Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and co. have won back Star Wars fans after Disney’s sequel trilogy divided them with The Mandalorian, whose adventure-of-the-week storytelling style and samurai and western motifs hark back to the movies and serials that inspired George Lucas in the first place.
The focus of the series is on the titular bounty hunter, but with a Force-sensitive baby in tow and the New Republic’s rule spreading across the galaxy, it’s still closely tied to the nine-part “Skywalker Saga.” There are some unresolved storylines from the movies that could be explored in future seasons of The Mandalorian.
Why Was Kamino Removed From The Jedi Archives?
In Attack of the Clones, when Obi-Wan connects Jango Fett to Kamino, he checks the Jedi Archives for the rainy planet and it’s missing. So, he travels out to where it should be and finds the cloning operation that’s about to give the Republic a new army.
George Lucas planned to explore the mystery of Kamino’s removal from the archives in Revenge of the Sith, but dropped it during the writing process to streamline the plot and refocus the story on Anakin’s journey. Since the sequel trilogy resurrected Palpatine with cloning, there are a lot of unanswered questions about Kamino.
How Did Maz Kanata Get Luke’s Lightsaber?
During Luke Skywalker’s duel with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, Vader cuts off Luke’s lightsaber-wielding hand and sends it falling down a seemingly bottomless air shaft on Cloud City. Then, in The Force Awakens, that lightsaber has somehow ended up in Maz Kanata’s basement.
When Rey asks how it got there, Maz says, “A good story, for another time.” But this story was never told. Maybe The Mandalorian can follow the journey of Luke’s lightsaber from Bespin to Takodana.
The Origin (& Identities) Of The Knights Of Ren
The sequel trilogy waited until the third movie to assemble Kylo Ren’s secret police force and, after all that build-up, they just stood around looking cool until the story needed Kylo to kill them.
The Knights of Ren are mostly unexplained. They’re a band of dark warriors who do Kylo Ren’s dirty work, but that’s all we know. The Mandalorian can fill in the gaps.
The “Chosen One” Prophecy
In the prequel trilogy, Anakin is said to be “the chosen one” who will bring balance to the Force, but he ends up turning to the Sith and shrouding the galaxy in darkness for years as the ruler of an evil empire, so maybe he’s not the chosen one after all.
According to George Lucas, Leia was supposed to be the real chosen one. The Mandalorian could reveal it to be Grogu, or that there is no chosen one after all.
The Sith Cult On Exegol
The Sith cult worshipping Palpatine on Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker was vaguely explained in tweets after the movie came out because the movie itself failed to explain it properly, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
For starters, a lot of fans were baffled that The Rise of Skywalker made up a new ancient Sith planet when Korriban already existed in the canon.
What Happened To Lando After Return Of The Jedi?
By the end of the original trilogy, Lando had pretty much become the fourth member of Luke, Leia, and Han’s group. He blew up the second Death Star during the Battle of Endor and was last seen partying with the Rebel Alliance to celebrate their victory over the Empire.
30 years later, his best friends don’t seem to remember him and then he randomly shows up on Pasaana because the sequel trilogy had killed off most of the legacy characters by then. What happened to Lando between Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker can be explained in The Mandalorian.
Broom Boy
Despite claiming to be grateful to Rian Johnson in interviews, J.J. Abrams ignored a lot of The Last Jedi in making The Rise of Skywalker. The most egregious example is that The Last Jedi’s ending set up a new generation of Jedi with the introduction of “Broom Boy” and The Rise of Skywalker failed to include him.
As Mando and Grogu’s journey brings them closer to the surviving Jedi, then the galaxy’s hidden population of Force-sensitive children could eventually play into the story.
The Fate Of The Gungans
The Mandalorian has always embraced the prequel era, even acknowledging the dreaded Gungans with Mayfeld’s “yoosa” reference. At the end of The Phantom Menace, Boss Nass is seen alongside Padmé, celebrating Naboo’s victory over the Trade Federation.
Due to the fan backlash received by Jar Jar Binks, his character was sidelined in the rest of the trilogy and the other Gungans never made another appearance. The Mandalorian can explored what happened to the Gungans.
Who Are The First Order’s Stormtroopers?
Moff Gideon and his band of Imperial stragglers seem to be in The Mandalorian to establish how the First Order eventually rose to power in the wake of the Empire’s defeat.
This storyline can explain exactly who the First Order’s Stormtroopers were. Finn set up that the First Order’s troops weren’t expendable cannon fodder like the Empire’s, yet for the purposes of nostalgia, they were still treated that way. So, are the First Order’s Stormtroopers cannon fodder like the Empire’s or brainwashed orphans like Finn and Jannah?
Somehow, Palpatine Returned
At the end of Return of the Jedi, Anakin Skywalker achieves redemption in his son’s eyes by killing his master, Emperor Palpatine. And then, in the sequel trilogy, J.J. Abrams negated that ending to make up for his own narrative missteps.
When Palpatine comes back from the dead in The Rise of Skywalker, the best explanation that Abrams could come up with is, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” Surely The Mandalorian can come up with a better explanation than that.
