Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian season 3, episode 5.
Star Wars’ major The Mandalorian timeline retcon has been made official. Up until The Mandalorian season 3, episode 5 “The Pirate,” the closest thing to an official chronology of events regarding The Mandalorian and The BooK of Boba Fett had come from creator Jon Favreau's comments during interviews. In fact, before the release of season 3, Favreau dropped a bombshell that essentially rewrote The Mandalorian’s timeline.
If Grogu had really spent multiple years with the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) before training with Luke Skywalker for a couple of years, then The Mandalorian could now be looking at a distance of least half a decade between seasons 1 and 3. Of course, Favreau’s comments could have been an exaggeration, or not properly explained, which is why it was so important for The Mandalorian season 3 to settle its timeline on-screen. It took five episodes, but it's happened.
The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 5 Confirms Many Years Have Passed Since Season 1
An important The Mandalorian season 3, episode 5 detail confirms that many years have passed since Din Djarin found Grogu in The Mandalorian season 1 – essentially making Favreau’s “many years” retcon official canon. When explaining to the other Mandalorians who Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) is and why they should help him, Mando recalls Greef’s ambush on him “many cycles ago” on Nevarro. This is a reference to the events of The Mandalorian season 1, in which Karga felt betrayed by Mando’s refusal of turning in Grogu and tried to capture him. If the Mandalorians’ fight in Nevarro happened “many cycles ago," then many years have passed since season 1.
Though Favreau’s words were enough to reveal that The Mandalorian’s place in the Star Wars timeline would be retconned, there had yet to be a season 3 scene establishing, without any doubts, that many years had passed since season 1. Granted, moments like Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) participating in a New Republic rehabilitation program strongly suggested that significant time had indeed passed – at least between The Mandalorian season 2’s finale and season 3’s premiere. Now, Din Djarin’s “many cycles ago” statement leaves no uncertainties – the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett have covered multiple years.
How Much Time Has Really Passed In The Mandalorian?
The Star Wars timeline has always been tricky, but the chronology of the events between The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett has been even more confusing. The problem with The Mandalorian’s timeline is that Din Djarin and Grogu will often jump from one adventure to another – similar to the pacing of a video game – which hides how much time has truly passed between episodes. A The Mandalorian timeline fan video by Geekritique tried to make sense of the Mandoverse’s chronology, concluding that The Mandalorian has so far spanned one-and-a-half-years. Still, that would not quite fit Din’s “many cycles ago" line.
The Mandalorian’s pacing makes it very difficult to determine how much time passes between each Mando and Grogu adventure, leaving it to small details and throwaway lines to help build a consistent timeline. Still, it is virtually impossible to fit Mando’s “many cycles ago” into what The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett have shown. The source of this disparity between the estimate The Mandalorian timeline and the official one seems to stem mostly from The Book of Boba Fett, which resolved The Mandalorian season 2’s cliffhanger way too quickly and made a “retroactive time jump” necessary.
New episodes of The Mandalorian release Wednesdays on Disney+.