The Mandalorian is back with a new season on Disney+ — and wow, has this been a long time coming. Just for context: Season 2 of the Star Wars show was filmed pre-COVID. That’s how long fans have been waiting to see a new adventure starring Pedro Pascal and his young companion — oh, the little green companion. Not talking about The Last of Us! The question is: does The Mandalorian Season 3 deliver what fans have been waiting for? Or is this season premiere too little too late?
Opening Shot: A gloved hand pours a vial of liquid into a basin, and the Armorer (Emily Swallow) places a plate of beskar over bright blue flames to prepare it for her hammers. Y’know, if the big-budget space opera premise starts wearing thin, Disney+ could easily turn the Armorer’s whole thing into a competition show like Netflix’s Blown Away. Imagine: two amateur alien blacksmiths standing before The Armorer, who then chooses the worst helmet of the week and says, “I’m sorry Phalodi Fabbro, this is … not the way.”
The Gist: It’s been just over two years since The Mandalorian Season 2 wrapped up and this show sure has to make up for lost time! Fortunately The Mandalorian Season 3 got some help from last year’s The Book of Boba Fett, which snuck in a few episodes that maybe should have been the Season 3 premiere. And therein lies the overall problem with The Mandalorian’s trajectory. If you just watch The Mandalorian, you’re going to be incredibly confused by this episode — and that’s why this “gist” may be the most important “gist” I’ve ever written.
So — as seen in The Book of Boba Fett last year, Din Djarin has been excommunicated from his conservative Mandalorian religion (or cult, depending on your POV) because he dared to remove his helmet. Djarin still has the Darksaber, the ancient Mandalorian lightsaber that grants whoever wields it dominion over the planet Mandalore. And after training with Luke Skywalker (for two years, according to writer Jon Favreau which… don’t try to make that make sense), Grogu has returned to Din Djarin. Now the two of them are zooming across the galaxy in their salvaged Naboo N-1 starfighter as the Mandalorian tries to find a way to atone for the sin of showing off his handsome, handsome mug.
To sum up the Season 3 premiere: Din Djarin… zooms across the galaxy in his salvaged Naboo N-1 starfighter on his way to atone for his sin of showing off his impossibly handsome mug.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s the straightforward plotting, direct dialogue, and linear storytelling that The Mandalorian excelled at in Seasons 1 and 2. However, the Season 3 premiere feels a little more straightforward and direct coming after the dense, rich storytelling of Andor Season 1.
Sex and Skin: This is The Mandalorian. Showing skin — any skin — is not the way.
Parting Shot: After a bummer of a reunion with Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), who’s holed up in an abandoned Mandalorian castle on the neighboring planet of Kalevala, Din Djarin heads off to his people’s home planet to bathe in the redemptive Living Waters and find out once and for all if Mandalore truly is poisoned and inhospitable, as is rumored.
Sleeper Star: I’m giving this to pirate commander Gorian Shard, who’s played (or at least voiced) by Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth). He’s a shambling, plant-faced, Swamp Thing-looking pirate, and he reminds me of the kind of silly characters that you see in the Star Wars comics and cartoons of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Still waiting for Favreau and Filoni to introduce Jaxxon!
Our Take: The Mandalorian is a show that’s designed to feel a little out of touch. During its two-season reign as Disney+’s flagship series, The Mandalorian’s run-and-gun storytelling, tight editing, meme-ready moments, and massive heart felt like a reprieve from the bloated, 13-hour movie model of streaming TV popularized by Netflix. A lot has changed since The Mandalorian Season 2 — and a lot has changed just on Disney+. Need I point out that literally every single Marvel Studios live-action show has come out between Mandalorian Seasons 2 and 3?
That’s not to say that there’s not a place for The Mandalorian’s intentionally retro storytelling style on a post-Andor Disney+. In fact, The Mandalorian should hit even harder now that its Saturday morning storytelling can be juxtaposed against the thematic complexities of the only other ongoing live-action Star Wars TV show. I just think that, as far as examples of what The Mandalorian does best, The Mandalorian’s Season 3 premiere feels just… fine.
Think back to the Season 2 premiere, way back in late October 2020. That episode felt like an event. In it, Din Djarin teamed up with a local marshal (Timothy Olyphant) and a village of Tusken Raiders to slay a literal dragon. It was a blast. The story, like pretty much every other episode, was a standalone story that still opened up the Star Wars canon a little bit more. We got to see a different side of Tusken society, thus making us look at all of their other appearances in a new, more nuanced light.
By comparison, the Season 3 premiere feels a little more closed off. There’s a repeat of the Tuskens vs. dragon storyline, except this time it’s members of Djarin’s Mandalorian sect vs. a giant alligator, and then the premiere hops around a little, kind of a “where are they now” for a couple of the show’s recurring characters. There’s a shootout with pirates, a horrific interlude with a hastily resurrected IG-11 (a plot that goes nowhere?), the return of the Babu Friks (a.k.a. a crew of Anzellans), and a bit of outerspace dogfight hide and seek. It’s all fine, but it’s all stuff that we’ve seen in Star Wars before, and stuff we’ve even seen on The Mandalorian before. It feels incredibly insular, and the fact that you have to have seen episodes of a completely different show in order to know what the hell is going on here only makes it feel even more so.
It’s a bit of a letdown because, again, it’s been two years since a show titled The Mandalorian dropped a new episode on Disney+. The Mandalorian episodes of Boba Fett were a blast and would’ve made for a more substantial Season 3 premiere. I still love these characters (Peli Motto Hive rise up). I’m even excited for where this season is going! There’s so much potential for bold adventure and surprises once Djarin sets foot on Mandalore — but that’s next week’s episode… I hope.
Our Call: In the binary system that is STREAM IT or SKIP IT, I have to give this episode a SKIP IT for now. This is a premiere that would’ve greatly benefitted from being one of two episodes released today, or part of a longer episode that actually took us somewhere — anywhere — new.