While we still have a few weeks to go before we can experience the epic finale to the second season of The Mandalorian, it seems that Lucasfilm is already hard at work developing the next chapter in the story of the bounty hunter Din Djarin and his sidekick, Grogu.
Jon Favreau’s series often tends to subvert expectations in terms of what we’ve come to expect from that galaxy far, far away’s narrative. And yet, the producers know all too well that they should also pay tribute to the stories and history of George Lucas’ fictional universe every now and again. In the first season, that involved some vague callbacks to the idea of the Force and the fall of the Empire. But in the ongoing second chapter, Lucasfilm have pulled out all the stops to end every episode with a bang, not only serving the interconnected narrative of Star Wars, but also including a ton of references to the Skywalker Saga along the way.
Now, it seems that this tradition will continue into the third season as well. According to Making Star Wars, the production crew has rebuilt the cockpits of the Naboo N-1 Starfighter, the starship we first saw in Episode I – The Phantom Menace as part of the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps.
Of course, the most obvious takeaway here is that Mando will visit Naboo at some point during season 3. Then again, it could also be that the vessel’s parts have been salvaged for other spacecraft, and they’ll only appear to serve as a simple nod to the prequels.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see, but the remaining episodes of The Mandalorian season 2, wherein a clash between Mando and Moff Gideon’s Imperial loyalists is no doubt an inevitability, are sure to be very exciting.
