The opening episode of The Mandalorian‘s second season was crammed full of cool references. The plot revolved around Boba Fett’s half-digested armor, we saw that one of Anakin Skywalker’s podracer engines from The Phantom Menace has been repurposed as a speeder bike, we got a cameo from an astromech droid first seen in A New Hope and a seriously obscure Return of the Jedi easter egg was spotted by only the most dedicated fans.
But there may yet be more. In 2003, famed RPG developer Bioware released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox and PC. This is set 4,000 years before the events of the movies and tells an entirely original tale about an ancient Jedi vs. Sith conflict. At the time, it was arguably the best Star Wars game ever and though technological progress has dulled its visual appeal, it’s still a neat story with a fantastic twist.
In Knights of the Old Republic, the player visits Tatooine’s Dune Sea where they’re tasked with killing a Krayt dragon. To do that, you lure it from its cave with delicious Banthas and then blow it up with mines. That description will seem very familiar to anyone that watched The Mandalorian last week, as it’s almost exactly how they go about taking out their Krayt dragon.
It might be possible to write this off as a coincidence, but there’s a small scene after the beast is killed in which the Tusken Raiders search for and discover a pearl buried deep within its guts. Said pearl is part of the mission objective in Knights of the Old Republic (it can potentially act as a very fancy lightsaber crystal) and to my eyes, its inclusion here is a clear nod to fans of the game.
Of course, we know that Disney and Lucasfilm have some kind of Knights of the Old Republic project in development, though it’s been a while since we heard anything new on it. Here’s hoping we get additional information soon, but in the meantime, I’m looking forward to the next episode of The Mandalorian tomorrow.
