It has been a few months since the end of the first season of The Mandalorian. And while it’s been a tough adjustment to life after everyone fills with Baby Yoda, there has been no shortage of news in recent weeks about what’s to come from cast announcements and escapes to showrunner Jon Favreau wasting no time in confirming that the series would return in the fall.
When things will return in any way, with the coronavirus pandemic in full swing, we don’t know. Basically anything that was in production at the time of the outbreak has come to a complete standstill, and this could consist of The Mandalorian. Still, the show must go on, and information has continued to emerge–such as the casting of a much-loved movie and television actress as a character recognizable to Star Wars fans.
So while we do already miss the standoffs, shootouts, comedian cameos, and space heists that season among the Disney+ flagship show brought, we are already shifting into what is going to happen in season two-mode–even if we don’t quite know when that second season is coming. Here’s everything we know about what lies in store for buddies, Baby Yoda, and Mando.
While no specific date has been confirmed yet, showrunner Jon Favreau declared on Twitter that the second season of the Mandalorian would be arriving at Disney+ after this year–in the autumn, to be exact. In the place, Favreau gave fans a sneak peek of those aliens that will make an appearance in year two, and it looks like a Gamorrean. (The last time among this species showed up in Star Wars, they were guarding Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi.)
While it’s far from official, a current installment of Black Series Rebels states the show will be debuting in October this year (instead of the November premiere of Season 1). But given the delays in, well, everything on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unknown if The Mandalorian will still have the ability to return when it was originally predicted to. Unfortunately, it’s probably fair to expect a small delay, and likely safe to brace for a bit more.
Pedro Pascal will come back as the title character, the whose given name we learned at the season one finale will be Din Dujardin. While small additional news is out there about the cast of season two, it stands to reason that Carl Weathers and Gina Carano will also reprise their roles as Greef Carga and Cara Dune respectively. In the conclusion of season one, Moff Gideon was put up as the primary antagonist moving forward, so fans can also anticipate Giancarlo Esposito to return.
It was also reported by Variety that actress Rosario Dawson, best known for her roles in films like Rent or Clerks II and lately seen in USA’s Briarpatch, will be emerging in the next season as the live-action variant of Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka, as die-hard Star Wars fans know, is an apprentice of Anakin Skywalker’s who appears as a key role in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. Her role is not considered a series regular function, but granted that out of Pascal appeared in some episodes, her role could be substantial.
Other celebrities previously one ensemble whose stories remain incomplete comprise Ming-Na Wen as sharpshooter Fennec Shand, whose unconscious body was revealed being taken by an unseen figure, Natalia Tena as the vengeful Xi’an who’s currently incarcerated without a doubt going her escape, and Emily Swallow because the exposition-spouting Armorer, who had been last shown handing out whoopings into a roomful of Stormtroopers.
Deadline also reports that at least one character from the Star Wars films will make an appearance in season two of The Mandalorian.
The BSR podcast over also made a couple of things clear about who’d be heading for season two, based on Star Wars site Star Wars News Net. Bryce Dallas Howard, who headed the fourth installment of the season –introducing Gina Carano’s Cara Dune character on the planet Morgan–will go back to helm her event.
It was also made clear that famous movie directors James Mangold (Logan, Identity, Walk The Line, Ford V Ferrari) and Robert Rodriguez (Machete, Planet Terror) had directed sequences for Season 2, if not their particular episodes. Rodriguez has long been a fan of westerns–his Desperado series based on Antonio Banderas’ Mariachi character has a lot in common with The Mandalorian, so he is a natural fit.
Mangold is among the industry’s most underrated directors and someone who has essentially proven he can handle a picture in any genre (he was recently attached to both a Bob Dylan biopic and Indiana Jones 5). There has been a stage where he was connected with Lucasfilm to direct a Boba Fett standalone film (similar in style and scope into 2018’s Solo), but that movie finally evolved into The Mandalorian. When he wound up directing an event, it would be an enjoyable full-circle situation for everybody, wouldn’t it?
Much like that adorable reveal at the end of the show premiere, the plot of year 2 of The Mandalorian is shrouded in secrecy. That said, the season one finale did tease quite a few upcoming storylines. For instance, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) emerged from the wreckage of his TIE fighter wielding a Darksaber, a weapon with fantastic importance in the wider Star Wars mythology. The Darksaber was forged by a Mandalorian and might hold the key to helping audiences that have not watched the spinoff reveals to understand the connections between the Mandalorians and the Jedi, who were mentioned by name in the season one finale.
Fans are also very likely to learn more about the abilities and roots of Baby Yoda in year two. He took his newly embraced charge on a quest. It follows that we might finally wind up learning the name of Yoda’s species, a piece of Star Wars lore that George Lucas has never deigned to show. The cutest green puppet of all time (sorry, Kermit) may even be given a name besides”The Child” –but decent luck getting the internet to refer to him as anything besides Baby Yoda.