The Mandalorian Season 3 - What We Know So Far

On December 18, 2020, the final chapter of The Mandalorian's second season hit Disney+ and the entire Star Wars fanbase right in the feels at the same time. Not only did it showcase the defeat of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), his loss of the Darksaber, a successful rescue mission to liberate Grogu from his Imperial captor, and the announcement of a Boba Fett solo series, but it also contained a cameo from none other than Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill and Max Lloyd-Jones). The Jedi knight arrived, annihilated every Darktrooper in his path, and took the Child under his wing in one of the most tear-jerking moments of the series so far.

With the enduring image of a teary-eyed Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) watching his surrogate son leave to become a Jedi burned into the minds of everyone, the masses are already clamoring for new Mandalorian content ASAP. While information is scarce at the moment, a third season is coming amid the innumerable other Star Wars programs on their way to Disney+ in 2021 and beyond. Here's everything we know about when the next batch of episodes will arrive, who will take part, and where the story of the titular Mandalorian will go from here.

Aside from the countless questions Star Wars fans currently have about this new era of The Mandalorian, everyone wants to know when to expect season 3 to hit Disney+. As the old saying goes, "good things come to those who wait," and we're going to sit and twiddle our thumbs for a while. Per Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy at the 2020 Disney Investor Day presentation, The Mandalorian's third season comes out on December 25 — Christmas day — 2021.

This feels like a long time, largely because it is, but on the bright side, there are plenty of other Star Wars shows to get excited over that'll make this drought much easier to handle. First and foremost, 2021 will feature the premiere Star Wars: The Clone Wars' spiritual successor, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which follows the experimental Clone Force 99 in the aftermath of Order 66 and the subsequent rise of the Galactic Empire. Additionally, the newly announced Mandalorian spinoff, The Book of Boba Fett, will also debut on Disney's streaming service sometime in December of 2021.

As of this writing, there's little information concerning the cast of The Mandalorian season 3, but, thanks to the power of context clues, it's fair to assume at least a handful of old favorites will make a comeback, in addition to currently unknown fresh faces. It's a given that Pedro Pascal will reprise his role of Din Djarin, likely alongside Gina Carano's Cara Dune and Carl Weathers' Greef Karga. Perhaps Bill Burr's Imperial=turned-mercenary Migs Mayfeld and Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan Kryze will join the fray, as well.

Even though these names seem like guarantees, there are more than a few others from the second season of The Mandalorian who aren't nearly as likely to come back. Most notable among them is Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, who almost certainly have their sights set on The Book of Boba Fett. Also, the odds of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano making another appearance are slim, since she's preparing for her own Disney+ program, and, sadly, the return of Grogu is up in the air following his departure with Luke Skywalker, though we're hardly ready to count the little green guy out.

Following the shocking season 2 finale, The Mandalorian's third season will mark a significant shift in the overall narrative. Long gone are the days of Din and Grogu traveling the stars together in search of Jedi, occasionally running into Imperial forces. So begins the bounty hunter's time alone to rethink where he goes from here now that his foundling is back with other Force users. He'll probably part ways with Bo-Katan and Cara Dune, for the time being, embarking on a life similar to the one he led before he met The Child, or he'll attempt to reconnect with Grogu in some form or fashion.

On top of this, Moff Gideon is in custody after losing to Din in combat. Without his trusty Darksaber and Imperial troops behind him, he has nowhere to turn ... or so it seems at the moment. Gideon is no slouch, and likely planned his entire capture and is already coming up with a plan to escape his imprisonment and exact his revenge in short order.

Bo-Katan's journey is about to take an unexpected turn thanks to a key mistake Din made in "Chapter 16: The Rescue." As the person who disarmed Gideon, he's the rightful owner of the Darksaber and, by proxy, the rightful ruler of Mandalore. Since Bo-Katan is the one who wanted the ancient weapon in the first place, she'll have to make a crucial choice in the coming episodes. Does she face off against Din in a bid to reclaim the Darksaber, or find alternate means to reunite her people? We'll just have to wait and see once The Mandalorian returns in almost exactly one year. While you're waiting, you can brush up on some Mandalorian and Star Wars history.