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Trivia / The Mandalorian

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Episodes Trivia

    Season 1 

    Season 2 

    Season 3 

General Trivia

    The Series 
  • Acting for Two:
    • Tait Fletcher plays one of the Bar Thugs in Chapter 1 and is the suit actor for Paz Viszla in Chapter 3.
    • Brendan Wayne, one of the stunt doubles for the titular Mandalorian, also portrays the Death Watch Mandalorian who saved the titular character when he was a child during the Clone Wars.
    • Misty Rosas was the suit actor for Kuiil in season one and also played the "Frog Lady" in season two.
    • Mark Hamill is the voice actor for both the bartender droid in Mos Eisley Cantina in Chapter 5, and Luke Skywalker in Chapter 16.
  • Actor-Inspired Element:
    • Jon Favreau has vaguely stated that Pedro Pascal's "insight" into Mando's relationship with the Child prompts the writers to "rethink moments over the course of the show." Pascal later elaborated to Vanity Fair that he suggested revealing his face to the Child, though he didn't know if Favreau already came up with that idea himself.
    • Pedro Pascal has also claimed credit for delaying when exactly "The Believer" would show his face. Concept art showed Mando revealing himself to Mayfeld early into the mission, but Pascal suggested that Mando instead cover himself until a high-stakes moment.
    • Ming-Na Wen helped design Fennec Shand's braid, suggesting that it resemble triangular fox ears forming a ponytail as long as a fox's tail.
    • Boba Fett's fighting style in "The Tragedy" (Chapter 14) was modeled after the haka (Māori ritual dance) at Temuera Morrison's own request. Boba's gaffi stick was made longer than those used in A New Hope to accomodate his movements and make it closer to a traditional Māori weapon used for such dances, the taiaha.
    • Giancarlo Esposito requested that Moff Gideon have a cape when he was offered the role by Jon Favreau, as he wanted to feel like a kid again when playing the character.
  • Actor-Shared Background: A Chilean refugee since childhood, Pedro Pascal related to Din Djarin's escape from the violent political drama of his birthplace, to unfamiliar lands.
  • Approval of God:
  • Ascended Fancast: Rosario Dawson has stated that being a popular fancast for the role of Ahsoka Tano helped her get the role in The Mandalorian.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • Accepting Jon Favreau's offer to become the Mandalorian required Pedro Pascal to refresh his lessons on acting behind a mask, balance filming the first season with at least two other projects, and coordinate his body language with two stunt doubles. However, the prospect of working in the Star Wars universe intrigued him so much, that none of these challenges could scare him away.
      "I hope this doesn't sound like me fashioning myself like I'm, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big shit."
    • Although he signed on for financial reasons at first before coming on the set and has never seen a Star Wars movie before, Werner Herzog (the Client) went on to praise the show's Worldbuilding and Practical Effects, saying "it's cinema at its best".
    • Bill Burr never had good feelings about Star Wars, finding the Original Trilogy "geared towards kids" and a "cheesy self-help book put in outer space with, like, Muppets." Then Jon Favreau convinced him to play in The Mandalorian, and his mind changed on set.
      "I went in there, and they were shooting it like a Spaghetti Western. And I was immediately so psyched to be a part of it."
      "The way they’re doing this one, it's awesome." (about the series)
    • Omid Abtahi was only a casual Star Wars fan when he received the offer to play Dr. Pershing, but loved Jon Favreau's movies. The morning after he learned that Favreau wanted him for an "untitled" project, he asked his agent to assure him That Was Not a Dream.
    • Even though Ming-Na Wen has loved Star Wars for most of her life, she hesitated to accept the offer to play Fennec Shand, since the script for Chapter 5 originally killed her off after her first appearance. Ultimately, she decided to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the Galaxy, and jokingly suggested to Dave Filoni that he should let Fennec live. Ultimately, he complied.
    • After briefly visiting the set and providing the voice for the Mos Eisely bartender in Season 1, Mark Hamill was more than happy to reprise his role as Luke Skywalker in this show after he was told it would be done through the digital deaging technology as seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially since he was certain they would employ a Time-Shifted Actor to play the part instead.
  • Blooper: A crew member could originally be seen standing in the background in Chapter 12. He was later digitally removed.
  • Cast the Expert: Magistrate Elsbeth is played by Diana Lee Inosanto, a trained martial artist who even made her own martial arts movie, The Sensei. After Favreau and Filoni watched the trailer, they agreed that she has the necessary skills and background for a foe capable of going up against a Jedi in single combat.
  • Content Leak: The involvement of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano and Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett in Season 2 leaked fairly early.
  • Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Several sources reported a nasty rumor that Pedro Pascal got fed up with his face never being seen and abruptly left the show midway through production on Season 2. This was ultimately traced to Grace Randolph, already known to have a serious grudge against Disney (she was a major proponent of the accusations that Disney had bribed critics to praise the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and the season itself showed the story to be totally false. Though that still didn't stop some from insisting the Boba Fett spinoff announced as the end of the season was actually the show's own third season because of it (and that too ended up being debunked, The Book of Boba Fett is a separate show).
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Though he’s otherwise been receptive towards the show, George Lucas was annoyed with the Easter eggs towards the infamous Holiday Special; unsurprising given his well-known hatred for it.
    • When Disney+ India accidentally leaked Rosario Dawson would be playing Ahsoka, Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka in the animated shows, was upset enough by the news that she cancelled her livestream scheduled for later that day, then later released a statement revealing she was not informed that Ahsoka would be in The Mandalorian nor was she told Ahsoka would be recast (she's previously shown interest in reprising her role in live-action; she had cosplayed as Ahsoka for a convention, and Ahsoka's facial build in Rebels was based on Eckstein's, similarly to Bo-Katan with Katee Sackhoff). However, while saddened about being left in the dark, she says in the same statement that she's otherwise supportive of whatever direction Ahsoka is taken and that bringing the character to life is a team effort. Additionally, upon the release of Chapter 13, she congratulated Rosario Dawson for her performance of Ahsoka.
    • Chuck Wendig, the writer of the Aftermath trilogy and the creator of Cobb Vanth, was also kept in the dark about Cobb appearing in the show until Season 2 premiered. While he stated he was pleasantly surprised about it, he was disappointed by some of the minor alterations made to his character.
    • Joe Johnston, one of Boba Fett's original designers, disapproved of Disney+ revealing Boba's unmasked face, confessing to The New York Times ahead of the Book of Boba Fett premiere that he believed it ruined his mystique.
  • Creator-Chosen Casting: Jon Favreau chose several of the actors himself, including Pedro Pascal.
  • Creator's Favorite: In a 2024 Wired Autocomplete interview, Bill Burr stated that being part of this series is his favorite thing he's ever done in his career.
  • Creator's Oddball: Franchise work is very unusual for Werner Herzog, who admitted he only took the role to finance his own work and had never seen Star Wars before. However, he enjoyed his time with the show and even shamed the creators when they were considering replacing the Child puppet with CGI for one scene.
  • The Danza: Governor Wing is played by former Disney Imagineer Wing T. Chao.
  • Dawson Casting: Temuera Morrison was 59 when he played the role of Boba Fett, who is 41 during his debut. The old look for Boba is justified by his time in the Sarlacc Pit and years of living on Tatooine.
  • Defictionalization:
    • Not quite the same as the blue macarons from Chapter 12, but the Galactic Baking cookbook has a recipe for blue ice cream sandwiches inspired by those macarons. Regardless, the recipe confirms you can get blue cookies by adding blue food dye to your concoction (or as the official name implies, through using blue butter).
    • For a limited time after Chapter 12's release, you could also purchase a 12-pack of those blue cookies (the aptly named Nevarro Nummies) from Williams Sonoma.
  • Deleted Scene:
    • Pedro Pascal has at least one deleted piece of on-set improv with Baby Yoda, which he described in such interviews as this one. During the roasting of the Krayt Dragon meat, Pascal ad-libbed a warning from Din to the Child, not to stand too close to the flames. The puppeteers responded by having the Child stare up at Din in agreement, then back away from the spit.
    • There was apparently a scene filmed in "The Tragedy" that had Greef Karga meeting Boba Fett after landing on Nevarro, though it didn't make it into the final episode.
    • "The Rescue" originally had Din show his face to Cara before the end credits roll.
  • Demand Overload: As soon as official life-size figures of the Child ("Baby Yoda") became available, the Sideshow Collectibles website crashed.
  • Descended Creator:
    • In "The Sin", Paz Vizla is voiced by series creator Jon Favreau.
    • In "The Prisoner", the X-Wing pilots are played by series directors Dave Filoni, Deborah Chow, and Rick Famuyiwa. They re-appear in "The Pirate" without their helmets.
  • Development Gag: The bartender W. Earl Brown plays in Mos Pelgo uses a Weequay headsculpt originally molded for Greef Karga, before Jon Favreau opted against hiding Carl Weathers' face.
  • Directed by Cast Member:
    • Taika Waititi is the director of "Chapter 8: Redemption" and voices IG-11.
    • Carl Weathers plays Greef Karga and directed "Chapter 12: The Siege" and "Chapter 20: The Foundling" (though Karga himself doesn't appear in the latter episode).
  • Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Deaf actor Troy Kotsur plays a Tusken using Native American Sign Language in Chapter 5.
  • Dueling Works:
    • Season 1 came out one month before the first season of Netflix's The Witcher in late 2019. Both are high profile streaming fantasy shows centered around a drifting Bounty Hunter protagonist. Critics clearly favor The Mandalorian, but audiences have thoroughly embraced both.
