The second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is almost here, so let’s take a look at everything we know. The Mandalorian Season 2 will air to Disney+ on Friday, October 30 just in time for Halloween. This show comes back to the TV screen with 15 Emmy nominations, including one for Best Drama—a big score for The Mandalorian’s freshmen season.
The Star Wars series has a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and wide-acclaim from critics and fans, so we head into Season 2 with high expectations for Showrunner Jon Favreau and Executive Producer/Director Dave Filoni to deliver a season as good or better than the first.
WHO’S RETURNING?
Pedro Pascal will return, of course, as Din Djarin / The Mandalorian, the titular character. The Child (AKA Baby Yoda) is back for another season. The Child, in addition to being a puppet, its not voiced by a voice actor. In fact, The Child’s sounds are a combination of baby samples, bat-eared foxes, and kinkajous (a tropical rainforest mammal).
The Mandalorian’s compatriots Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) will be back for more action. The Big Bad introduced at the end of last season, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) will return to chase Mando and Child across the galaxy. More on that further down.
WHO’S NOT RETURNING?
Taika Waititi who played droid bounty hunter IG-11 and directed Episode 8, will not be returning. And not just because IG-11 blew himself up to save the Child and Mando’s crew in the season finale. Waititi won’t return as a director because he’s got a full plate including writing, directing, and acting in Thor: Love and Thunder.
WHO’S NEW (MAYBE)?
Season 2 is likely to pack in more top actors playing fan favorite characters. I say “likely” because very little information has been confirmed by Lucasfilm. There have been plenty of rumors, some of which seem more likely than others to be true.
Timothy Oliphant has been confirmed as having a role in The Mandalorian Season 2. There is no confirmation on his role, but rumor has it he’ll play Cobb Vanth, a former slave who takes on the role of sheriff for a town on Tatooine. The character appeared in the Star Wars: Aftermath Trilogy written by Chuck Wendig. I highly recommend the audiobook version, narrated by the amazing Marc Thompson. We know from preview photos that Din Djarin returns to Tatooine in Season 2, and the time period is correct as the Aftermath Trilogy focuses on the years following the fall of the Empire.
Katee Sakhoff is rumored to reprise her role of Bo-Katan Kryze from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This makes sense as it would be a terrific tie-in to the two animated series (The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels) run by Dave Filoni. Sakhoff already has tons of sci-fi/fantasy cred (Battlestar Galactica, The Flash, Another Life). Sakhoff is one of the few voice actors that could transition to playing a character in live action. She is Bo-Katan!
Rosario Dawson was one actor who had the most buzz in the rumors that she’ll be in The Mandalorian’s second season playing Star Wars fan favorite Ahsoka Tano. There has been absolutely no confirmation about this from Disney or Lucasfilm or the actress herself, but the rumor is being treated as fact. Dawson would be an excellent pick to play Ahsoka. We hope it’s true, otherwise there’s going to be a lot of disappointed fans.
Temura Morrison seems like a sure bet to be a guest in Season 2. While he didn’t appear as Boba Fett in the films, his voice was added in after the prequel triology. That’s an acceptable retcon as Temura Morrison played Jango Fett and the clones, and Boba is a clone. If Boba is going to appear in the Mandalorian Season 2, it needs to be Morrison.
We got two potential peeks at Boba Fett in Season 1. In Episodes 1 and 3, we see a Mandalorian who looks a lot like Boba in the background of the hidden covert when Din Djarin visits. Then in Episode 5, we see a person walk up to the corpse of Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), but only see their boots and cape. We also hear a sound similar to Boba Fett’s footsteps in the films sort of a spurs-on-boots thing. Now those boots could have been worn by Vance Cobb (see above) who is a sheriff on Tatooine and wears a set of Mandalorian armor he found in the wreckage of Jabba’s sail barge, as described in Star Wars: Aftermath.
There’s also a rumor that clone Captain Rex might show up in Season 2. This also makes sense because of his connection with Ahsoka. We know that Rex survived to the end of the Empire as Filoni retconned Rex as being a member of the Han Solo’s strike force in the Battle of Endor. If both Rex and Boba Fett appear this season, fans are surely to geek out.
Michael Biehn, the veteran sci-fi actor (Terminator, Aliens) is confirmed to appear in The Mandalorian’s sophomore season. His character has not been revealed yet, but he is another actor that would be a good fit for playing Vance Cobb.
