The Mandalorian Season 3 is currently unfolding on Disney+, giving us the weekly dosage of Grogu cuteness that we’ve all been craving for years. But as he’s getting older, Grogu’s becoming just as fierce as he is cute. The little guy’s a bit of a warrior, one trained in the ways of the Jedi and the Mandalorians! But what does that mean for Grogu? Is he a Mandalorian already? Will he get his own helmet and rob all of us from seeing that adorable little face? What’s the deal? The most recent episode gave us a few clues as to Grogu’s trajectory, so let’s break it down.
Uh, y’all — I think he already is a Mandalorian! In fact, I think Grogu became a Mandalorian the instant that Din Djarin claimed the Mudhorn as the signet of his new clan of two, which included him and Grogu.
This is backed up by the events of “Chapter 20: The Foundling,” wherein Djarin urges his ward to take part in some traditional Mandalorian sparring. He gives Grogu a wrist launcher filled with training darts and has him square off with Jimmy Kimmel’s nephew — no, seriously, that Mandalorian foundling is played by Wesley Kimmel. With the help of the Force training he got from Luke Skywalker during The Book of Boba Fett, Grogu easily trounces the kid. Grogu is clearly on his way to becoming a proud Mandalorian warrior.
Well, in the perpetually covered eyes of Din Djarin, probably. As for others…? In “The Foundling,” the Armorer does say to Grogu, “If you wish to become a Mandalorian, there is much work to attend to.” That implies that Grogu is not yet a Mandalorian. Of course this could be a difference in opinion between Djarin and the Armorer, or maybe the difference between being a follower of the Mandalorian creed — which Grogu has not taken yet — and becoming a Mandalorian warrior.
As Din Djarin points out in “Chapter 20,” Grogu is not following the Way of the Mandalore because he cannot speak yet, and therefore cannot recite the creed. So while Grogu is learning Mandalorian culture, is part of a Mandalorian clan, wears pieces of Mandalorian armor, and is undergoing Mandalorian training, he’s still a ways away from becoming a full-fledged Mandalorian.
It’s important to point out that there’s no one way to be Mandalorian, and one doesn’t even have to be from Mandalore to be Mandalorian. In fact, most of the Mandalorians in Star Wars aren’t! Din Djarin was rescued by the Mandalorian Death Watch when he was a child during the Clone Wars. While Jango Fett was Mandalorian by birth, his son/clone Boba Fett was created on Kamino. The Mandalorians as a people are open to taking in pretty much anyone and welcoming them to the faith. Seriously — they even adopted three massive baby bird-dragons as foundlings in “Chapter 20.”
That, too, is slowly happening. We saw Grogu receive his first piece of armor forged from beskar steel back during The Book of Boba Fett. Djarin tried to give Grogu a chainmail shirt face to face, but Ahsoka took it from him and had Luke Skywalker give Grogu a choice: either he continue with his Jedi training, or he accepts the chainmail and returns to his surrogate father. Grogu chose the latter.
In “Chapter 20,” Grogu earns another piece of Mandalorian armor, this time a rondel with his clan’s Mudhorn signet. The Armorer says that Grogu will “grow into it” but she clearly doesn’t know that he’s going to remain a smol Mando for life. You’re gonna have to scale down your designs by a lot, Armorer!
Now, what Grogu’s Mandalorian armor will ultimately look like remains TBD. To date we’ve really only seen Mandalorians with humanoid physiques. None of them have, say, ears that protrude to an extreme degree, thus necessitating a serious rethink of that helmet design. But seeing as how the Mandalorians brought in three huge bird-dragon babies into their clan, they seem open to welcoming potential Mandalorians of all shapes and sizes and species.
So for now, Grogu is well on his way to becoming a Mandalorian warrior, and his heart is clearly aligned with Mandalorian culture. As for what will happen in the future? To quote the larger version of Grogu: always cloudy, the future is.
New episodes of The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.