    • Season 3 has a duel against The Last of Us (2023). Both science-fiction shows star Pedro Pascal as an anti-heroic surrogate father, and The Last of Us episodes #7-9 aired during the same weeks as The Mandalorian Chapters 17-19. It also doesn't help that HBO required Pascal to prioritize TLoU above The Mandalorian, resulting in him missing an undisclosed portion of principal photography for Mando S3. In certain regions, Disney+ Hotstar actually had the streaming rights to both shows, until their deal with HBO expired after March 2023.
  • Dyeing for Your Art:
    • Pedro Pascal gives the Mandalorian a raspy voice by screaming into a pillow before recording his lines.
    • Katee Sackhoff dyed her hair red to play Bo-Katan Kryze.
  • Flip-Flop of God: An interesting case. George Lucas stated that although Jango and Boba wore Mandalorian armor, they were not Mandalorians themselves, while Jon Favreau leaned in favor of them being Mandalorians. The show says both are true from a certain point of view — Jango was not born Mandalorian, but was a Mandalorian foundling, making him as much Mandalorian as the titular hero. Through Jango, Boba would be Mandalorian "by blood", even if he doesn't observe Mandalorian culture or associate with them.
  • Follow the Leader:
    • Grogu's inordinate popularity has lead to other brands attempting to mimic their appeal by introducing baby kid-appeal versions of their established characters, such as Planters's Baby Nut.
    • Before this show came out, streaming services would release episodes of their shows all at once. When The Mandalorian released the Season 1 episodes on a weekly basis, other streamers saw how beneficial it was and began doing the same with their biggest shows.
    • With the big reveal at the end of Season 2, other shows started teasing similar big-name reveals. The most notable of these was Wandavision, but it was not uncommon to find other series comparing their ending to the Mandalorian in ways how games were comparing themselves to Skyrim in 2012.
  • Friendship on the Set:
    • One formed between Pedro Pascal and Amy Sedaris by the time Season 2 finished filming.
      Pedro Pascal: I followed Amy Sedaris around like a puppy. [I was] like, "Hey again. I'm not leaving your side until you wrap," and she's like, "Cool,"... somebody who makes you spit-laugh right into your helmet will always be my favorite thing.
    • Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder became friends as well.
  • He Also Did: This is not the first time Giancarlo Esposito has acted opposite a puppet: he appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street in 1982.
  • In Memoriam: A few weeks after the second season finale aired a dedication was added to the end credits for Jeremy Bulloch, the original suit actor for Boba Fett, who passed away the day before the episode aired.
  • Killer App: When it premiered, the show was one of Disney+' biggest selling points for new subscribers.
  • Late Export for You: As Disney+ was initially available to a limited number of countries note , there was no legal way to see the first season outside the countries where Disney+ is available. The results? The season became the most illegally downloaded production of the year on par with Game of Thrones. This is especially egregious for Latin American viewers, since the series has a Latin American Spanish dub included, but it was made for Hispanic (and Puerto Rican) audiences in mind. Season 2 had no such problems, as Disney+ was available in a bigger number of countries this time around.
  • Lying Creator:
    • In an interview about her guest-star appearance in Chapter 11, Sasha Banks hinted that this was her only appearance in Season 2, only to return in the season finale. She later also lied that she would not appear in Season 3.
    • Mark Hamill indicated that he would be retiring from the role of Luke Skywalker after the completion of the Skywalker Saga with the ninth and final episodic film, particularly with a statement that he made on Twitter in May 2020... But in spite of that public statement, he'd already appeared on the set of the show's second season finale, and had recorded his dialogue at that point. This kind of thing isn't actually new for Hamill, given the many times that he's "retired" from voicing The Joker in various video game and animated adaptations, only to get another Role Reprise.
  • Meaningful Release Date: Chapter 16, featuring an appearance from Luke Skywalker at the end, aired on December 18, 2020 — five years to the release of The Force Awakens, which also featured Luke's appearance in the end.
  • Meme Acknowledgement:
    • Not even a few minutes after the release trailer was posted online, Pedro Pascal joined in with the chimes of "Yeah? Good." on Twitter.
    • Pedro Pascal tweeted in response to a meme edit of the Child pressing buttons in the Mandalorian's ship that played "Africa" by Toto that it would be out-of-character for the Mando to turn it off. On the other hand, "Yoda" by "Weird Al" Yankovic would stay off.
  • The Merch: As soon as the Child appeared in Season 1, clamors for merch of this irresistibly cute and endearing character abounded. Disney took some time before releasing merch of him in early 2020, leading to Demand Overload in some cases.
