and the two formed a strong bond. In season two, the Mandalorian reluctantly worked to reunite Grogu with his own kind—or at least with a Jedi so the youngling in the Force could grow stronger. Mark Hamill made a surprise cameo as the (digitally aged) Luke Skywalker in the Season 2 finale, taking Grogu to complete his Jedi training. There was not a dry eye in the house when Grogu and the Mandalorian said goodbye.
Luckily, the two weren’t apart for too long. The pair reunited in the finale of The Book of Boba Fett. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) had gifted Grogu a mail shirt after warning Mando/Din Djarin that his presence would be a distraction from Grogu’s Jedi training. Luke – sensing the youngling’s divided loyalty – challenged Grogu to choose between the mail shirt and Yoda’s ancient lightsaber, i.e. between his love for the Mandalorian and his Jedi training. Grogu chose the mail shirt and arrived on Tatooine mid-fight, where he leapt into his mate’s arms with a squeak of delight. He even did his own powerful part in the battle, including mollifying a wild grudge.
The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu embark on a new adventure
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Jedi with a lightsaber? This could be a flashback to Order 66.
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Din Djarin plans to return to Mandalore.
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The surviving Mandalorians were scattered across the galaxy.
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Grogu’s strength in the Force grows.
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According to the official S3 premise:
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The Mandalorian’s journeys across the Star Wars galaxy continue. Once a lonely bounty hunter, Din Djarin has reunited with Grogu. Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. The Mandalorian will cross paths with old allies and make new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together.
All of our favorite series regulars return for Season 3: Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze, Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, Emily Swallow as Gunsmith, and Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon. Christopher Lloyd and Tim Meadows will join the cast this season, along with a rumored appearance from Babu Frik, who appeared in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Showrunner Jon Favreau wrote all eight episodes.
The trailer gives us plenty of shots of Grogu and his space daddy, while Din Djarin spreads a bit of wisdom and reflects on what he’s lost in a voiceover. “Our people are scattered like stars across the galaxy,” he says, an indirect reference to the “Night of a Thousand Tears” in Star Wars lore, in which the Mandalorian people were massacred by the Empire. “What are we? What are we staying for?”
His quest this season clearly involves returning to Mandalore in hopes of being forgiven and welcomed back into the herd. In Season 2, Din broke Mandalorian protocol by removing his helmet twice: once to save Grogu and once to bid farewell to the adorable green Jedi baby. This didn’t sit well with his people, especially the armorer. Bo-Katan covets the Darksaber, which Din won by defeating Moff Gideon in battle, making him technically the ruler of Mandalore – but is he really made for government?
Of course there is a lot of action. We see a group of lightsaber-wielding Jedi, suggesting we’ll get a glimpse of the infamous Order 66 at some point. There is a brief look at Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) – maybe on Coruscant? Grogu shows his growing strength with the Force, and it really does look like a Kowakian monkey lizard laughing obnoxiously in a tree.
The third season of The Mandalorian debuts on March 1, 2023 on Disney+. Two other related spinoff series are slated to premiere later this year: Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew.
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Promotional image from Disney+