The Mandalorian is back and better than ever. But that may not be enough to save the Star Wars multiverse.
Contains spoilers for season three of The Mandalorian. This is an excerpt from our pop culture newsletter Rec Room – sign up now for more like this in your inbox every Friday.
On a sun-drenched beach lined with caves and crystal-clear water, an initiation ceremony is underway. A child recites lines, agrees to honour a creed, and promises to “Walk the way of the Mandalore”. In return, he gets a shiny blue helmet freshly forged in fire. From this, it’s clear: this is how one becomes a Mandalorian, a member of Star Wars’ secret space police force.
Someone has other ideas. A giant scaly sea creature – imagine a Mermaid Jabba the Hutt – spirals his blubbery body onto the beach and begins a smackdown, scattering those present into disarray and chomping through Mandos like it’s dinner time. If someone doesn’t help them, they’re all going to die.
Enter man of the moment Pedro Pascal. With his super fast space ship, he peels in to blast the beast to smithereens, a move that blows slabs of meat across the beach. As our hero lands and waves to survivors covered in monster gloop, the camera instead zeroes in on someone else present: a familiar green puppet with a goofy look on its face.
Who, exactly, does Baby Yoda think he is? He’s not needed in this scene one jot, but I sure did smile when I saw his gremlin grin. But he’s more than just comic relief in a really rather good serialised weekly adventure series. Baby Yoda’s in the unenviable position of holding an entire franchise in his tiny green maw.
If you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: Star Wars, as a franchise, is in a precarious position. A second season of Temuera Morrison’s Book of Boba Fett hasn’t been confirmed. Based on lacklustre reviews, it seems unlikely. Same goes with Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Ewan McGregor mini-series that turned Darth Vader into a toothless villain.
As good as Andor was (and it was very good) viewership was so low Disney was forced to give it away for free. Several Star Wars films – remember those? – are rumoured, but none are confirmed. According to the rumour mill, everyone from Rian Johnson to Game of Thrones bosses David Benioff and DB Weiss to Taika Waititi are toiling away, trying to crack what exactly the future for Star Wars on the big screen looks like.
So, right now, the Star Wars universe belongs to a puppet. Beginning this week with a chapter titled “The Apostate,” The Mandalorian returns for a much-hyped third season, and if one thing’s clear, it’s that Jon Favreau is in complete control of what he’s doing.
There are pounding drums building tension right from the start. There are brilliant set pieces, from Mermaid Jabba’s demise to a Frankenstein robot crawling across the floor Terminator-style. There’s a classic Western street shoot out with pirates, a fiery space battle through an asteroid belt, weird folk bands performing on the streets of Nevarro and the great Katie Sackoff lounging around on her own version of the Iron Throne looking like a menace.
Oh, there’s also a great one-liner pulled straight from an Arnie action film: “That’s using your head,” utters Mando when the top of a bronzed statue crushes a killer legless droid.
It’s undeniably good television. The Mandalorian hits all of those Star Wars sweet spots. I love it, my kids love it, my parents love it too. Watching Baby Yoda snuggle into Mando’s lap for a wee nap during a hyperspeed trip doesn’t just look great on a big-screen TV, it hits me right in the parental feels. Sometimes, I wish I could be as good a dad as Mando is to Baby Yoda.
But I can’t help but wonder: How has it come to this? Star Wars began as a film trilogy, then a prequel trilogy, and another post-trilogy trilogy before morphing into what it is now, a collection of mostly pretty average TV shows. As good as The Mandalorian is, it’s the only one delivering the goods.
Most fans would happily swap all of it for more big screen adventures, Death Star explosions, battles between the Force and the Dark Side, Vader and arguments about who shot who first. Come in, Taika, you’re our only hope.