  • Method Acting: Many pictures and videos taken on the set of Season 1 show either Pedro Pascal or his body doubles continuing to wear Mandalorian helmets in between takes, sometimes pairing the mask together with street clothes. While recording ADR, Pascal copies Mando's motions, going so far as to use a pillow as a decoy for the Child. For scenes that Lucasfilm shot with either Brendan Wayne or Lateef Crowder instead of Pascal, he'd ask the double for Mando's thoughts and emotions while preparing for the dubbing session.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: From the release trailer, although "Mandalorian, look outside." is in the show.
    The Client: Mandalorian, look outside. They are waiting for you.
    The Mandalorian: Yeah? Good.
  • No Stunt Double: Gina Carano and Giancarlo Esposito did most of their own stunts.
  • Not Screened for Critics:
    • Critics didn't get a chance to watch the first episode until after it was released through Disney+, which is typically a sign of a lack of confidence from the studio. However, it should be noted that this was only done to prevent the First-Episode Twist from getting out, and not out of quality concerns, as the pilot was widely praised upon release. To subvert this trope altogether, Lucasfilm had a premiere screening of the pilot and the next two episodes (which were not released at the time) specifically for critics a few days after the first episode was released, with screeners for new episodes arriving to critics the day before new episodes aired.
    • Lucasfilm also forbade critics from screening Season 2 early, with no plans to provide screeners.
  • On-Set Injury: On the filming day for the scene in Chapter 8 where Mando's helmet is removed to reveal his severely injured face, Pedro Pascal actually did seriously injure his face and had to get stitches across his nose (which caused a hell of a time for the poor hospital staff having to pick out which wounds were real or makeup).
  • One for the Money; One for the Art: Werner Herzog ended up playing a role in this in order to fund a future project, although he did like the script, the role he ended up having and the overall Worldbuilding and Practical Effects, the Grogu puppet above all (it was thanks to him that the use of the very expensive puppet was cemented for the series, in fact).
  • The Other Darrin:
    • EV-9D9 from Return of the Jedi appears in the fifth episode, but she is voiced by the franchise veteran Mark Hamill rather than Richard Marquand, the director of Jedi, given Marquand's passing in 1987.
    • In the Japanese dub of Season 2, Bo-Katan Kryze is voiced by Arisa Shida, instead of Fumiko Orikasa, who voiced her in the dub of Star Wars Rebels. In this case, this could be quite justified, since she is much older this time.
    • Likewise, and bizarrely enough, Luke Skywalker is voiced by Yuusuke Suda, rather than his regular voice actor, Bin Shimada, very likely because he is already too old to voice his younger self anymore.
    • A curious case happens in the Latin American Spanish dub with Luke Skywalker, as he is voiced by José Gilberto Vilchis, rather than his voice actor from the sequel trilogy, Beto Castillo: Vilchis is the nephew of the late Jesús Barrero, who voiced him in the Special Edition version of the original trilogy, and very likely he voiced him because his voice sounds very similar to that to his late uncle (and this isn't the first time he's taken over a role previously voiced by his uncle).
      • Supposedly, according to a r/starwarsleaks, this was to prevent Spoiled by the Format, as people would know from actors reprising their roles if a character would appear.
    • Ahsoka Tano has been voiced in all previous appearances by Ashley Eckstein. For her live-action debut (not counting her voice cameo in The Rise of Skywalker, in which Eckstein still voiced her), she is portrayed by Rosario Dawson.
    • Temuera Morrison replaced the then-too old Jeremy Bulloch (the Original Trilogy actor in the suit, who passed away during the second season's debut) as Boba Fett (as the live-action character at least, Morrison had already redubbed Boba in The Empire Strikes Back and voiced him in the Battlefront games). It makes sense given Boba is a clone of Jango Fett (also played by Morrison, in Attack of the Clones) and has a lot of scenes where he doesn't have his helmet on, although many viewers have notice the significant difference in build between the two actors.
    • Pellaeon was voiced by Jim Cummings for his brief offscreen cameo in the finale of Star Wars Rebels. For his live-action debut, he is played by Xander Berkeley.
  • The Original Darrin: Temuera Morrison voices the regular Clone Troopers in the flashback during Chapter 20 when they have usually been voiced by Dee Bradley Baker since Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
  • Playing Against Type:
    • In stark contrast to Taika Waititi's usual goofy characters, IG-11 provides (maybe slightly dark) laughs with his willingness to self-destruct, but is coldly professional and amoral, even having no qualms about killling a baby. It's telling that he's the straight man to the Mandalorian's occasional quips instead of the other way around.
    • Similarly, Bill Burr is known for his loudmouthed, intentionally obnoxious comedy characters, while Mayfield is a ruthless mercenary who's more passive-aggressively sinister and creepy than outright abrasive, although the character's second appearance was a little closer to a typical Burr role.
  • Playing with Character Type: Jack Black played jerks or antagonists before, and had just starred as Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie during the airing of Season 3, but even though his character Captain Bombardier has long since pulled a Heel–Face Turn, it's pretty crazy to see him playing a character who was once a loyal fascist who had to be rehabilitated.
