The Mandalorian: How It Embraces The Prequels (& Why It Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels)

One of the many things about The Mandalorian that has brought the Star Wars fanbase together is that it embraces all facets of the saga’s lore. For the most part, Disney has stuck to the original trilogy era since acquiring Lucasfilm. The sequel trilogy rehashed a lot of OT plot points and the Mouse House’s two “Anthology” films adapted a line of opening crawl text and a line of dialogue from the original 1977 movie into two whole movies.

But The Mandalorian has been embracing the prequel era, which has mostly been ignored (save for The Clone Wars, obviously) since these movies polarized the fanbase. But while this has worked out thus far, the Disney+ show still shouldn’t embrace the sequel trilogy for a number of reasons.

10 Embraces The Prequels: Prequel-Era Easter Eggs

The most obvious way that The Mandalorian embraces the prequel trilogy is with a bunch of prequel-era Easter eggs, like Mayfeld’s reference to Gungans or Mando’s reference to “the high ground” or the appearance of pit droids on Tatooine. Plus, Cobb Vanth rides around the Dune Sea on a recycled podracer.

Din Djarin’s backstory is closely tied to the prequel era, too. He joined the Mandalorian creed when some Mandalorians saved him from a super battle droid during the Clone Wars.

9 Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels: The Sequel Storylines Are Inconsistent

Since creative control of the sequel trilogy shifted from J.J. Abrams to Rian Johnson and then back to Abrams again, the story is a complete mess. There was no roadmap from the beginning, the themes kept changing, and a bunch of plot points contradicted other plot points.

The writers of The Mandalorian would have their work cut out for them just trying to make sense of the sequel trilogy’s storylines, let alone embracing them.

8 Embraces The Prequels: M-Count

One of the most controversial changes that Lucas made to the Star Wars canon in the prequels was the introduction of midi-chlorians, which are found in Force users’ bloodstream and can be used to put a number on exactly how powerful they are.

In The Mandalorian, Grogu’s midi-chlorian count — or “M-count” — is an integral part of the plot, giving a spotlight to one of the most divisive parts of Lucas’ canon.

7 Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels: The First Order Is Derivative

J.J. Abrams’ big idea for Star Wars Episode VII involved another rebellion, this time called the Resistance, fighting against another evil empire, this time called the First Order, with another Death Star, this time called Starkiller Base. The Mandalorian shouldn’t bother exploring the rise of the First Order.

The First Order is derivative of the Empire, but its politics and stranglehold on the galaxy are vaguely defined. With the onslaught of the Imperial Remnants, The Mandalorian is already doing a much better job of exploring the aftermath of the Empire than the sequel trilogy did.

6 Embraces The Prequels: Temuera Morrison As Boba Fett

Boba Fett wasn’t originally conceived to be the cloned son of another bounty hunter. Like Jake Lloyd’s portrayal of Darth Vader as a little kid in The Phantom Menace, Daniel Logan’s portrayal of Boba Fett as a little kid in Attack of the Clones was deemed controversial.

But Boba’s appearances on The Mandalorian have embraced this prequel-era backstory, primarily by casting Temuera Morrison, who played Boba’s father Jango (and all his clones), explicitly linking the awesome Boba Fett from the original trilogy to the polarizing little kid in the prequels. Boba even invokes one of his dad’s most iconic quotes from the prequels: “I’m just a simple man trying to make his way through the galaxy, like my father before me.”

5 Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels: There’s Still 25 Years Before The Force Awakens

The sequel trilogy picked up 30 years after the end of the original trilogy. The Mandalorian picks up just five years after the same point on the timeline, so there’s still 25 years to go before the events of The Force Awakens.

Sure, 25 years is nothing to a slow-aging character like Grogu, but it might be the rest of Mando’s life. The Mandalorian is more about the aftermath of Return of the Jedi than the build-up to The Force Awakens.

4 Embraces The Prequels: Grogu Was Around During The Fall Of The Jedi

The pilot episode of The Mandalorian revealed that, despite being a tiny baby, Grogu is 50 years old.

Season 2 revealed that he wasn’t just alive during the Great Jedi Purge; he was at the temple on Coruscant and somehow managed to survive the massacre. Also, Ahsoka tells Mando that Grogu’s emotional attachments remind her of Anakin.

3 Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels: The Mandalorian Should Avoid The Skywalker Saga

The point of The Mandalorian was to move away from the Skywalkers and explore new corners of the galaxy filled with new characters like Greef Karga and Cara Dune. But as it’s introduced familiar characters like Boba Fett and even Luke Skywalker, that point is being lost.

Easter eggs referencing the prequels are one thing, but if The Mandalorian just turns into Disney’s way of cleaning up the canon and explaining the unresolved storylines of the sequel trilogy, then it won’t be The Mandalorian anymore.

2 Embraces The Prequels: Cloners

It still hasn’t been revealed exactly what the Imperial Remnants want to do with Grogu, but it could be linked to the sequel trilogy plot of Palpatine’s resurrection. One thing we’ve known since the beginning is that the Client hired a cloning engineer to experiment on Grogu.

This suggests that The Mandalorian might be gearing up to explain the mysteries of Kamino that weren’t resolved in the movies (because Lucas wanted to refocus the story on Anakin’s turn to the dark side).

1 Shouldn’t Embrace The Sequels: All The Legacy Characters Await Unceremonious Fates

It was great to see Luke Skywalker back in action a few years after the end of Return of the Jedi, but if The Mandalorian sticks with him, then we’ll just have to watch him slowly turn into the bitter, cynical hermit seen in The Last Jedi.

Han Solo is going to be killed by his son, Leia Organa is going to lay down and die to keep that son alive — all the legacy characters from the original trilogy await unceremonious fates in the sequels’ timeline.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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