Season 2 of 'The Mandalorian' Is Coming Very, Very Soon
It's been a long 9 months since the end of the first season of The Mandalorian. And while it's been a tough adjustment to life after weekly fills of Baby Yoda, there's been no shortage of news in the time since about what's to come—from cast announcements and leaks to showrunner Jon Favreau giving show updates via his (very entertaining) Instagram feed.
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic dominating any and everything in 2020, the show still managed to get it's production in order—and the beloved Star Wars series will be debuting just on time, this fall. As with everything, the show must go on. Throughout the year, news has continued to emerge—including the casting of a couple much-loved film and television stars, and the return of a few major Star Wars fan favorites.
So while we greatly miss miss the standoffs, shootouts, comedian cameos, and space heists that season one of the Disney+ flagship show brought, we're already deep into what's going to happen in season 2 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 Mando, Baby Yoda, and friends.
When's Season 2 of The Mandalorian coming out?
It's just been officially confirmed when Mando—real name Din Djarin—and the rest of the gang will be returning, and it's really quite soon. Both the official Star Wars and the official The Mandalorian Twitter accounts confirmed the news: Season 2 kicks off on October 30.
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Showrunner Jon Favreau previously announced on Twitter that the second season ofThe Mandalorian would be coming to Disney+ in Fall 2020, and, as we see now, he was able to stick to his word. In the same post, Favreau gave fans a sneak peek at one of the aliens who will be making an appearance in season two, and it looks like a Gamorrean. (The last time one of this species showed up in Star Wars, they were guarding Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi.)
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While its far from official, an episode earlier this year of Black Series Rebels said that the show will be debuting in October this year (rather than the November premiere of Season 1)—and that turned out to be correct.
Is there a Season 2 trailer?
Yep! The new trailer features a whole lot of Mando and The Child (we'll try to call him the child, but don't blame us if and when we default to Baby Yoda), along with the return of Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Carga (Carl Weathers, sporting a snazzy goatee). There's also a glimpse of a hooded woman, who some online believe is Rosario Dawson making her debut as Ahsoka Tano—but this is incorrect; it's actually Sasha Banks debuting her own new character.
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The trailer also features voiceover from Emily Swallow, once again returning as the Mandalorian Armorer. No glimpsese, however, of Giancarlo Esposito in his expanded role as Moff Gideon, or the rumored Boba Fett season 2 appearance either. Either way, we're simply thrilled at the return here.
Check out the full trailer below:
For the first time since 1983, Boba Fett will return to live-action Star Wars.
Well, the adult version at least (shout out to Attack of the Clones' Daniel Logan). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Temuera Morrison has been cast to play Boba Fett, the legendary bounty hunter, in The Mandalorian's second season. Morrison is no stranger to Star Wars fans, as he previously played Boba Fett's father, Jango Fett, in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It would make sense that an adult Boba Fett would look like Morrison, because Clones establishes that Jango Fett is the basis for the entire clone army; that includes his son, Boba.
The Boba Fett character first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, when he helped Darth Vader to track and capture Han Solo; the character seemingly died in Return of the Jedi when he was swallowed into the Sarlacc Pit at Jabba's palace. Fans, however, have long believed him to be alive (and plenty of now-non canon Star Wars material has also established as such).
Morrison's role as Fett in Season 2 is said to be a small one, but Fett's return was already teased in a first season episode when a dark-clad figure with boot spurs approached the body of Shennec Fand (Ming-Na Wen).
Timothy Olyphant is in the mix.
That's right. It was also recently reported that Olyphrant—one of television's most charismatic leading men as the star of Justified, Deadwood, Santa Clarita Diet—would be joining the cast as well. His role was initially kept under wraps, but a report from SlashFilm revealed that his character would be Cobb Vanth, who is yet another exiting character in the Star Wars lore.
First introduced in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath: Star Wars books, Vanth is a self-appointed sheriff of a Tattoine-based colony who wears Mandalorian-armor that many believe is the same armor that Boba Fett wore in the original trilogy.