  • Production Posse:
  • Promoted Fanboy:
    • According to Dave Filoni, there was one scene that required a large amount of stormtroopers, but they didn't have enough costumes. He ended up drafting members of the 501st Legion fanclub, who specialize in making their own Storm/Clone trooper cosplays (the club's name was made Ascended Fanon pre-Disney as Darth Vader's preferred stormtrooper unit). The group received a "Special Thanks" mention in the end credits for Episodes 7 and 8 where their scenes appear.
    • Pedro Pascal grew up watching the original trilogy and jumped at the chance to meet with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about the project. He initially assumed they wanted him to play a minor side character and would have happily accepted the role only to be pleasantly surprised when they told him he was being offered the title character. Pascal ended up finding so many other longtime Star Wars fans working on the show, that he opened Disney Gallery episode #3, "Cast", with the following observation:
      The most important aspect to a project like this is the love of the world of Star Wars, and to put that love into the storytelling. We all love special effects and fireworks and visual experiences that are incredible, but what we care the most about is relationships and characters.
    • Katee Sackhoff's addition to the cast in Season 2 also excited Pedro Pascal, who loves Battlestar Galactica (2003), and would often ask "Starbuck" about it in between takes.
    • Rick Famuyiwa began developing a fascination with Star Wars after A New Hope became the first movie he watched in a theater. He's grown up to fulfill multiple duties on The Mandalorian: Director, writer, executive producer, and X-Wing pilot.
    • Ahmed Best was a huge fan of Carl Weathers as a child, and was incredibly honored to be directed by him in Season 3's The Foundling. After Weathers' death in 2024, Ahmed posted online how he gave him the confidence to return to Star Wars after the hardship he endured from playing Jar Jar Binks.
  • Prop Recycling: Being a Star Wars production means taking advantage of previous productions' assets. Props from Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo have been spotted, as well as designs and concepts from other media. The Disney Gallery series revealed that the X-Wing cockpit used for scenes at the end of "The Prisoner" was built for the Orlando version of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, but that the Mandalorian team got the chance to use it before it was shipped off to Florida.
  • Real-Life Relative:
    • Omid Abtahi's son played one of the Coruscant denizens in "The Convert".
    • Brendol Hux is played by Brian Gleeson while his brother Domhnall Gleeson played Brendol's son Armitage Hux in the Sequel Trilogy.
  • Refitted for Sequel:
    • At least some part of the show was inspired by the cancelled Boba Fett movie.
    • The unique painted AT-ST from Episode 4 seems to be heavily inspired by the stolen First Order walkers used by Coruscanti rebels in concept art for Duel of the Fates, Colin Trevorrow's earlier draft for what would ultimately become the The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Release Date Change:
    • Episode 7 was released on December 18th, 2019, a Wednesday, rather than a Friday like all the other episodes bar the first. This was because The Rise of Skywalker was released that Friday. The showrunners actually encouraged fans to watch Episode 7 first before going to see The Rise of Skywalker as it introduced the ability to Force-heal, which would also be seen in the film.
    • Due to the toys being produced in China, the place where the COVID-19 pandemic originated, the Child toys had to be delayed to another month.
    • Vanity Fair reported in May 2022 that Season 3 would premiere in "Late 2022 or Early 2023". A few weeks later, Star Wars Celebration narrowed the date down to February 2023. Then, on December 1, Disney+ pushed the premiere to March 1.
  • Renewed Before Premiere: Season 2 entered preproduction four months before the show began airing.
  • Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
    • Disney dismissed Gina Carano from her role of Cara Dune on February 10, 2021 after she shared a series of off-color social media remarks and left "likes" on incendiary posts, with the final straw being her resharing an Image Macro that seemed to compare being a conservative in the United States to being Jewish in Europe during The Holocaust. Lucasfilm execs had reportedly been displeased with her hardline right-wing social media posts for months, and jumped at the chance to fire her when she finally said something inflammatory enough to justify it. Lucasfilm later stated they have no intention of recasting, causing the character to be written out of the series. Furthermore, the announcement on May 22, 2021 that the upcoming Spin-Off series Rangers of the New Republic, which was rumored to feature Carano's character prominently, is "no longer in active development" seems to be a direct consequence of her firing.
    • The sexual misconduct allegations against Horatio Sanz make it highly unlikely that the Mythrol will ever appear again, despite still being Greef Karga’s indentured servant as of his last appearance in Season 2. Being a minor character, though, his absence probably doesn’t warrant an in-story explanation.
  • Role Reprise:
    • Temuera Morrison, who dubbed over Boba Fett in the original trilogy and voiced him in some video games after playing his "father" Jango in the prequels, returns as Boba in Season 2. He later does the same for the Clone Troopers in Season 3.
