The Mandalorian's biggest spinoff probably isn't the one Star Wars fans were expecting. The story of Din Djarin and Baby Yoda has enjoyed success on a galactic scale since arriving on Disney+. Dropping on the platform from launch, The Mandalorian proved a hit with the Star Wars faithful and, arguably, has made a bigger impact on the mainstream than anything else released during the Disney era. With competition between streaming services heating up as 2021 nears, having more like The Mandalorian will be vital for Disney+, and a slew of new Star Wars projects have been unveiled. While the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor were already in the works, other titles such as The Acolyte and Lando are now also on their way.
Several of these new projects will be set within The Mandalorian's timeline, and are direct spinoffs of the flagship series. Ahsoka will star Rosario Dawson, reprising her role from an episode of The Mandalorian season 2, and The Book of Boba Fett will continue the story of Temuera Morrison's titular bounty hunter after seizing Jabba's palace in The Mandalorian's latest run. The Mandalorian sets up both shows by bringing Ahsoka Tano and Boba Fett back into the Star Wars fold, but these are projects that many saw coming years ago. An Ahsoka spinoff was likely from the moment Dawson's casting was announced, and Disney has been angling for a Boba Fett solo project since long before The Mandalorian premiered.
However, The Mandalorian's most direct spinoff is a series that no one saw coming. Among the various Star Wars treats currently on the boil is Rangers of the New Republic - a story of X-Wing pilots in The Mandalorian's era. While Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett were obvious choices, Rangers of the New Republic feels more random. The New Republic is the notoriously short-lived era between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and the most interesting stories during that period occur elsewhere - Luke training, the emergence of Snoke, etc. To suggest there were widespread calls for an X-Wing spinoff set after the Battle of Endor would be a lie.
And yet, strangely, The Mandalorian has been setting up Rangers of the New Republic almost since the beginning. The story of Din Djarin has explicitly demonstrated the disarray of the galaxy after the Empire's fall. From Tatooine to Sorgan, the lives of ordinary people haven't improved under the New Republic's reign, with pirates, criminals and Empire remnants still running free. The Mandalorian season 1 introduced X-Wing pilots in "The Prisoner," revealing New Republic patrol squadrons looking to quell these problems, and The Mandalorian season 2 pulls that plot thread a little more. Carson Teva and Trapper Wolf accost Mando and give chase, before helping him fight off some ice spiders. The pilots note how thinly stretched their kind has become - testing times for one and all. Finally, Carson Teva recruits Cara Dune as a New Republic marshal.
Rangers of the New Republic might be an unexpected addition to Disney+, but it's the story The Mandalorian has spent the most time laying the groundwork for. Over the course of two seasons, The Mandalorian has shown viewers the problems faced by the New Republic, and introduced the everyday heroes tasked with fighting back - heroes who don't have the luxury of space magic or beskar armor. Suddenly, an idea that might've looked mundane prior to The Mandalorian's release becomes a natural extension of the overarching Star Wars story.
This is shrewd world-building from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Ahsoka Tano and Boba Fett need little in the way of introduction - The Mandalorian merely gave them a springboard to solo greatness. But Disney+ needed to sell Rangers of the New Republic to fans, and The Mandalorian has done exactly that. When Teva, Wolf and the gang return in their own series, viewers will already be invested in the Rangers' struggle to control a chaotic galaxy.