With characters such as Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) set to appear in The Mandalorian season 2, the Disney+ series might be repeating some of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's glaring mistakes. Back in March, news broke out that Lucasfilm is set to bring Ahsoka from animated to live-action with Rosario Dawson set to play the part in The Mandalorian. More recently, the show tapped Temuera Morrison to play Boba Fett - making the actor's first return to Star Wars since 2005's Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, followed by news that Bo-Katan will also make an appearance. While this is obviously exciting for a lot of Star Wars fans, it's also a cause of concern for some as these new cast additions could ultimately backfire.
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian takes place five years after the fall of the Galactic Empire in Return of the Jedi. It follows lone-gunslinger Din Djarin as he becomes the unexpected caretaker a Force-sensitive infant from the same species as Jedi Master Yoda, The Child aka Baby Yoda. The eight-episode first season, which also happened to be the inaugural offering of Disney+, garnered praise from both critics and general viewing audience that a second season was quickly greenlit and is slated for release this October.
Fans are looking forward to what's next for Mando and Baby Yoda and based on latest reports, the unlikely pair are bound to encounter some Star Wars legacy characters. This means that The Mandalorian will be exploring its connection to the bigger universe which is admittedly exciting. As fans saw in The Rise of Skywalker, however, doing so may not always be the best thing.
Mandalorian Is Focusing on Legacy Characters
The addition of Ahsoka, Bo-Katan and Boba Fett in The Mandalorian season 2 is getting a lot of interest from viewers. Bringing in characters like them, who have been key players in the franchise having appeared in other venues, is a good way to draw in more interest from other fans who may have yet to check out the live-action series. However, it also risks the possibility of putting too much focus on them, resulting in lesser attention to the show's primary characters.
Fans saw this happen in The Rise of Skywalker with the appearances of legacy characters who don't really have to do anything with the ongoing story. The movie could've done without an appearance from Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), whose involvement felt forced and out of place. Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) Force ghost moment with Rey (Daisy Ridley) could've been much shorter as it ultimately bogged the film down. Finally, the most obvious example of this was the return of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), whose comeback initially excited a lot of fans, but was ultimately a letdown. In one way or another, much of their involvement in The Rise of Skywalker was purely for fan service. Making things worse is the fact that this veered the focus away from the sequel trilogy characters' narratives, which were supposed to be the focus of the movie.
One can argue that The Mandalorian's first season already had this problem to an extent. Instead of the spotlight solely being on Din as the titular character, much of the viewers' attention was on Baby Yoda and his mysterious origins. Granted that the child is not Jedi Master Yoda, its link to the legendary Star Wars hero definitely increased people's interest in it. By bringing Ahsoka, Bo-Katan, and Boba Fett into the show, there's a possibility that the story will further veer away from Din, essentially relegating him to a side-character when he's supposed to be show's lead.
Mandalorian's Ties to the Larger Star Wars Universe Distract from Its Format
The Mandalorian season 1 mainly followed a serial format which saw Din and Baby Yoda's weekly adventures as they run away from the bounty hunters sent for them by the Client (Werner Herzog). In each episode, the pair visited different planets and encountered different people - some ultimately became allies, others became foes. It was a refreshing storytelling choice as it focused on the task at hand for the characters instead of worrying about its potential bigger implications in the show's overall story. This properly established the new characters and the world they exist in, making it easy for fans to get invested in them and their own stories. It was only in the last two outings that a clear narrative through-line between the episodes formed, with the arrival of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). The addition of Bo-Katan, Boba Fett, and Ahsoka in The Mandalorian season 2 can change this as the show puts more effort in connecting the series to the bigger universe.
This was one of the big issues fans had with the sequel trilogy, specifically Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. While it introduced fans to new characters like Rey, Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), their stories were in service to the bigger narrative, putting a premium on interconnectivity and references to the past. It felt like Lucasfilm had a list of elements they believed were what made Star Wars great, forgetting that it always began with a great standalone story.
This was in an effort to make the sequel trilogy feel and look like it's part of the established universe evidenced by centering each film on the legacy characters, not to mention the string of callbacks and references to the original trilogy. While Star Wars: The Last Jedi attempted to veer away from what came before it, steering the sequel trilogy in an entirely new direction, The Rise of Skywalker disregarded a lot of it and brought the narrative back to familiar territory. In the end, The Rise of Skywalker prioritized making sure that it's connected to the bigger franchise rather than crafting an ending that makes sense on its own terms.
What Mandalorian Needs to Do to Avoid Rise of Skywalker's Response
Despite the aforementioned concerns, there's a way for The Mandalorian season 2 to avoid committing the same mistakes that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker did while still featuring Boba Fett, Bo-Katan and Ahsoka. It's important that the Disney+ show limits the involvement of the said characters in the upcoming outing. The Mandalorian season 1 primarily featured Din and Baby Yoda, with only a handful of appearances from other supporting characters peppered throughout its run to ensure that focus was on the show's main characters. Given that Ahsoka, Boba Fett, as well as Bo-Katan are deemed guest stars, it's best to to feature them in one-off episodes that do not explicitly set-up any potential spin-off or even a later appearance. This way, the story remains focused on Mando and The Child.
In hindsight, The Mandalorian season 1 did a great job creating a new story with new characters while making it still feel like it belonged in the Star Wars universe. There were a string of callbacks from previous shows and movies but they didn't distract from the series' main narrative, instead, they even made the viewing experience more fun for long-time fans as they found cool Easter eggs snuck in every episode. All they need to do is maintain that kind of storytelling principle and the show won't suffer the same backlash as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.