A new The Mandalorian season 2 image reveals the return of a familiar alien from Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi. In addition to introducing compelling human characters like Din Djarin, Cara Dune, and Moff Gideon, the Disney+ series has also featured more than its fair share of appearances from members of various alien species that will instantly be familiar to long time fans of the Star Wars universe.
Everyone of course knows about The Child, a youthful member of the same species as Jedi sage Yoda (indeed the quest to find other members of Yoda’s species will play a role in The Mandalorian season 2). Season 1 also featured a major role for Kuiil, an Ugnaught voiced by Nick Nolte, who sadly met a tragic end. The season’s well-received episode “The Prisoner” brought in both a Devaronian named Burg (Clancy Brown) and a pair of Twi'lek named Xi'an (Natalia Tena) and Qin (Ismael Cruz Cordova). In addition to these named characters, the season also featured loads of brief appearances by an array of unnamed aliens, including a stand-out moment for a member of Darth Maul’s species the Zabrak, who was seen engaging in combat with Cara Dune.
Thanks to a leaked image that appears to have come from Disney+ Japan (via Reddit/StarWarsLeaks), fans have now gotten a peek at another alien race set to have their moment in The Mandalorian season 2. The image shows Mando himself at yet another Star Wars tavern speaking to the bartender, who is a member of the Weequay species. See the image (Lucasfilm) in the space below (via Zcure1/Twitter):
Weequay of course first appeared in Return of the Jedi as employees in Jabba the Hutt’s palace, with one of them suffering the horrible misfortune of being tossed into the Sarlacc pit by Luke Skywalker during the movie’s famous desert battle. Since Star Wars never wastes a good creature design, Weequay showed up later in other media including the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic and the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. A Weequay also made it into George Lucas’ prequel film Attack of the Clones.
On the surface this indeed looks like another case of The Mandalorian going to the nostalgia well and resurrecting familiar alien species from other Star Wars media, but it’s possible that the inclusion of this Weequay bartender could have larger significance than it first seems. The Clone Wars is of course a key show in Star Wars lore, and Weequay actually played a big role on it, with the pirate Hondo Ohnaka becoming a major player. Season 2 of The Mandalorian is of course expected to connect to The Clone Wars via the character of Ahsoka Tano, played in live-action form by Rosario Dawson. Put two and two together and it’s entirely possible that the Weequay pictured in the leaked image actually plays a role in bringing Mando into contact with Ahsoka. It’s also possible that the Weequay is just a random character who has nothing to do with the story’s main plot, and is only in the show because the character design is interesting and Jon Favreau and company decided Star Wars fans would like to see a Weequay in The Mandalorian.
Source: Lucasfilm (via Reddit/StarWarsLeaks, Zcure1/Twitter)