    • Katee Sackhoff plays Bo-Katan Kryze in the character's first live action appearance after voicing the character in both The Clone Wars and Rebels.
    • Mark Hamill returns to his role as Luke Skywalker, albeit only providing reference footage for the character.
    • Matthew Wood reprises his role from The Phantom Menace as Bib Fortuna in Season 2, and later the Battle Droids in Season 3.
    • Steve Blum returns as the voice of Zeb Orrelios from Rebels in Season 3.
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Carla Castañeda and Leyla Rangel reprise their roles as Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano respectively from the animated adaptations while José Luis Orozco (the second voice of the Clone Troopers in Star Wars media) voices Boba Fett, despite their characters being much older this time.
    • The same goes in the Japanese dub, through only with Ahsoka, as Shizuka Itō reprise that role again.
  • Separated-at-Birth Casting: Bernard Bullen was clearly chosen for the role of the Mandalorian's father due to his resemblance to Pedro Pascal.
  • Sequel in Another Medium: This live-action series updates the fate of several characters who previously appeared in other media of the Star Wars franchise, film (Return of the Jedi) and animated series (The Clone Wars and Rebels).
  • Series Hiatus: Lucasfilm didn't film any new Mandalorian episodes from March 2020-September 2021, due to production on other Star Wars TV shows. This resulted in a gap of over two years between the airings of the Season 2 finale, in December 2020, and the Season 3 premiere, in March 2023. In the meantime, Mandalorian cast members would at least reprise their roles on Star Wars: The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett.
  • Shipper on Set: Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan) has spoken very openly about how the possibility of a relationship between Bo-Katan and Din was discussed on set. She says they joked around about how the helmet logistics would work, and reports there's a jokey Throw It In! outtake where Din grabs Bo's face and kisses her through the helmet. As for shipping in the narrow sense of her own emotional investment, she talks about Din's vow of devotion and service to Bo in "Chapter 23: The Spies":
    Katee Sackhoff interview: That scene where he says that, "Your song is not yet written." That — it was so hard not to cry during that scene. It was just such a sweet moment. [...] At home I was like, "Oh my god, he loves her so much." [...] But I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm like shipping them."
  • Shoot the Money: The Child animatronic is a very intricate and expensive prop that gets showcased whenever possible. When Jason Sudeikis got a little too physical with the prop, Jon Favreau had to come on set and gently explain how much it cost and ask Sudeikis to not be so rough.
  • Spared by the Cut:
    • Greef Karga originally died in Chapter 3, when the Mandalorian shoots him in the chest. Showrunner Jon Favreau changed his mind after discussing the character with Carl Weathers, who convinced Favreau to promote him to a recurring role. In the finished episode, after Mando kicks an unconscious Greef out of his ship, Greef rises and pulls some singed beskar out of his coat pocket.
    • Fennec Shand originally died in Chapter 5, when Toro Calican shoots her in the abdomen. However, after the episode's director/writer, Dave Filoni, learned how much he has in common with Fennec's actress, Ming-Na Wen, they agreed to add a hint that she could return. The completed chapter ends with a silhouetted Boba Fett finding Fennec's lifeless body, which he proceeds to convert into a cybernetic partner-in-crime/co-star of his spin-off.
    • The Armorer originally died in Chapter 8, when Stormtroopers attack her at the forge. Fortunately, Jon Favreau rewrote the fight so that she would win instead.
    • Axe Woves originally pulled a Heroic Sacrifice in Chapter 11, while firing some grenades at some Stormtroopers. This got cut in favor of having Mando fire the grenades instead (though he doesn't die, either). Lucasfilm didn't have time by then to add a new explanation for Axe's absence from the Season 2 finale (while Koska Reeves, Bo-Katan's other partner, shows up), although Mando and Bo-Katan do meet Axe again in Season 3.
  • Spoiled by the Cast List:
  • Spoiled by the Merchandise: Hasbro subtly committed this when unveiling action figure bundles of Din Djarin and the Child before the Season 2 premiere. The Black Series Din comes with a removable helmet, while the Vintage Collection Din's head can swap for one showing his unmasked face.note  Even though everyone who finished Season 1 already knew what Din looked like, these bundles helped some viewers correctly guess that by the end of Season 2, the Child would know as well.
  • Stunt Casting: Why yes, that is Jack Black and Lizzo making surprise cameos in Chapter 22. Because...reasons.
  • Stunt Double:
    • Behind-the-scenes material generalizes that Brendan Wayne defines the Mandalorian's "gunslinger aspect" (to quote Disney Gallery) and Emmy winner Lateef Crowder tackles the most physically demanding stunts and fight scenes. Pedro Pascal also has some doubles with undisclosed duties, and lower billing than any of those three performers. Backstage, Pascal and all of the doubles collaborate to keep Mando's movement consistent.
