The Mandalorian has the production values and watchability of a Star Wars feature film,
as well as lots of subtle references and callbacks to other Star Wars media.
Here are some Easter eggs that even the sharpest-eyed Star Wars fans might have missed in The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian takes place after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and before
the events of the sequel trilogy.
There are a lot of different races from a lot of different planets interacting in the
first episode, and many of them use their own distinct language.
In a bar scene at the top of the first episode, a fearsome-looking man with an unruly beard
beats up on a blue-skinned alien, the target our protagonist bounty hunter is after.
"Look at his glands.
I bet we could sell them at the port!" subtitles tell the audience what the bully says in an
alien language.
The guy tries to pick a fight with Mando when he arrives, asking if his armor is "real Beskar
steel?"
The language he's speaking is Huttese, the language of the Hutts, a Star Wars race made
most famous by Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.
After the Mandalorian captures and carts off his captured target to collect the price on
his head in episode one, the prisoner makes small talk with the stoic, silent bounty hunter
back on his ship.
He even notes that he was "hoping to be free for Life Day."
Then, he stops talking when he discovers Mando's other bounties frozen in carbonite, just like
Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.
What's Life Day?
It's the Star Wars universe's equivalent of Christmas, a time for celebrating and relaxing
with loved ones.
It was first introduced in The Star Wars Holiday Special, an infamous 1978 television variety
show.
It follows Chewbacca's family as they watch futuristic TV and wait for him to arrive for
Life Day.
The special ends with Princess Leia singing a Life Day carol.
Life Day isn't the only Mandalorian callback to the Star Wars Holiday Special.
We also see the title character sporting a distinctive weapon that should be familiar
to longtime fans of a galaxy far, far away: the pronged rifle he wields at one point during
the show.
It's a cool-looking apparatus with a long past.
In Boba Fett's first-ever appearance, made during an animated sequence during the Holiday
Special, he's packing the same weapon.
It likely doesn't mean much as far as a connection to Fett is concerned, but it's a nifty nod
to Star Wars lore.
Episode two delivers even more vaguely familiar entries in the Mandalorian's arsenal.
During his battle with a Mud Horn, he fires a small flamethrower mounted on his arm.
That's apparently standard issue bounty hunter gear, as both Jango Fett and Boba Fett have
been depicted with one in various Star Wars media.
The first episode of The Mandalorian is filled with enough alien dudes and monsters to satisfy
any enthusiast.
While it would take too long to list every single alien who appears in the show, it's
certainly worth pointing out one of the most surprising appearances of the episode.
Early on, when the Mandalorian and his bounty are booking passage back to his ship, the
Razorcrest, they encounter an alien hidden behind a pair of goggles and a long snout.
He plays a killer flute, and we never learn his name, but he should be recognizable to
any detail-oriented Star Wars fan.
This fellow was a Kubaz, an alien species who's only shown up one other time over the
course of the Star Wars saga.
Think back to A New Hope, specifically the scene shortly after Luke and Obi-Wan meet
Han Solo and Chewbacca.
In the alleyways of Mos Eisley, a Kubaz named Garindan contacts the Imperial Stormtroopers
patrolling the streets to let them know that he's found the droids they're looking for.
If it's a Star Wars property, you can be guaranteed that it's going to be swimming in robots,
or, as they're referred to in the franchise, "droids."
The Mandalorian is full of bleeping, blooping droids in the foreground and background, doing
their jobs and staying out of the way of the humanoid characters.
Well, mostly.
"Oh no.
Bounty droid."
In one scene in the first episode, the Mandalorian walks through a marketplace.
One of the objects he walks by is some kind of red and white R5 droid.
It looks an awful lot like that red and white R5-D4 model from Star Wars: A New Hope, the
one with an explosively "bad motivator."
Another R5 model appears later, during Chapter 5, in the Mos Eisley cantina.
When the Mandalorian arrives at the fortified headquarters of "The Client," he's greeted
by a round, red-light equipped droid tasked with security and gatekeeping.
