The end of The Mandalorian, is already planned, and having a set endgame means it can avoid the Star Wars sequels’ biggest problem. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens taking place over 30 years after Return of the Jedi, decades' worth of stories set between the original trilogy and the sequels had to be skipped. The Mandalorian and the “Mandoverse” shows are helping fill that gap, and fortunately, this already significant chapter of the Star Wars saga has a fixed endpoint. Following The Mandalorian’s success and the end of the Skywalker Saga with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it was logical for Star Wars to shift its efforts towards the Disney+ platform, in which three other shows — The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew — belong to the "Mandoverse." While The Mandalorian finale is a few seasons off, it is on the horizon — and planned.

After featuring in The Book of Boba Fett, Din Djarin and Grogu will return in The Mandalorian season 3. The tease of a new battle for Mandalore in The Mandalorian season 3 suggests that Din Djarin’s story is still far from being concluded. After Jon Favreau and Pedro Pascal hinted at The Mandalorian having an ending outlined, Bo-Katan actress Katee Sackhoff revealed that she was told how many seasons The Mandalorian will eventually have (via Variety). The fact that producers already know how many seasons of The Mandalorian there will be proves that not only do they know how the show will end, but also what will it take to get there. Compared to the Star Wars sequels, which struggled with the lack of an overarching plan connecting all three films, The Mandalorian and the Mandoverse are set to have a much better conclusion than the Skywalker Saga.

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The Star Wars Sequels' Lack Of Plan Was The Trilogy's Biggest Problem

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi and Star Wars Rise Of Skywalker poster

The existence of plans for the end of The Mandalorian already gives it a key advantage over the sequel trilogy. While having a different director for each film in a trilogy was nothing new to Star Wars, as that is exactly what happened during the original trilogy, the lack of an endgame planned in advance played against the Star Wars sequels. For example, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, perhaps the most divisive Star Wars film ever made, was criticized for not paying off a lot of story threads set up by The Force Awakens. The problem is that, no matter how many theories there were about Rey being a Skywalker or the real identity of Snoke, the lack of a plan ahead of time meant that any filmmaker who succeeded J.J. Abrams could find their own answers to the mysteries set by The Force Awakens. Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi flipped some of The Force Awakens’ mystery boxes and ignored others, which may have made for an intriguing movie but placed the sequel trilogy in a tricky situation.

Likewise, J.J. Abrams's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have followed the path laid out by The Last Jedi, but instead tried to revert some storylines back to what The Force Awakens had built. The result was that The Rise of Skywalker either contradicted or retconned some of The Last Jedi’s most critical decisions. Although reports are mixed regarding what Lucasfilm wanted or not when the sequels started to be developed, the only plot point confirmed to have been planned in advance, according to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, was Palpatine's return in Episode IX.

The Mandalorian's Endgame Plan Is A Major Relief

The Mandalorian The Armorer and Bo-Katan

Although The Mandalorian’s first two seasons have delivered a mostly universally praised piece of Star Wars content, something that hadn’t happened in years, sticking the landing will define the legacy of the show in the years to come. The Mandalorian is currently in unexplored territory for Star Wars, as there is no precedent for how many seasons a Star Wars live-action TV show should have or how it should connect with future movies, if at all. The Mandalorian can often be very episodic and sometimes an experimental show. If they felt so inclined, Disney could have easily put it out there with no endgame in mind and no answer for when does The Mandalorian finish.

The adventures of the Mandalorian and Grogu across the galaxy are more than enough to fill season-upon-season with television gold, and while The Mandalorian deals with bigger stories like the upcoming Mandalorian civil war, there is really no limit regarding how long the show could last. That said, stretching The Mandalorian for too long without a clear final goal would make the show lose its appeal, plus it would downplay the current storylines as those could perhaps not be paid off in the end. The sense that the stories and the characters’ journeys were not paid off is what caused The Rise of Skywalker and the sequel trilogy as a whole to feel so underwhelming, and with The Mandalorian finale already in the works, it is a relief that the Mandoverse is heading toward a different path.

Related: Mandalorian's Identity Crisis Feels Like The Skywalker Retcon Again

The Mandalorian Can Be A Better Post-ROTJ Story Than The Sequels

The book of boba fett and the mandalorian have done R2D2 much better than the sequels

The Mandalorian and the Mandoverse shows are shaping up to be a better post-Return of the Jedi story than the Star Wars sequels. While it made sense for The Force Awakens to take place three decades after Return of the Jedi in order to revisit iconic characters like Luke, Leia, and Han in the present day, reverting the state of the galaxy back to what it was during the original trilogy was a mistake. The Force Awakens paradoxically made it feel like no time had passed at all, which made the entire sequel trilogy feel too familiar and predictable.

By exploring what the galaxy was like right after the fall of the Empire, The Mandalorian and its spinoffs are doing something unique within the franchise and covering a time period that had only been used in Legends. Still, how The Mandalorian will be looked back on in the wider Star Wars legacy will be determined by where the show ultimately leads. The very existence of a Mandoverse — a series of shows connected to the events of The Mandalorian — proves that the stories of Din Djarin and Grogu will culminate into something bigger.

A crossover event for the Mandoverse had been previously announced, although is difficult to say when and how that will take place. Still, Ahsoka’s appearances in The Mandalorian season 2 and The Book of Boba Fett suggest that the Star Wars Rebels Thrawn and Ezra storyline will eventually be combined with the Mandoverse. Thrawn as the Mandoverse's big bad would make a lot of sense, and it would grant that universe the possibility of having an epic finale whose scale could match that of the Star Wars movies. Should that be the case, then The Mandalorian and the Mandoverse will have left a more impressive legacy than the Star Wars sequels did.

The Mandalorian Proves Disney Should Have Started With Spin-Offs

The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda : Grogu

The success of The Mandalorian is proof that Disney would've found easier footing in a galaxy far far away if they tackled Star Wars spinoffs first, instead of jumping straight into the sequel trilogy. Developing the Mandoverse prior to Star Wars episodes 7 to 9 could've allowed Disney to establish their own canon to build on, a chronological timeline that would've been easier to follow for viewers, and a much clearer overarching plot.

Related: The Mandalorian Would Be Even Better Without The Sequel Trilogy

In any case, with the cast of The Mandalorian season 3 seemingly ready to face epic odds comparable to what the heroes faced in the movies, it will be interesting to see how the continued evolution of the Mandoverse will affect Star Wars trilogies in the future. As The Mandalorian finale approaches from the distant future, not only can it leave a more impressive legacy than the Skywalker Saga ending, the Mandoverse could set the tone for whatever Star Wars films await fans in years to come.

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