A very festive Baby Yoda and the Mandalorian become the face of Lucasfilm's official holiday card. Last year, The Mandalorian helped kick off Disney's streaming launch as one of the first original programs to debut on Disney+. The series provided something Disney had struggled to find in recent years: A Star Wars project that could win over fans both old and new. In telling the smaller story of a bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin) who comes to care for a powerful young child (recently officially named Grogu), The Mandalorian became a near-universal hit for Disney+ and Lucasfilm.
There was a lot for Star Wars fans to like about The Mandalorian, from the impressive visuals to the deepening of franchise lore. However, the true heart of the series soon came to be the bond between Baby Yoda and Din. Baby Yoda was kept a secret in the lead up to The Mandalorian's premiere, so audiences were truly taken by surprise when the show ultimately came to be about Din protecting a child from a whole host of threats. The Mandalorian season 2 primarily focused on Din's efforts in finding a Jedi who could train Grogu, and this week's finale saw that journey come to an epic conclusion.
The Mandalorian season 2 might be over, but the characters are still getting into the holiday spirit. Chris Argyropoulos, a Lucasfilm publicist, shared the company's official 2020 holiday card, which puts Din and Grogu on a sled tricked out for Christmastime. Little Grogu even has a Santa hat! Check it out down below.
In case it wasn't already apparent, this holiday card cements Grogu and Mando as the current leads of the Star Wars brand. With the Skywalker saga complete and the next movie (Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron) not scheduled until 2023, Lucasfilm is pinning most of its efforts on Disney+ television shows. A grand total of ten Star Wars shows are scheduled for the next few years, thus cementing how big of a success The Mandalorian has been. Lucasfilm wants to keep that positive momentum going, hence putting these characters front and center.
The above holiday card also just shows how quickly Din and Grogu have won over audiences. It's only been a year, yet they stand as two of the biggest Star Wars characters to date. Though season 2 ended on a bittersweet note for the unlikely father-son pair, there's no doubt The Mandalorian will be continuing their stories in the future. It still remains to be seen how that will take shape, but fans are certainly excited to see what comes next for these two.
Source: Chris Argyropoulos/Twitter