That looks and sounds just like the security droid Jabba the Hutt used in Return of the
Jedi at the front gate of his palace.
Until now, the Kowakian monkey-lizard has had just one place in live-action Star Wars
canon: as the snickering pet of unsavory characters like Jabba the Hutt.
They're mischievous, they're obnoxious, they seem well-suited for villainy...and they're
apparently delicious.
Immediately after the Mandalorian gets his bounty assignment from "The Client," he walks
through the marketplace of a desolate-looking little town.
One alien species stands out: the Kowakian monkey-lizard.
It's rough for him, too, because he's being spit-roasted while his buddy looks on horrified
from a cage.
It's a bit of a horrific sight, especially knowing that these animals are known to have
a pretty well-developed sense of humor.
While everyone's favorite monkey-lizard, Salacious B. Crumb, escaped Jabba's insatiable hunger
by having a special talent for being a goofball, these other creatures weren't so lucky.
In episode two of The Mandalorian, the one they call Mando is keeping "the asset" safe
throughout a treacherous and violent journey.
This trip includes a run-in with the Jawas, a race very recognizable to fans of the Star
Wars films for their hooded cloaks and glowing eyes.
The Mandalorian blasts any that can get in his path, turning them into nothingness as
they poof away without a trace.
Later on, Kuiil tells the Mandalorian that the creatures really don't seem to like him
for "some reason."
Mando replies,
"Well, I did disintegrate a few of them."
This calls back to a brief exchange in The Empire Strikes Back between Darth Vader and
Boba Fett, when Vader tells the bounty hunter to bring back the crew of the Millennium Falcon.
Vader demands that Fett bring his quarry back with "no disintegrations."
During the evacuation of Cloud City on Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back, a random guy runs
into the frame, looking for a way out while desperately clutching something about the
size and shape of an ice cream maker.
Nearly 40 years after the release of Empire, the third episode of The Mandalorian provides
a full and compelling explanation for the frozen treat machine.
The Mandalorian returns to the Client to hand over "The Asset" and to receive his promised
reward: A "camtono" of the precious metal beskar.
True to his word, the Client hands over the beskar in what looks like an ice cream maker.
The Mandalorian is a working man before he's anything else.
And while he's in possession of a tiny, adorable Yoda-like creature for the first two episodes,
he's also obligated to turn it over to the Imperials who hired him.
But Mando isn't a monster and he just can't bear to part with Baby Yoda after having bonded
with and developed an affection for the little one.
So, Mando attempts to retrieve the baby, and as he looks for him, he spots a piece of metal
pipe propped up against a wall in an alley.
Is that just a random piece of space junk in this post-war galaxy?
Not exactly.
It's covered in ridges and designs recognizable from a very important piece of random junk
in the original 1977 Star Wars.
It looks just like the pipe that Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker used to
try to jam the walls of a trash compactor they got caught in.
While The Mandalorian boasts some star power, the true breakout character is the one colloquially
referred to as "Baby Yoda."
Just like Mando himself, the little guy has won our hearts, and his adventures alongside
his bounty hunter babysitter take up much of the show's plot.
As far as we know, this adorable little creature hasn't been given a proper name yet.
The online community just uses "Baby Yoda" because it looks and acts like a baby version
of Yoda.
In the fourth episode of the show, though, Mando does provide the child with a nickname:
Womp rat.
It's a playfully delivered pet name, and one that has significance in the Star Wars universe.
In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker brags that back on his planet of Tatooine, he liked
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home."
While some may argue on behalf of the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon is probably the most
famous spaceship in all of pop culture.
As piloted by Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, its agility and firepower helped
the Rebels topple the evil Empire.
And yet, it's an old craft, long in the possession of Lando Calrissian before Han ever had it,
and it certainly endured some damage in numerous conflicts with Imperial squadrons including
Darth Vader himself.
Speaking of conflicts with the Empire, there's the AT-ST Scout Walker, which attempted to
lay waste to Endor in Return of the Jedi.
In that movie, Lando refers to the Falcon as a "hunk o' junk."