It's not known how this character will fit into season two of The Mandalorian. Since he wears Boba Fett's armor, perhaps the figure mentioned above from Season 1 was actually Cobb Vanth. Perhaps Boba Fett and Cobb Vanth have some sort of a confrontation, and our Mando finds himself in the middle? Whatever the case, we're all in on this.
Who will be in the Cast?
Pedro Pascal will return as the title character, whose given name we learned in the season one finale is Din Djarin. While little other news is out there regarding 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. At the end of season one, Moff Gideon was set up as the main antagonist moving forward, so fans can also expect Giancarlo Esposito to return. And as we mentioned above, Temuera Morrison will be returning to the Star Wars universe to play Boba Fett.
Olyphant's not the only significant name getting in on the fun, either. It was also reported by Variety that Rosario Dawson, best known for her roles in movies like Rent or Clerks II and recently seen in USA's Briarpatch, will be appearing in the second season as the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka, as die-hard Star Wars fans know, is an apprentice of Anakin Skywalker's who appears as a key character in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. Her role isn't considered a series regular, but granted that outside of Pascal only a few actors even appeared in multiple episodes, her role still could be substantial. Michael Biehn, best known for his roles in Aliens and as Kyle Reese in the original Terminator film, has also been cast in an unknown role.
Other actors in the season one ensemble whose stories remain unfinished include Ming-Na Wen as sharpshooter Fennec Shand, whose unconscious body was shown being taken by an unseen figure, Natalia Tena as the vengeful Xi'an who is currently incarcerated and no doubt planning her escape, and Emily Swallow as the exposition-spouting Armorer, who was last shown handing out whoopings to a roomful of Stormtroopers.
Deadline also reports that at least one character from the Star Wars movies will make an appearance in season two of The Mandalorian.
Who's directing?
The BSR podcast above also made a few things clear about who would be directing for season two, according to Star Wars blog Star Wars News Net. Bryce Dallas Howard, who directed the first season's fourth episode—introducing Gina Carano's Cara Dune character on the planet Sorgan—will return to once again helm her own episode. Robert Rodriguez, who has directed featured films like Planet Terror, Alita: Battle Angel, and Sin City, has also been confirmed to direct his own episode.
Rodriguez has long been a fan of westerns—his Desperado series centered on Antonio Banderas' Mariachi character has a lot in common with The Mandalorian, so he's a natural fit.
It was also made clear that famous film director James Mangold (Logan, Identity, Walk The Line, Ford V Ferrari) had directed a sequence for Season 2, if not his own episodes. Granted that Rodriguez was confirmed to direct a sequence in the same breath as Mangold (before being confirmed for his own episode), it would seem possible that Mangold was also behind the camera for an entire episode of his own.
Mangold is one of the industry's most underrated directors, and someone who has basically proven that he can tackle a movie in any genre (he was recently attached to both a Bob Dylan biopic and Indiana Jones 5). There was a point where he was attached with Lucasfilm to direct a Boba Fett standalone movie (similar in scope and style to 2018's Solo), but that movie eventually evolved into The Mandalorian. If he wound up directing an episode, it would be a fun full-circle situation for everyone, wouldn't it?
The plot could go in a variety of directions.
Much like that adorable reveal at the end of the series premiere, the plot of season two of The Mandalorian is shrouded in secrecy. That said, the season one finale did tease a number of upcoming storylines. For instance, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) emerged from the wreckage of his TIE fighter wielding a Darksaber, a weapon with great significance in the wider Star Wars mythology. The original Darksaber was forged by a Mandalorian, and may hold the key to helping audiences who haven't watched the animated spinoff shows understand the esoteric connections between the Mandalorians and the Jedi, who were finally mentioned by name in the season one finale.
Fans are also likely to learn more about the powers and origins of Baby Yoda in season two. The last we saw of Mando, he was taking his newly adopted charge on a quest to reunite him with his people. This means that we might finally end up learning the name of Yoda's species, a piece of Star Wars lore that George Lucas has never deigned to reveal. It's possible that the cutest green puppet of all time (sorry, Kermit) may even be given a name other than "The Child" —but good luck getting the internet to refer to him as anything other than Baby Yoda.
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