    • Lauren Mary Kim substitutes for several actresses, including Emily Swallow, Sasha Banks, and Diana Lee Inosanto.
  • Teasing Creator:
    • In between the releases of Chapters 11 and 12, Insider asked Ming-Na Wen if she believed in the chance of Lucasfilm bringing back Fennec Shand, last seen unconscious from a gunshot to the chest in Chapter 5. Wen answered with an incomplete, "She got shot at close range. So...," then told the reporter to start a #FennecLives petition. Unbeknownst to Insider, Wen already filmed three new Mandalorian appearances, the first of which dropped about two weeks after the article's posting.
    • The day before Bo-Katan's debut in Chapter 11, her actress Katee Sackhoff tweeted "Is it Friday yet[?]".
    • After the release of Chapter 16, Mark Hamill tweeted "Seen anything good on TV lately?".
    • Kathleen Kennedy announced at the 2020 Disney Investor Day that "the next chapter of The Mandalorian" would begin in December 2021, seemingly confirming the timeframe for the third season's release. However, the Season 2 finale would end by instead confirming The Book of Boba Fett for that timeframe. Jon Favreau later clarified that Kennedy's announcement cryptically referred to The Book of Boba Fettnote , and that The Mandalorian Season 3 wouldn't begin filming until after production on Boba Fett wraps up.
  • Throw It In!:
    • Disney Gallery reports that some of the Mandalorian's dialogue is either rewritten or improvised during ADR.
    • Having Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow make Creator Cameos as X-Wing pilots in Chapter 6 was originally a joke suggestion by Filoni to Jon Favreau.
    • The shot in Chapter 9 of a Tusken Raider cleaning a Bantha's teeth with a gaffi stick didn't appear in the script.
    • According to Simon Kassianides, George Lucas personally named Axe Woves when he visited the set.
    • Puppeteer Frank Ippolito brought in his friend Janina Gavankar to help puppeteer the nostrils of the Mon Calamari dock worker in Chapter 11. Needless to say, her surprise appearance on set turned a lot of heads.
    • Ming-Na Wen improvised Fennec drinking spotchka straight from the bottle in the Season 2 finale's post-credits scene, after Jon Favreau told her and Temuera Morrison to look relaxed after their characters claim the palace.
    • Pedro Pascal has stated that Amy Sedaris ad-libs some of Peli Motto's dialogue.
  • Underage Casting: Bo-Katan is believed to be in her late twenties or thirties during Star Wars: The Clone Wars (as Ink-Suit Actor was in effect, Katee Sackhoff was 32 when Bo-Katan debuted in "A Friend In Need"), which takes place about thirty years before The Mandalorian, meaning Bo-Katan is in her fifties or sixties in her debut in Chapter 11 while Sackhoff was 39 at the time of filming.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • While the series wasn't supposed to replace the proposed Boba Fett movie as the two were developed concurrently, following the movie's cancellation, many of its ideas were folded into the series. The movie would've followed Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back teaming up to collect a bounty, with a focus given to Boba, Bossk the Trandoshan and the droid IG-88. The show would harken back to the movie's pitch with a Mandalorian bounty hunter protagonist, a Bounty Hunters' Guild and team-ups with other hunters and mercs. Fett himself appeared in the second season and would get his own spin-off show, The Book of Boba Fett.
    • Dave Filoni was extremely reluctant to put Grogu in the show at all, as he thought the concept was a bad idea at first. However, after Jon Favreau persisted on the idea, Filoni eventually came around to it, though he wanted to make sure the character was done right due to how much George Lucas loved Yoda in the original trilogy.
    • Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were hesitant about whether they could pull off Grogu as a physical puppet, and planned to also film the shots without the puppet so they could do it in CGI if it didn't work out. Then Werner Herzog got wind of it and called them cowards for even thinking of using CGI over a physical effect, and they were shamed into just going with the puppet.
    • Greef Karga was initially envisioned as a Weequay who would be killed in the third episode, with the semi-retired Carl Weathers agreeing to do it as a favor to Favreau. Upon seeing his screen test, they immediately decided they couldn't cover up his face, and he had to survive, with his death scene being altered to include a Pocket Protector. The makeup people eventually reused the Weequay headsculpt for Taanti, the bartender portrayed by W. Earl Brown.
    • It was considered having Grogu be a Wookiee instead of being the same species as Yoda.
    • Early reports claimed that, in addition to reprising his role as Boba Fett, Temuera Morrison would also be playing Captain Rex in his live action debut. Dave Filoni even shared concept art on his Twitter profile showing an older Rex joining Ahsoka in her search for Ezra, seemingly implying this would be the case. However, Rex has not appeared in the series to date.
    • Janina Gavankar (aka Iden Verso from Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)) wasn't supposed to be in the show, but she had been brought onto the set of Chapter 10 to assist in puppeteering work, as she was an old friend of one of the producers. Even the creators were surprised to see her.