Sabine Ren (Star Wars: Rebels) is rumored to show up in Season 2. No actor has been attached to that rumor. If Ahsoka appears in Season 2, it would not be surprising if Sabine showed up too considering their trip into Unknown Space together to search for Ezra Bridger in the series finale of Rebels.
Ming-Na Wen is also rumored to come back in Season 2, but her character, Fennec Shand, seemed pretty dead at the end of Episode 5 after taking a blaster to the chest at point blank range.
Here’s the thing about rumors, sometimes they’re right. Mostly they’re wrong. It’s likely that some of the rumors about these actors and characters will come true. It’s doubtful that all of these guest stars will be part of Season 2.
There are only eight episodes in Season 2, just like the first season. It would be very difficult to cram all these characters into the short season in any meaningful way. And as we saw with Season 1, Favreau and Filoni favor real character development over smashing together many characters in a time-limited story. It doesn’t create a great story (e.g. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker).
Last, the characters above are larger-than-life characters. To relegate them to a brief cameo is a waste of the actors’ time and not fair to fans.
WHO’S DIRECTING?
One of the things that made The Mandalorian so good is the amazing, eclectic group of directors. Season 2 delivers more of the same from a deep bench of directors, but with a mix of returning and new directors. As you can see below, the new directors come with some serious cred.
- Rick Famuyiwa (returning)
- Jon Favreau (returning)
- Dave Filoni (returning)
- Bryce Dallas Howard (returning)
- Peyton Reed (director: Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp)
- Robert Rodriguez (director: Sin City, Alita: Battle Angel)
- Carl Weathers (directed numerous episodes for various TV shows over the years)
BUDGET
Season 1 cost over $100 million dollars to produce. Much of that was spent on creating new technologies and production equipment like the high-definition LED screen wraparound sound stage and physical objects like the Razor Crest’s cockpit, interiors, costumes, etc.
Now that those production pieces are already paid for, Lucasfilm has more money to spend on the stories as the budget is expected to be roughly the same for Season 2. Whether that means higher-caliber (more expensive) guest actors, more physical and CG effects, or lavish physical sets. Frankly, we don’t know how they could improve over Season 1, but Favreau and Filoni will certainly try.
WHEN DO WE GET A TRAILER?
We might not. Before the Season 1 premiere of The Mandalorian, Disney spared no expense at promoting multiple trailers months in advance. They didn’t know that the series would be the hit it was, so they promoted the hell out of it. Now Disney knows it has a bone fide hit show, so there’s no need to spend a lot of money to promote it.
Also, it appears Lucasfilm is taking their secrecy for Season 1 up a couple notches. For shooting this season, the studio required actors to wear black, cowled cloaks to the set so no photos would leak.
The premiere of Season 2 is just weeks away, so it’s unlikely we’re going to get a trailer. Not impossible. Just unlikely. Which will build even more suspense for the premiere.
WHAT’S THE PLOT?
According to reports, the new season of The Mandalorian will begin right after the events of the Season 1 finale. The main narrative running through the season will be Moff Gideon in pursuit of Mando and The Child. Gideon will be more of classic Star Wars villain—presenting both a physical and moral danger to the heroes. And there will be a lot more Darksaber.
Another feature of Season 2 is reportedly more of an expanded universe. Season 1 mostly involved smaller sets with a limited number of actors on screen at any given time. Expect to see more of the vast galaxy (thanks to the extra budget for Season 2).
WILL THERE BE A SEASON 3?
Absolutely. Disney gave Lucasfilm the green light for another season of The Mandalorian. The writing team is already working on the scripts.
WHEN DOES THE MANDALORIAN TAKE PLACE?
The Mandalorian takes place several years after the destruction of the second Death Star. According to Star Wars novels, video games, and other supporting materials, it took several years to finally crush the Empire. Moff Gideon and his stormtroopers are one of the last pockets of Imperial resistance. They’ve survived as long as they have because they operate in the Outer Rim Territories. The New Republic focused their efforts in the Core and Mid Rim regions.
The events of The Force Awakens is about 25 years in the future. The remnants of Imperial Forces headed off into Unknown Regions to rebuild and pillage defenseless planets after they realized the Empire was finished. So we shouldn’t see anything about the First Order on The Mandalorian, unless the show runs for a long, long time.
WHEN WILL THE FIRST EPISODE OF SEASON 2 DROP?
The first episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 will drop on Friday, October 30. Based on the previous season and the release schedule for other Disney+ shows, the new episodes should drop at 3:01 a.m. ET / 12:01 a.m. PT on release days.
Hey, did you know Disney+ will premiere a new LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special in November?
