Mandalorian S3: Din's IG-11 Quest Could Hint At A Bigger Upgrade For The Crew

Season 3 of "The Mandalorian" has started with a bang, a splash, and a bunch of "pew pew" noises, slaking the public's thirst for ADR and justifying dozens of crewmembers' college decisions to ignore their dads' advice and study puppeteering. This year, the only constant is change: a new ship, a different set of enemies, a Bo Katan who's abandoned ambition in favor of sitting in a deeply uncomfortable chair and staring into the middle distance while she waits to receive visitors.

Perhaps most shockingly, the beloved streaming series has adopted a fresh new take on death by explosion. Specifically, it just doesn't have the same sticking power that it used to. On Nevarro, Mando (Pedro Pascal) clocks a statue made out of chunks of his old pal IG-11 (Taika Waititi), which is touching in a Parisian catacombs sort of way. This leads our hero to decide that he positively must have the assassin-turned-nanny droid back on his team, albeit with a new brain and body parts, so enjoy your new best friend, the Ship of Theseus, bud.

But what if Mando's latest obsession means more than just a timely, youthful new lesson plan for Philosophy 101 professors at community colleges around the world? What if it actually hints at the return of a whole different machine that got exploded?

Following "Chapter 17," it feels an awful lot like "The Mandalorian" is setting viewers up for the return of the much-missed and fully iconic Razor Crest. It's the sort of thing that we'll say was foreshadowed once we find out we were right.

The thought process goes like this: In the Season 3 premiere, we see Mando and Grogu tooling around the Outer Rim in a janky Naboo N-1 Starfighter, which at this point has got to be basically the '89 Volkswagen Rabbit of spaceships. It's cute and all but a little snug, even with the Habitrail bubble built into the back so that the little guy can play "I Spy" on long road trips.

If IG-11 makes his way back into the fold, the gang will need a roomier ride. Also, if IG-11 makes his way back into the fold, it'll be a great example of how stuff that gets blown to pieces can, with some hard work and acetylene, be pieced back together. It's a nice metaphor for what Mando's going through with his personal redemption journey, come to think of it. It's almost like a theme. Will Din and his merry crew hot glue gun their old ship back together? Has enough time passed for the Razor Crest's return to be effectively nostalgic? Will Grogu eat more babies this year? We'll just have to keep watching "The Mandalorian" every Wednesday to find out.