'The Mandalorian': How That Reveal Changes What We Thought We Knew About 'Star Wars'
WARNING: Spoilers from the first episode of The Mandalorian incoming!
The first episode of The Mandalorian dropped on Disney+ at various times between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning -- and now fans who managed to pull an all-nighter to catch a glimpse of the first-ever live-action Star Wars show are wildly speculating about that ending and what it could mean!
In the debut episode, the as-of-now nameless Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) embarks on a high-stakes, high-paying bounty from The Client (Werner Herzog). The Client gives The Mandalorian very little information about his bounty, but tells him “the asset” is 50 years old and is preferably wanted alive, but will accept him dead for a lesser bounty (much to Dr. Pershing’s chagrin).
Knowing that the events of The Mandalorian take place a few years after Return of the Jedi, fans racked their brains with known original trilogy characters who could potentially fit these parameters, but now we know the answer.
The asset is… a baby Yoda?!
Disclaimer: this is not actually Master Yoda as a baby, but Yoda's species does not have a known name.
The confused Mandalorian is reminded by bounty droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi) that other species can age at different rates. Mind you, Yoda was 900 years old when he died about five years earlier in Return of the Jedi.
Why is this a big deal? Yoda's unnamed species is ancient, mysterious and extremely scarce. There have only been two instances of this species in the Star Wars films, the first being Yoda, and the other being Yaddle, a female member of the Jedi High Council who appeared briefly in The Phantom Menace. Until this point, Yoda was generally believed to be the last of his species.
The power of this adorable 50-year-old baby is unknown, but likely immense. He was well protected when IG-11 and The Mandalorian arrived at his safehouse-like location, Kuiil (Nick Nolte) mentions that many bounty hunters have passed through, IG-11 seemed to be there on a separate bounty with intent to kill, The Client appears to want to rid the galaxy of its potential, while Dr. Pershing seems intent on studying him for science.
Of course, the baby Yoda reveal opens up a lot of questions like, did Yoda know about this baby? When Yoda spoke to Force Ghost Obi-Wan about there being "another," could he have actually been referencing baby Yoda? Is Yoda related to this baby? Did Yoda and Yaddle have a fling? Did Yoda have a baby? What does this mean for the future of Star Wars?
These questions and more remain to be seen -- and luckily, we won't have to wait long for the next piece of the puzzle. Chapter 2 of The Mandalorian drops on Disney+ on Nov. 15.
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