The Disney+ series The Mandalorian ended its exciting eight-episode first season with a lot of big revelations including: Mando’s (Pedro Pascal) real name (Din Djarin), his face — yes, our fearless hero was unmasked after being badly injured! — and it was also confirmed that he was rescued as a child by blue-armored Mandalorians after the death of his parents. He was raised as one of their own and thus took on the Mandalorian creed.
In “Chapter 8,” directed by Taika Waititi, Din took on the dangerous and formidable Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and his army of stormtroopers with the help of Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Greef Carga (Carl Weathers), the assassin-turned-nurse-droid IG-11 (Waititi), and, most importantly, The Child, known to fans as Baby Yoda, who came through with a powerful assist right when Din and the team needed him the most.
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By the end of the episode, Din and Baby Yoda were seemingly safe and on to new adventures. It was an exciting ending to a somewhat meandering first season, but we’re already champing at the bit for Season 2. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
The Mandalorian
It’s coming in October 2020. Disney+ renewed the live-action Star Wars series before the first season had even premiered — creator Jon Favreau revealed months before the show’s November premiere that he was already writing Season 2 — but on Dec. 27, the day the Season 1 finale dropped, Favreau revealed on Twitter that we’d have to wait until next fall to see what happens next. The message also came with a look at a model of a creature, the green-skinned, pig-like Gamorrean, which appeared in Return of the Jedi and who will presumably play a role in Season 2.
Season 2 of #TheMandalorian coming Fall 2020 pic.twitter.com/8VQYLDMQ0V
— Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) December 27, 2019
However, Bob Iger annonced on an investors call in February that The Mandalorian would actually be back in October, making fans wait less than a year for new episodes. The Mandalorian Season 2 joins a jam-packed lineup of Disney+ TV shows, joining Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (August)and WandaVision (December).
It will focus on Baby Yoda and where he comes from. Halfway through the finale, The Armorer (Emily Swallow) revealed to Din (or should we still call him Mando?) that he must take on the father figure role for Baby Yoda and train him, much as he was trained by the Mandalorians who found him all those years ago, until he finds the adorable little guy’s species or he comes of age. At the end of the episode, Din turned down Greef Carga’s offer to rejoin the Bounty Hunters’ Guild and revealed he was going to try to figure out where Baby Yoda comes from, thus setting up a season that will hopefully shed some light on a species we know very little about so far.
Moff Gideon will be back. Although Din thought he destroyed Gideon when his TIE fighter crashed, the end of the episode revealed he actually survived. And that’s not all, he has in his possession a black-bladed lightsaber, known as the Darksaber, which was built by Tarre Vizsla, a Mandalorian and Jedi. It’s unclear how he came to have the Darksaber, but hopefully we’ll find out in Season 2.
Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian
Rosario Dawson is joining the cast as Ahsoka Tano. The fan-favorite Star Wars character is making her live-action debut in the second season. Previously, she was voiced by Ashley Eckstein in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and has appeared in Star Wars Rebels as well.
The new season is already filming. In November 2019, Favreau posted a photo on Instagram from the set of the new season. Unfortunately, the photograph, which is captioned “Greetings from the set of #TheMandalorian Season 2,” doesn’t reveal anything except a familiar helmet, but it’s a start!
The Mandalorian Season 2 returns to Disney+ in October 2020.
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(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.)