Star Wars fans are on the edge of their seats for tomorrow’s The Mandalorian season finale. After a divisive third season last week’s penultimate episode suddenly ratcheted up the stakes and excitement, teasing a battle between the Mandalorians and Moff Gideon for control of Mandalore.
Along the way, we’ll see Din Djarin in Imperial custody with a rescue mission certain to be on the way, probably some Darksaber-based combat from Bo-Katan, Grogu kicking ass in his new mech suit and hopefully some payoff on that glimpse of the mighty Mythosaur earlier in the season.
The season finale should also begin to put some pieces in place for upcoming Disney Plus ‘Mandoverse’ shows like Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew, and we’d bet there’s a decent chance Lars Mikkelsen will make his live-action debut as Grand Admiral Thrawn (perhaps in a post-credits scene?).
Dave Filoni discusses ‘The Mandalorian’ linking up with ‘Ahsoka’
At the Star Wars Celebration, we got the bombshell news that Dave Filoni will be directing a live-action theatrical Star Wars movie described as the “culmination” of storylines in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. Clearly, Filoni and Jon Favreau have a master plan on where all these stories are going and it’s likely we’ll get some tease of that tomorrow.
So, will the events of The Mandalorian lead directly into Ahsoka? In an interview with IGN, Filoni was quite clear:
“No, I would say no, I don’t think so, I wouldn’t look at it that way. I think that as much as these shows are tangential to one another and in the same time period, I think it’s important that you can watch them on their own.”
That’s probably for the best, though he also went on to tease that those who’ve stayed faithful to the entire Disney Plus Star Wars roster will be able to pick up some things early:
“But they build if you know, so in the same way that if you’ve seen the episode ‘The Jedi’ in ‘The Mandalorian’ then ‘Ahsoka”s gonna make… You’re gonna get a little bonus, like ‘Oh, I understand what’s going on from the get-go. But you’re still gonna understand what’s going on.”
And, while using Skeleton Crew as an example, he said:
“We never wanna create a situation where you feel like you have to have seen these things because then you’re missing out. I don’t know how fans feel, but like, do you have to have seen ‘The Clone Wars’ to understand ‘Ahsoka’? No, you don’t have to have seen that. Does it help you know more and understand more? Sure…”
Even so, with Thrawn’s name being mentioned last week his arrival seems inevitable. Could tomorrow see him finally arrive in live-action, potentially putting Moff Gideon’s foolish ambitions to rest with a new plan for galactic domination? Could this tie into the sudden rise of the First Order? It’s going to be a long day until we get answers early tomorrow morning…
‘Andor’ season two shooting location all but confirms more Saw Gerrera
Andor season two is currently shooting in the United Kingdom, with attendees at the Star Wars Celebration being treated to a sneak peek at the coming season. Now, thanks to an update from Dorset Live, we can almost certainly say one beloved Rogue One character will indeed be returning:
This quarry was used as Saw’s base in Andor season one, with Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael visiting him there for some impassioned philosophical debate. Andor season two is said to take us right up to where we met Cassian in Rogue One, so we’re thinking Saw’s return will be relatively early in the season as later on in the timeline he’s moved to the desert moon of Jedha.
We may also see Saw pick up the injuries we see him with in Rogue One. In the novel Guardians of the Whills, Saw discusses his wounds, saying:
“The Empire has hounded me across the Galaxy. Planted spies within my cadre. They tried to assassinate me on Errimin, poisoned me with teccitin. I was sick for months. On Ghita there was a sniper who missed by centimeters. They sent an astromech laced with nanoexplosives, and it went off and killed four of my best people, and again I was wounded, but I survived.”
All of that stuff sounds like promising territory for Andor to explore. Fingers crossed Saw plays a major role in the season two storyline as Forest Whitaker blew us all away last time and we’d love to see him in a more active role in battle when Andor returns in 2024.
A Lucasfilm press releases teases ‘Tales of the Jedi’ season two in 2024
Tales of the Jedi didn’t get a huge amount of hype prior to its release last year, though seems to have exceeded all expectations. On paper, this was just Dave Filoni tying off a few loose ends from The Clone Wars and Rebels, expanding on some key moments in Ahsoka Tano’s life we hadn’t seen on screen and fleshing out the background of Attack of the Clones villain Count Dooku.
But the execution was impeccable, particularly the episodes showing Dooku’s gradual alienation from the Jedi Order and the circumstances under which he sided with Palpatine. A second season was confirmed at the Star Wars Celebration, and a new press release has listed it as a 2024 release.
The nature of the show means it can be set at any point in the Star Wars timeline and cover whatever characters Filoni wants. We’d love to see a little more of the period between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, the immediate aftermath of the Empire’s fall in Return of the Jedi, or some of the events just prior to The Force Awakens. However Tales of the Jedi turns out it’ll be part of a bumper 2024 for Star Wars on Disney Plus, joining The Acolyte, Andor, and The Bad Batch in a sterling line-up.
All that aside, it’s time to get hyped for The Mandalorian‘s impending season three finale. As always we’ll be burning the midnight oil and ready to go the moment it drops, so we’ll see you with our coverage on the other side.