The Mandalorian season two preview, I guess…

The cantina was uncharacteristically quiet. It had been for a while now. Sure, patrons still walked through the doors and occasional merriment would spring up to echoes of the past and a walk down memory lane. Even the dissident groups of punters, known for flipping tables and throwing glasses in an attempt to halt the merriment of those with their supposed fresh hot takes, had fallen relatively hushed in step with the room. Projectile opinions were fewer in numbers than at any time this side of December 2017.

Then, at the stroke of midnight on a cold, dark, October Friday, the cantina door opened with a clunk, piercing the silence. Patrons heads turned to the figure in the doorway. There stood a Mandalorian. Not known as a conversationalist, but instead a conversational accelerant to send the rest of the chins in the room a-waggin’…

…Or at least that’s how season two of The Mandalorian is arriving on the scene of the Star Wars fandom in my head.

For the first time since 2014, there is no Star Wars movie this year. For once in 2020, the absence of a feature film is not because of COVID-19, as Disney has chosen to let the Skywalker Saga breathe. To pause before launching into the next era of big screen event Star Wars. A good decision in the mission to preserve the sanctity of theatrical releases.

What it means is that The Mandalorian and The Child have taken on additional weight as the current face of the franchise. No longer side-lined as the warm up act for The Rise of Skywalker. This time, The Mandalorian is the big Star Wars event of the year.

And rather fittingly, we can expect a season two bigger in scale than the first. We know from the trailers that Mando will be searching for Jedi on his quest to return The Child to it’s kind. Speculation supports the notion that this will see Mando run into familiar faces. While the first season felt somewhat disconnected from the stories we already knew, you can take it to the bank that season two will serve up far more tie-in material.

Showrunner Jon Favreau has suggested that this season will provide some additional context regarding the birth of the First Order. The ice planet seen in the trailer could be Ilum – the world sacred to Jedi and first seen in The Clone Wars animated series, it was visited by Jedi younglings looking to find Kyber crystals for their first lightsabers.

While it’s never been officially confirmed in canon, evidence from visual dictionaries and Jedi: Fallen Order indicates beyond reasonable doubt that this world would eventually be transformed into Starkiller Base. The Empire was known to have been mining the planet after the Clone Wars and likely began constructing the planet sized superweapon before the First Order and General Hux swooped in to finish the job.

If Din Djarin does indeed travel to Ilum it opens up a world of interconnectivity possibilities. It’s tantalising, at the top of my Mandalorian season two wish list and, well, I’m bordering on irresponsible speculation at this point.

We can also expect to see more familiar faces in season two. The Clone Wars favourite and Mandalorian leader Bo-Katan Kryze is all but guaranteed to make an appearance in the show, with Katee Sackhoff transporting the character seamlessly from animation to live action. Let’s be honest, the moment Moff Gideon stepped out of his wrecked Tie Fighter holding the Darksaber in season one’s quasi-epilogue effectively guaranteed Bo-Katan’s introduction in the series, as she was the last known owner of the famous weapon of Mandalore’s greatest leaders. Stories need telling and scores are to be settled.

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There is also rampant, albeit less assured, speculation that an Ahsoka Tano cameo is likely. Given that Rosario Dawson has all but been confirmed as the live-action casting for Ahsoka, it would make sense for Disney to have her cameo in The Mandalorian before potentially introducing an Ahsoka series down the line.

We know how powerful cameos can be in world building, as the MCU has built one of the most financially successful models off of strategic interconnectivity and as Star Wars introduces new series’, it makes sense to lean on that model. Not to mention the value that an Ahsoka appearance could have in drawing more eyeballs towards both The Clone Wars and Rebels – both of which are available for free on the same platform on which The Mandalorian is featured.

I do understand the argument of some fans who loved the fact that The Mandalorian‘s first season was pleasingly isolated from the wider story. The galaxy is a huge sandbox – not everyone has to be related to someone we already know.

However, a story in which Mando is searching for Jedi provides an open goal for Disney to deliver fan service with a purpose – the best and only acceptable type of fan service. Spending a season searching for answers and finding someone we know will be more satisfying than meeting a brand new character. Finding Ahsoka deep into the series will be a bigger win than finding Gib Ky-Ree, the Jedi with three eyes and a peg leg.

But, of course, it’s all about execution. The biggest criticism of the first season was that it lacked focus. Narratively speaking, you could have watched chapters one, two and three, skipped four, five and six, before jumping back in for seven and eight and it would have made near perfect sense. If the introduction of familiar faces and additional interconnectivity delivers a deeper narrative, which I absolutely believe it would, then lets being in Ahsoka, Sabine Wren, Boba Fett.

Let’s make every episode must watch, feeding into the wider story. HBO series such as Westworld, Watchmen and Game of Thrones are critically acclaimed, must-watch television, with relentless interconnectivity across characters and episodes, consistently feeding into a central narrative.

Fortunately, season two has the advantage of being able to build on the solid foundations laid out by season one. Intriguing Imperial Moff Gideon and his Darksaber are established from the outset this time, while we won’t be bogged down by having to relearn the names Greef Karga and Cara Dune.

By the time we’re talking about season five of The Mandalorian, I could envisage us reminiscing on a season one which feels more like a prologue when binging the series. I’m optimistic that season two is when the grand season one set-up is going to pay dividend.

One week until it all kicks off. I’ll be refreshing the Disney+ dashboard at midnight on Thursday night because this, unmistakably, is the way.