Small Details You Missed In The Mandalorian Season 2 Trailer
Galaxy-sized expectations met The Mandalorian when it hit Disney+ as the streaming platforms preeminent launch title. Star Wars, after all, is a massive franchise, and any project entering the great big galaxy far, far away has to contend with a pretty discriminating fanbase. In large part thanks to 50-year-old-best-boy Baby Yoda — and of course the masked bounty hunter Mando (Pedro Pascal), who we now know is Din Djarin — the first season was an unmitigated success. Showrunner Jon Favreau and his writing team brought a Western grit back to the franchise that had been missing since the heyday of the original trilogy, and the fans ate it right up. The only thing wrong with the first season of The Mandalorian is that there are only eight episodes to enjoy. With season 2 dropping on October 30, and The Mandalorian season 2 trailer finally available wherever videos are streamed, the internet is once again ablaze with Star Wars news, theories, and overall excitement.
While all eyes were on Baby Yoda, we did catch a few other small details in the trailer that reward repeat viewing. As a reminder, season 1 ends with Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) emerging from a wrecked TIE fighter — no surprises there — and a reveal that pretty much broke the internet: Gideon has the coveted, supposedly mythical Darksaber. Star Wars fans are now gearing up to see where Favreau takes us in season 2, and the ancient art of trailer-mancy is an essential part of that process. By way of contribution, here are some of the small details that were easy to miss in The Mandalorian season 2 trailer.
WWE star Sasha Banks makes an appearance
Seeing comedian Bill Burr make his Star Wars debut during season 1 was a pleasant surprise, and if the season 2 trailer is any indication, then the fans are set to see plenty of cameos in the second edition of Baby Yoda and Mando's space journey.
While we don't know her character yet, WWE star Sasha Banks has been spotted lurking in the shadows and wearing a black, ominous cloak. Banks' appearance is especially notable since she's the only new guest star seen in the trailer. Plus, she's totally giving Baby Yoda and Din a suspicious look. Why else wear the hood, Sasha? She also just might be a Jedi as the force-wielding beings are mentioned by the voiceover as she makes her debut.
Whether a friend, foe, or frenemy, Banks' season 2 appearance is official, bringing a little SmackDown swagger to The Mandalorian in the best possible way. Other notable actors, such as Rosario Dawson, Timothy Olyphant, and Katee Sackhoff, are also set to join the live-action Star Wars series. For the time being, let's hope the new season brings more than a fleeting glimpse of each.
Will Mando cross the Jedi?
Season 2 could see all-universe foster father Din return his green-skinned son back to his homeland, as the trailer voiceover instructs: "You must reunite it with its own kind." No one's exactly rooting for Mando to give up his highly entertaining foster father gig, but fans should be excited to learn more about Yoda's species — a mystery that has provided decades-long fodder for fan theorizing. The voiceover appears to be the Armorer from season 1.
The trailer voiceover continues, "The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called Jedi." This seems to indicate that Mando is expected to search the galaxy for a race of enemy sorcerers and deliver "The Child" to them. Sounds easy. "This is the way," the voiceover says.
While not a foregone conclusion, it's possible we see Jedi or at least some other force-sensitive beings during season 2. We also suspect that the lineage of The Child will be peeled back in some way (fingers and lightsabers crossed). This, of course, is pure conjecture based on the voiceover, but it does make a certain kind of sense. No matter where Baby Yoda ends his season 2 journey, wherever Mando goes, Baby Yoda goes.
Are these Baby Yoda's first words?
Baby Yoda may already be 50 years old, but as far as we can tell, he's spent that entire half century as a tiny mute. First words are an important milestone for any adorable child, and that goes triple for the internet's favorite infant force-wielder. While hearing "Mando," "Din," or — get ready to melt — "Dad" would make a nice kind of sense, the trailer's repeated phrase "this is the way" has some fans speculating that The Child might jump straight from silence to complete sentences.
How epic would it be if those turn out to be the first words that pop out of Yoda's mouth? Picture Din at a point of no return with his back against the wall, and Baby Yoda gives a magical speech to keep Din from giving up. Of course, this being Baby Yoda, "The way, this is," would be the more appropriate syntax.
Either way, this little guy is getting older, and words eventually have to come out of his little Yoda mouth.
The Razor Crest appears to be in trouble
Upon first glance at the beginning of the trailer, Mando's ship, the Razor Crest, is flying near a planet and might even be on the verge of entering an atmosphere. However, a closer look shows the cargo door flapping open and lights flickering, as well as a damaged engine. While anyone could be chasing down Mando as the entire galaxy appears to be after the treasured Baby Yoda, one thing is certain: the Razor Crest is in trouble.
Later in the trailer, another ship, which also appears to be the Razor Crest, enters an atmosphere of an unknown planet and bursts into flames, but not before flying in between what appears to be two X-wing starfighters.
While trailers can sometimes be taken out of context, it would appear Mando's trusted space vehicle is going to reach the point of no return, possibly requiring him to take the controls and captain's chair in a new flying vessel. Mando and Baby Yoda are an undeniably unbeatable duo, but ships typically aren't indestructible.
Unfamiliar faces in familiar places
Finding Baby Yoda's homeland — if that's, in fact, the goal — will likely take some planet-hopping. There's a shot in the trailer that shows a spaceship flying just beyond a Bantha, which seems to prove that The Mandalorian is returning to Tatooine. The desert planet is home to the Banthas, hairy mammals with spiraling horns, and there are still some lingering questions about Boba Fett, who famously carried out a mission on Tatooine. Mando's reasoning to land on Tatooine remains unclear, but the Outer Rim planet being in the trailer is not.
An icy planet is also featured in the footage, and could very well be Hoth, a frosty wasteland that was seen in The Empire Strikes Back. But it could just as easily be another snow-covered planet such as Ilum, which contains a kyber crystalline core from which Jedi would mine crystals to create their lightsabers. After the Galactic Empire took over Ilum, the planet became Starkiller Base. If what we're seeing in the trailer is pre-Starkiller Ilum, that's a pretty massive deal.
The trailer also makes a stop at a boat dock that features Squid Heads, also known by their less offensive and more accurate name, the Quarren. The squid-like species' homeworld is Mon Cala. While the dock and surrounding waters could be anywhere in the galaxy, Mon Cala is a fair assumption.
A gladiator-style fighting ring, more space creatures, and a subtle callback to Rogue One
There's a lot to unpack in the trailer for The Mandalorian season 2, as out-of-context clips are thrown together one shot after the other, with many including Mando having to escape hard times with his fearless fighting style.
On top of being submerged by water with no clear escape, Mando also finds himself in a fighting ring, where two Gamorreans (pig-faced creatures that guarded Jabba the Hutt) battle below different-colored flags. With an assist by Baby Yoda, Mando is heard taking out anything and everything that crosses his path — as well as what's presumably a Dathomirian, as Dathomirian Zabrak Darth Maul had the same horns on his dome. Keeping the lovely creatures of Star Wars going, the trailer features a cycloptic alien from the fight-loving Abyssin species.
To top it all off, as the Rebels run through a base, a noise that's eerily similar to the alarm in Rogue One briefly sounds off.
As we said, there's much to dissect in the Mandalorian season 2 trailer — and it represents just the tip of the iceberg of fresh content up ahead. The Mandalorian season 2 will drop on Disney+ on October 30.