When the AT-ST makes its triumphant appearance in Episode 5 of The Mandalorian, Mando takes
a page from Lando's book and calls the battered Scout Walker a "hunk o' junk" as well.
There's one other fun link between The Mandalorian and Lando Calrissian.
The fourth episode of the Disney+ Star Wars series was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard,
daughter of Ron Howard.
Ron Howard was director of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which features young Lando as a major
character.
Like many planets in the Star Wars universe, Tatooine has a large and varied population
of droids.
Upon landing at the planet's Mos Eisley spaceport early in The Mandalorian's fifth episode,
Mando is greeted by a couple of clumsy pit droids, much like the ones glimpsed in Star
Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.
In charge of those pit droids is a spaceship mechanic overseeing the landing bay, portrayed
by comedian Amy Sedaris under a lot of makeup and a curly wig.
When Mando heads into the spaceport's watering hole to look for work, he finds more droids.
This is notable because the establishment once banned mechanical patrons, as Luke Skywalker
learned when he tried to enter with C-3PO.
Now, years later, droids seem to be fully welcome there, mingling with the bar's expected
variety of alien races.
Even the hardworking bartender is a droid, and one of the same model that Jabba the Hutt
used to oversee his robotic staff back in Return of the Jedi.
An episode of The Mandalorian involving Mos Eisley would be remiss if it didn't include
a sequence set in the spaceport's famous cantina, and "Chapter 5" delivers.
Inside the place that Obi-Wan Kenobi once called a "wretched hive of scum and villainy,"
Mando chats with a young novice bounty hunter named Toro Calican.
The cocky, aloof young buck definitely gives off a Han Solo vibe, but maybe that's just
because he's sitting alone in a booth in the cantina with his feet up on the table.
Toro isn't hanging out in the same booth that Han did, but it's very similar, and just a
few feet away from the site of one of the most famous scenes in Star Wars lore.
Mando finds some action on Tatooine, and he and his new associate Toro Calican pursue
the fearsome assassin Fennec Shand.
We see them zooming off across the planet's desert surface on a couple of speeder bikes.
Anakin Skywalker is seen riding a similar model in Attack of the Clones, just before
he kills the group of Tusken Raiders that kidnapped his mother.
Mando also encounters some of these sand people, approaching with caution to ask for permission
to pass through their land.
They get the go-ahead and find Shand, armed with a monster of a rifle.
"She's got the high ground.
She'll wait for us to make the first move."
Mando tells Toro.
That is a subtle, winking nod to a similar thing that young Obi-Wan Kenobi says to Anakin
Skywalker during their big lightsaber showdown in Revenge of the Sith, when Kenobi claims
he has the "high ground."
Eventually, the two bounty hunters get the upper hand and manage to capture Shand.
They decide to keep her alive, because, as Mando says,
"She's no good to us dead."
That phrasing reminds us of something Mando's fellow masked bounty hunter Boba Fett says
to Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
When Vader decides to put Solo in carbonite, the bounty hunter reminds the dark lord that
Solo is "no good to me dead."
The Mandalorian has welcomed a number of comedians to its cast in supporting roles, and Bill
Burr arrives in Chapter 6, "The Prisoner."
The motor-mouthed stand-up is a perfect fit for the role of Mayfeld, part of the crack
mercenary team hired by Mando's former cohort Ranzar "Ran" Malk to bust one of his pals
out of a prison ship.
On the way to that gig, Mayfeld and fellow merc Xi'an address the elephant in the room:
What exactly Mando looks like under that helmet.
Mayfeld, imbued with Burr's comic spirit, jokes that Mando must wear a helmet to hide
the fact that he's a Gungan.
It's a crude reference to arguably one the most loathed characters in all of Star Wars:
Jar Jar Binks, the goofy Gungan who played such a major role in The Phantom Menace.
The sixth episode of The Mandalorian is particularly full of appearances by notable contributors
to past Star Wars media.
One of the members of the prison break supergroup Ran assembles is a Devaronian named Burg.
