The Mandalorian revealed a huge clue about Palpatine’s return
The Mandalorian‘s latest episode finally seems to be connecting the dots on a tease the show made way back in its very first season. The series’ ties to the larger Star Wars universe have always been off and on, sometimes connecting as directly as possible, and other times favoring references and Easter eggs. But “Chapter 23: The Spies” seems to indicate that the whole thing is pretty closely tied to the Skywalker saga, or at least one character is returning in that saga.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Mandalorian and Star Wars: Episode 9 – The Rise of Skywalker.]
The MandalorianSeason 3’s third season has taken us all over the galaxy in search of a home for Din Djarin and his quirky Mandalorian cult, but it turns out that the most important developments for the Star Wars universe have been on their homeworld of Mandalore all along.
The final episode revealed that Moff Gideon, the adversary of the show’s first two seasons, built a base on the desolate, presumably uninhabitable planet. Using Mandalore’s infamous beskar reserves, he has equipped a new variety of Stormtroopers with beskar armor, reflecting the power of the Mandalorians’ signature equipment.
While there are enough fights to go along with Gideon’s return, that’s not the main thing that happens in this episode. That honor belongs to a conversation between Moff Gideon and several Imperial Warlords, including Captain Pellaeon and Commander Brendol Hux – father of Armitage Hux from the sequel trilogy – who want to build the First Order.
Gideon focuses most of their conversation on Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose promised return to leadership has yet to materialize. But while talking, Hux’s interest in cloning and his work on something called “Project Necromancer” is also referenced.
While none of the talk sheds much light on either topic, the name of Project Necromancer certainly seems to imply that this plot could be about bringing Palpatine back with cloning, which would explain why he’s there for The Rise of Skywalker. More importantly, this suggests that Thrawn could have played a key role in its creation.
Besides the name of the project, there is also the fact that cloning has always been an important, albeit very subtle, thread in The Mandalorian. Dr. Pershing, who got his own episode this season and is name-checked here, specialized in cloning – at least based on the Kaminoan patch on his uniform in the first season.
Of course, if Gideon is going to try to usurp Thrawn’s control over the Imperial Warlords and their remaining fleet, it sure seems unwise. Based on what we’ve seen in The Mandalorian so far, Gideon likes to push his boundaries, but he’s especially good at tricking Mandalorians and not much else. Even more worrying for the Mando villain, we know that Thrawn is an important part of the franchise’s future. It was revealed at last week’s Star Wars Celebration 2023 event that Thrawn will be a key part of Disney Plus’ Ahsoka series, and will be played by the voice actor of his animated series, Lars Mikkelsen. None of that is good news for Gideon’s attempted power play in this week’s episode.
If that’s really the purpose Thrawn serves in the larger Star Wars story, it would make him the glue that solves one of the most bizarre events in the series. Since Palpatine came back Rise of Skywalker, its existence has been a memebut maybe with a little smart retconning from an even smarter Chiss Grand Admiral, we can figure out exactly how Palpatine returned.