The Mandalorian Season 2 Release Date, Cast And Plot - What We Know So Far

Contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 1

The adventures of Helmeted-Hero-slash-Galaxy's-Best-Foster-Dad and his green-skinned, 50-year-old son shall continue. 

Yes, the hit Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian is indeed returning for a second season. Starring Pedro Pascal as the eponymous character, The Mandalorian follows the bounty-hunting leading man throughout his many exploits in a world outside the scope of the New Republic. Early on, Mando comes into contact with the Child — a 50-year-old member of Master Yoda's mysterious species whom fans have dubbed Baby Yoda, and for whom a powerful man known only as the Client (played by Werner Herzog) has offered a sizable bounty. Throughout the first season's eight chapters, Mando got mixed up in plenty of high-stakes scenarios (life-or-death situations in which he must protect the Child over everything else are chief among them) and met a number of interesting characters — like the Alderaanian ex-Rebel shocktrooper Cara Dune (Gina Carano), the bounty-hunting droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi), the Ugnuaght moisture farmer Kuiil (Nick Nolte), and, of course, the bounty hunter guild leader Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), who sets Mando on his current course.

Series creator (slash showrunner, slash executive producer) Jon Favreau essentially confirmed a second season of The Mandalorian months before the first bundle of episodes ever hit the Disney+ streaming platform. He shared during a July 2019 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live that script work for The Mandalorian season 2 had already begun: "We're done with the first season. I'm actually writing part of the second season now. So I'm having a blast."

Will all the fun Favreau and his Mandalorian co-writers Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Christopher Yost apparently had while writing season 2 translate to the small screen? What trials and triumphs await our hero and his precious living cargo? Really, what will happen on The Mandalorian season 2? 

While we don't know everything (Disney and Lucasfilm are infamously secretive), we do know quite a bit about what's next for the series. Let us bring you up to speed.

Luckily for Mando maniacs out there, there is concrete information available regarding when The Mandalorian season 2 will premiere on Disney+. 

First, Jon Favreau took to Twitter shortly after The Mandalorian season 1 finale became available to stream to announce the release date for season 2: fall 2020. Then, during an earnings call in January 2020, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that The Mandalorian season 2 will premiere in October 2020 (via The Hollywood Reporter). Several agonizing months later, and fans finally got the detail they were waiting for: the exact date the new season will drop. The official Twitter account for The Mandalorian confirmed on September 2, 2020 that the series is returning on October 30.

As with The Mandalorian season 1, new episodes of season 2 will premiere on the streamer weekly rather than dropping all at once. This rollout helped the series maintain a steady buzz from week to week – even building excitement as the tension and stakes rose within the narrative — and history should repeat itself with this new batch of episodes.

Who's in the cast of The Mandalorian season 2? Pedro Pascal's Mando (real name: Din Djarin), Carl Weathers' Greef Karga, Werner Herzog's Client, Nick Nolte's Kuiil, Taika Waititi's IG-11, Giancarlo Esposito's Moff Gideon, Gina Carano's Carasynthia "Cara" Dune, the Earth's collective child Baby Yoda, and more will likely show up on the new bundle of Mandalorian episodes. 

However, season 2 of The Mandalorian will add new characters to its ranks — some of whom Star Wars loyals have already seen on the silver screen before. When Favreau confirmed the debut date for the new season, he added to his announcement tweet a photo of a Gamorrean, a species of piggish creatures who guarded Jabba the Hutt's palace in Return of the Jedi. This hints that the series, which is set five years after Return of the Jedi and 25 years before The Force Awakens, may take a turn into territory not yet charted by the Star Wars franchise through its second season. Specifically, The Mandalorian season 2 might dig into the going-ons of Jabba the Hutt's crime rings and how they've been getting on following his death. Perhaps Mando will find himself a new big, bad foe to face off against when he meets a brutish Gamorrean, or maybe he'll have to escape the wrath of one of Jabba's closest associates. 