    • Before Rosario Dawson was cast as Ahsoka Tano in season 2, Ashley Eckstein once expressed interest in reprising her role in live-action form. This is reflected in Ahsoka's Rebels depiction being an Ink-Suit Actor of Ashley Eckstein.
    • Robert Rodriguez was asked by his close friend Jon Favreau to fill in on "The Tragedy" after the original director had to leave very shortly before filming. There's not yet word on who it was. Additionally, it was Rodriguez who wanted to add in additional scenes for Boba Fett in action, due to a love for the character and his reputation. One has to wonder if those scenes would have been filmed by the original director.
    • It was originally going to be a new character who came to get Grogu at the end of Season 2, with the crew only getting the idea that it should be Luke late in production.
    • Supposedly, Cara would have been the main star of a spinoff show (widely speculated to be Rangers of the New Republic) and this was supposed to be announced at Disney's Investor's Day in December 2020, but the idea was scrapped after Gina Carano's controversial political statements in November and her subsequent dismissal from The Mandalorian and all future Star Wars projects.
    • A tie-in novel by Adam Christopher was slated, but later announced in March 2021 to have been cancelled due to "the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian", in other words, story conflict.
    • Fennec Shand originally stayed dead at the end of Chapter 5: "The Gunslinger", much to the disappointment of Ming-Na Wen. She jokingly pitched to Dave Filoni that the chapter instead end by hinting that she is Not Quite Dead. After Filoni learned that he and Ming-Na attended the same high school, but graduated in different years, he agreed that they should work on more Star Wars in the future, resulting in Chapter 5 ending with a hint that Boba Fett would revive Fennec.
    • Chapter 13: "The Jedi" saw its corrupt magistrate changed from a man to a woman, ultimately played by Diana Lee Inosanto, at some point in the concept stage.
    • The Imperial disguises of Din and Mayfeld in Chapter 15: "The Believer" resembled AT-AT Commander uniforms in early concept art. Notably, this would've required Din to reveal his face much earlier than in the completed episode.
    • Anthony Mackie desperately wanted to play Din Djarin; he's stated The Mandalorian was the only project he asked his agents to get him involved with directly, rather than being offered a role or auditioning.
  • Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Lucy Lawless has implied that the massive fan campaign to have her take over as Cara Dune after Gina Carano's firing actually cost her a role elsewhere in the franchise, as after the whole mess with James Gunn, Disney is now very serious about avoiding any kind of hint that they're letting the fans tell them what to do.
  • Word of Saint Paul:
    • Just one day after the show's debut, Pedro Pascal casually revealed in an interview that the Mandalorian's name is Din Djarin. The series itself kept the name and its correct spelling secret until the season 1 finale episode.
    • Misty Rosas responded to a request to name Frog Lady by christening her, "Lil Bit", until another fan suggested, "Lily".
  • Working Title: The show's production codename during Seasons 1-3 was "Huckleberry", or "Huc" for short.
  • You Look Familiar:
    • Omid Abtahi plays Dr. Pershing, and previously voiced Cadet Amis in The Clone Wars (who is, ironically, a Mandalorian too).
    • Jon Favreau himself lends his voice to Paz Vizla, marking the third Star Wars character he's played after Pre Vizsla and Rio Durant.
    • Chapter 6 features three cases:
    • Chapter 10 sees the Frog Lady voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who's best known for voicing the Clone Troopers as The Other Darrin for Temuera Morrison as well as various other characters and creatures in the animated shows.
    • A variant. Janina Gavankar, known for playing as Iden Versio from Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), co-puppeteers the Mon Calamari dock worker in Chapter 11.
    • Chapter 20 has Ahmed Best, best known for playing Jar Jar Binks in the Prequel Trilogy, appear as Kelleran Beq, the Jedi Master who rescues Grogu during Order 66.

    The Pinball Game 
  • Content Leak:
    • The Pinside user mnpinball predicted several of Stern's games at the start of 2021, including claiming that The Mandalorian would be their first release that year – which it was.
    • The podcast host Kaneda gave several details about the game (including the theme, designer, and unusually high amount of Limited Edition models) prior to its reveal.
    • Less than a day before the game's design was fully revealed, an image of the Limited Edition cabinet was leaked onto Facebook and Pinside.
  • Role Reprise: Carl Weathers provides new voice work as Greef Karga (his character in the original series).
  • What Could Have Been: The Dead Flip reveal stream (done prior to most machines arriving to customers) provides two examples.
    • According to programmer Dwight Sullivan, he and Brian Eddy considered adding a Video Mode during development before ultimately deciding against it.
    • The stream itself shows an Arrange Mode dubbed "Hero Mode", with one player being dubbed the "hero" and playing on a Harder Than Hard difficulty. This was changed to "Monster Play" (with the stand-out player now being christened the "monster") prior to the game's proper release.

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