Under all that makeup is Clancy Brown, a character actor with more than 250 acting credits, not
the least of which is voicing Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants.
He's also done quite a few Star Wars voices, including Darth Maul's brother Savage Opress
on The Clone Wars, and rebel leader Ryder Azadi on Star Wars Rebels.
Another veteran of The Clone Wars animated series also pops up in episode 6.
That doomed New Republic trooper on the prison ship is played by Matt Lanter, the voice of
animated Anakin Skywalker.
Lanter has voiced the man who would be Darth Vader in more than 100 television episodes,
which means he's played the part more than any other actor.
The Mandalorian is full of nods to Star Wars' past, whether they're tributes to the original
trilogy, the prequel trilogy, or beyond.
In Chapter 6, though, the show also makes some time to pay tribute to the people who
made The Mandalorian itself.
When the mercenary crew arrives on the prison ship for the task at hand, they walk past
a cell that contains a four-armed monkey-like creature that belongs to the Ardennian race.
That species is a relatively new addition to the Star Wars canon.
The alien first appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018, in the form of agile pilot
Rio Durant.
Rio was voiced by Jon Favreau, the creator and executive producer of The Mandalorian.
Those X-Wing fighters who make an explosive appearance at the end of the episode are named
Jib Dodger, Sash Ketter, and Trapper Wolf.
They're portrayed by Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, and Dave Filoni, all of them directors
of various episodes of The Mandalorian.
The opening of The Mandalorian's first season finale offers a bit of much-needed comic relief
to cut the high-stakes tension set up by the last episode.
It also offers a bit of a callback to a joke from a previous episode about a beloved part
of Star Wars lore.
Remember in Chapter 6, when the mercenary Mayfeld took offense at being compared to
a Stormtrooper?
It’s because stormtroopers are notoriously terrible shots.
The two speeder bike-riding Scout Troopers shown in Chapter 8 of The Mandalorian can't
hit anything either, even when firing their blasters in a low-stakes, no-stress situation.
They're firing at a piece of debris just because they're bored and they still can't hit a thing.
In the eighth and final episode of The Mandalorian's first season, viewers finally get an information
dump of background info on the mysterious and compelling ex-Rebel fighter Cara Dune.
One major little nugget, as revealed by Moff Gideon, is that the former Rebel Shock Trooper
hails from the planet Alderaan, the home planet of Princess Leia.
Or at least, it was the home of Princess Leia until it was destroyed by the Death Star back
in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Craving justice for her people would be a pretty major motivating factor for Cara Dune,
who then decided to become an active member of the Rebellion.
Because of her Rebel history, Cara also mentions her fear of getting interrogated with a "mind
flayer."
That's more of a horror-fantasy term, like something out of Stranger Things, but in the
Star Wars universe Cara is most likely referring to something like Bor Gullet.
That's the purple-skinned, psychic creature that painfully interrogated Bodhi Rook in
Rogue One.
It's basically an alien lie detector, while also breaking someone's brain as it works.
In a major moment of The Mandalorian Chapter 8, Moff Gideon cuts a path to freedom out
of his downed TIE fighter with the use of a lightsaber.
But this is not just any lightsaber; it's a black lightsaber.
As it isn't cast in a customary neon shade, this is a very cool-looking Star Wars weapon,
and also an instant indication that Moff Gideon is a truly dark force to be feared.
His dark saber is, well, the Darksaber, the ceremonial weapon traditionally bestowed on
the leader of Mandalore.
First forged by an ancient Mandalorian Jedi, it's popped up throughout the Star Wars animated
canon.
It was last seen on Star Wars Rebels, when Rebel fighter Sabine Wren passed it along
to Death Watch leader Bo-Katan to more effectively fight the Empire.
The fact that Moff Gideon now has this coveted weapon is bad news all around, as he's an
Imperial diehard.
That means a good guy, or perhaps a lot of good guys, had to die for Gideon to get his
hands on it.
This all poses a lot of questions which can only be answered by another season of The
Mandalorian.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about Star Wars are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.