Deadline later noted that the upcoming season of The Mandalorian is set to include a variety of characters from the Skywalker saga — that is, the nine Star Wars films that stretch from 1977's A New Hope all the way to 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. After all, the Mandalorian does take place in the midst of the timeline of the Star Wars films. In the outlet's words, "Insiders have hinted that several established characters from the Skywalker saga's feature films mythology will make appearances during the show's sophomore season." This could account for characters as relatively low-key as droids as well as for major players like — dare we say it — the famous Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, whom many think was the person who approached Fennec Shand's dead body at the end of The Mandalorian chapter 5. The Skywalker saga left a lot of questions unanswered, so perhaps the upcoming season of The Mandalorian aims to patch up those blank spaces and bring viewers face-to-face with some not-so-forgotten characters.

In February 2020, it was reported that WWE Superstar Sasha Banks will be on The Mandalorian season 2. Pro Wrestling Sheet ran the story, confirming with their sources the accuracy of the information first provided by the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast. It's unknown who Banks will play or how significant her role is.

Slashfilm confirmed in an exclusive report, published in March 2020, that Rosario Dawson will portray Ahsoka Tano, the Jedi Padawan apprentice of Anakin Skywalker who made animated appearances on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, on season 2 of the series. This will mark the first time the character has been performed in a live-action production. Shortly after that announcement, it was confirmed that Aliens actor Michael Biehn joined the cast, set to play "a bounty hunter from the Mandalorian's past."

Timothy Olyphant and Katee Sackhoff are also joining the series for season 2. The former will play Cobb Vanth, the ex-slave from the Star Wars: Aftermath novel trilogy who acquired Boba Fett's armor; the later will reprise her Clone Wars and Rebels animated role of Bo-Katan Kryze, the one-time rule of Mandalore and current head of the Mandalorian Nite Owls collective.

The well of knowledge regarding The Mandalorian season 2's release date and cast may have provided some worthwhile insight, but here's where there's a juicier cache of information available to Mandalorian enthusiasts. In a move that surely delighted fans everywhere, the series' season 1 finale didn't end on a cliffhanger as far as the core story goes. Instead, it planted the seeds that will grow into the season 2 narrative: Mando's about to embark on a new mission — a two-member one, with Baby Yoda serving as his plus-one — signified by the Armorer (Emily Swallow) etching a symbol into his suit. She tells him he must look after Baby Yoda as if he were its parent: "Until it is of age or reunited with its own kind, you are as its father. This is the way."

That'll make up the heart of The Mandalorian season 2 — even more so than it did season 1 — leaving any sub-plots to the writers' discretion. Well, except for one. 

There's a huge dangling thread where Giancarlo Esposito's Moff Gideon is concerned, and surely the new season will address that internet-breaking bombshell that came in the final few seconds of chapter 8. You know, the ones that saw Moff Gideon wielding the Darksaber, the black lightsaber created by the Jedi Order's first-ever Mandalorian inductee Tarre Vizsla. Yeah, those ones. It's most plausible that the second most important storyline for The Mandalorian season 2 will center around Moff Gideon, his motives, his backstory, and things of that nature. 

Disney being Disney, the company is keeping its Mandalorian season 2 secrets closely guarded, and everything that will fill the spaces in between Moff's, Mando's, and Baby Yoda's arcs is a pretty big mystery for now. However, not one to put its fans through misery, Disney released a full-length trailer for The Mandalorian season 2 that offers just enough out-of-context teases to get everyone speculating about what season 2 has in store.

A mysterious hooded figure (played by WWE superstar Sasha Banks); a hint that Mando will meet some Jedi; Mando's ship, the Razor Crest, looking like it's facing impending doom; distinctive landscapes and glimpses of Banthas hinting that a return to Tatooine is in the cards; and a tease that someone is wearing Boba Fett's helmet and armor — the season 2 trailer featured all that and more. It cleverly didn't answer any of the questions fans have going into season 2, but it certainly hyped them up even more than they already were. And really, what more could they ask for?

Prepare to head back to the galaxy far, far away when The Mandalorian season 2 hits Disney+ on Friday, October 30.