What’s Next for The Mandalorian Season 2? (Spoilers)

The Mandalorian just finished its debut season and already I’m super hyped for season 2. In its season finale, the show not only delivered an excellent end to an excellent first season, but also delivered a ton of setup for its second season. So what are some of the plot threads we can expect?

The main cast is solidified. It’s almost guaranteed we’re going to be seeing a return from Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarren (The Mandalorian), the fan-favorite Baby Yoda, Cara Dune played by Gina Carano, and Greef Carga, played by Carl Weathers. This seems to be the ‘dream team’ on offer in The Mandalorian, to match the original Star Wars’ ensemble of Han, Luke, Leia and Chewy. And it’s an excellent group.

I hoped the IG unit would make it through the finale and be a permanent member of this ragtag group, but I suppose his exit leaves room for a new character or two to come in and steal my heart. Ultimately, though, I think it’s going to continue to be a show about The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda, with allies coming in and out as the plot demands.

Moff Gideon (played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito) is clearly set up to reprise his role, and he’s projected to be a formidable foe. Not only does he present himself in the final episodes of season 1 as being an intelligent and ruthless enemy, in the final moments of the season 1 finale, it’s revealed that he’s in possession of the dark saber, a main plot element from Star Wars Rebels. This makes Moff Gideon that much more dangerous. First, simply because it’s a powerful weapon, but second and perhaps more importantly, because it implies he was able to wrest it from its last known owner and another formidable Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels’ Sabine Wren.

The plot thread with the dark saber also adds to the mystery of the show — perhaps we’ll see other crossover elements with Star Wars Rebels and maybe even see live-action incarnations of some its characters, like Ahsoka, Ezra and Sabine — all generally well-received?

The show as a whole seems to represent a bit of a sea change in the behind-the-scenes production level of Star Wars at Disney, where John Favreau, Dave Filoni and their creative associates are on the rise and the current head honchos have lost the company’s confidence. This could turn out to be a good thing as, though The Mandalorian is probably the most well-received thing Disney has put out related to Star Wars, Dave Filoni’s animated property, Star Wars Rebels, was also generally applauded.

It could very well be that the canon of ‘future’ Star Wars (events following the original trilogy) will be defined by Favreau and Filoni’s (F&F?) creative vision, and the events of ‘past’ Star Wars will focus on the much-beloved Old Republic era defined by the Knights of the Old Republic video game series.

As far as the main plotline of Season 2, it’s pretty much directly spelled out: Din Djarrin will be in search of the Yoda homeworld. Or… it’s got to be called something else, right? They’re not all Yodas — that was just one guy’s name. Anyway, Din will be in search of the home planet of whatever species Yoda and Baby Yoda belongs to and, it’s also implied, Jedis and Jedi mythology will begin to make an appearance.

I somewhat hope Jedis don’t begin to dominate the show — what I’d like to see is movement in a bit more of an Indiana Jones kind of direction, with maybe Din uncovering information about the Jedi from ruins or found artifacts; the last thing this show needs is for a Jedi to come in and totally upstage everyone else on the show by being unbelievably OP, especially when the show has taken such great pains to ground its characters in a semi-believable power level.

What do you guys think will happen in The Mandalorian Season 2? Leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter.