The Mandalorian's season 2 premiere finally revealed a legendary Star Wars monster, explaining a key Obi-Wan Kenobi scene in the first film. The second season of The Mandalorian has immediately made it clear that bigger really can be better, pitting its titular hero against a monstrous behemoth that would give even a Jedi Master pause.
The creature in question is a krayt dragon, a gigantic beast that had been ravaging one remote area of Tatooine for years. The krayt dragon had settled in an abandoned sarlacc pit, apparently having devoured the sarlacc, and a local tribe of Tusken Raiders had been desperately attempting to placate it with sacrifices and offerings. But the krayt dragon's voracious hunger could not be sated, and it was gradually expanding its hunting territory, even preying upon the village of Mos Pelgo. In Mando's view, it was just a matter of time before it leveled the entire village.
The krayt dragon is actually a callback to the very first Star Wars movie. In one early scene, Luke Skywalker unwisely pursued Artoo Detoo into the remote Jundland Wastes, where he was attacked by a group of Sand People. Fortunately Obi-Wan Kenobi was close at hand, and he terrified the Tusken Raiders by issuing a strange, animal call as he approached. "I imitated the hunting cry of a krayt dragon," Obi-Wan explains in the radio dramatization. "Their imaginations did the rest and they took to their heels." Amusingly, George Lucas wasn't keen on this particular sound, and he kept modifying it in the Special Editions. Now viewers finally have a definitive answer to what a krayt dragon sounds like - and why the Sand People were so justifiably afraid.
The Mandalorian season 2 therefore provides context for Obi-Wan Kenobi's introduction in the first Star Wars film. Presumably Kenobi came across a krayt dragon at some point during his self-imposed exile on Tatooine, and learned their call was a very effective way of terrifying Tuskens. That assumption is supported by George Mann's book Star Wars: Myths & Fables, which collects legends from across the galaxy, all of which are supposed to contain a fragment of truth. One of these myths is a Tatooine account of how a mysterious hermit with what is clearly a lightsaber helped save a group of people who were about to be sacrificed to a krayt dragon; it's pretty clearly meant to be Obi-Wan Kenobi's own encounter with a krayt dragon. It will be interesting to see whether the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series tells the tale in a more definitive way.
Star Wars films have always spanned the galaxy, but sadly their worlds haven't always felt particularly well-developed. The Mandalorian is bucking that trend, fleshing out locations like Tatooine and making them feel like real places, with their own cultures and societies, ecosystems and predators. It's a welcome addition to the Star Wars galaxy.