Suppose The Mandalorian Secretly Cast Luke Skywalker — Who’d Be Your Pick?
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When The Mandalorian‘s Grogu aka the Child/”Baby Yoda” sat atop the Tython seeing stone and tapped into the Force, did he succeed in summoning a Jedi?
And if the Force-sensitive kid did make contact, how high dare we aim when thinking of known Star Wars Jedi to answer the call?
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Grogu’s been otherwise occupied since then — kidnapped and shackled by Moff Gideon, and all — so we don’t know if he indeed reached a Jedi. (Not that he’d have anyway to tell Mando/us!) But it’s easy to speculate that in the Season 2 finale (premiering this Friday, Dec. 18), perhaps during Mando & Friends’ presumed infiltration of Moff Gideon’s Imperial cruiser, just when it looks like the good guys are down for the count, we hear the whoosh! of a lightsaber and the recipient of Grogu’s call arrives to help save the day.
If that is how the finale plays out — and I personally am NOT convinced the timing is right, for reasons I’ll get into below — who would/could that Jedi be?
Ahsoka Tano (played earlier this season by Rosario Dawson) has already excused herself from consideration, explaining to Mando how as a Jedi she saw how someone vulnerable to fear>anger>hate>suffering could go dark.
Ezra Bridger (voiced on Star Wars Rebels by Taylor Gray) is a logical leap, though if Ahsoka is on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, Rebels canon suggests that Ezra’s own whereabouts are right now unknown. And if Ahsoka is getting a spinoff, maybe it revolves around her search for Thrawn/Ezra, so his appearance would undercut that drama.
Quinlan Vos (from Rebels), Cal Kestis (portrayed by Shameless‘ Cameron Monaghan in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order videogame) and Kyle Katarn (who has ties to Darktrooper storylines but is from non-canon videogames and novels) are other options.
If you aim way higher, there’s Mace Windu (played in the film prequels by Samuel L. Jackson) — who as a powerful Jedi, and given things we learned in Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker, could have survived Revenge of the Sith. Jackson, though, is due to headline Disney+’s Secret Invasion Marvel series.
Leia Organa is an option, though assorted reveals in Rise of Skywalker indicate that her never-to-be-completed Jedi training would not have been far along, if it has even begun, in The Mandalorian‘s timeline (i.e. about five years after RotJ).
That brings us to Jedi master Luke. Casting him as a 40-year-old would provide the kicker of all kickers to The Mandalorian‘s Season 2 finale. And we wouldn’t put it past Jon Favreau to have super-secretly concealed any such casting. But who could evoke a younger version of Mark Hamill, now age 69?
Google around and you’ll find the occasional piece opine that MCU vet Sebastian Stan favors a younger Hamill. Though true, and while Stan would probably do well in the role, he like Jackson has his own Disney+ series on the horizon — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (premiering March 19, 2021). Granted, it’s just six episodes and they’re all in the can, and it could easily be a one-off series that simply lays some foundation for upcoming MCU films. But network suits will always argue that it’d be “confusing” for Stan to play major, different roles on two Disney+ series.
A certain mop-topped blonde popped into my head as I pondered this possible recast. And then I sought out a (rare!) photo in which this TV vet has a clean-shaven, more boyish face. And in said photo from 2016, he happens to be the age Hamill was during Return of the Jedi. I thus present for your consideration… Eric Christian Olsen, from NCIS: Los Angeles. Again, I’m purely spitballing here, but could he pull it off?
All that said…. I don’t see The Mandalorian introducing just yet any Jedi that Grogu reached, be it Luke or anyone else. Not in its Season 2 finale. It’d be a dead end for the story of Mando and Child; his quest would be complete. And I don’t see a series where Mando decides to let the kid’s abilities “fade” and instead holds onto him, to be a responsibility whilst out bounty hunting.
Do you think The Mandalorian‘s second season finale will at least announce the arrival, if not ID, the Jedi who got Grogu’s call? Vote, and then comment below on the possibly eventual casting of Master Luke.
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