“Return of the Mandalorian” delivers exactly what it says it will. Din Djarin is back, and while he’s fated to help Boba and Fennec, he first addresses many loose threads from The Mandalorian. From reuniting with his clan to getting a new ship, Din is on the metaphorical road in a big way in his crossover appearance in The Book of Boba Fett. Here are all the Star Wars references and easter eggs we spotted in the episode…
Din Djarin
– Pedro Pascal returns as the out-of-touch Mandalorian foundling. When we saw him last in season two of The Mandalorian, he had handed Grogu (a.k.a. Baby Yoda) over to Luke Skywalker to get him some Jedi education and taken the darksaber from Moff Gideon.
Bryce Dallas Howard
Talented actor and director Bryce Dallas Howard returns to Star Wars once again, helming her best TV installment yet. She’s previously directed two episodes of The Mandalorian, season 1’s “Sanctuary” and season 2’s “The Heiress.” In her Book of Boba Fett debut, Howard continues to show why she’s one of the most exciting filmmakers working in Star Wars today.
The Armorer, Paz Vizsla, and Tarre Vizsla
– The unnamed Armorer from The Mandalorian returns. She hasn’t changed much, still serving as Din’s spiritual mentor in the covert. – The third member of the covert trifecta is Paz Vizsla, with a voice performance by show writer Jon Favreau. He also appeared in The Mandalorian. – The Armorer also mentions Tarre Vizsla, a previously established character spoken about on Rebels as a Mandalorian Jedi and creator of the Darksaber. Bo-Katan Kryze, she says, didn’t win the saber “by creed.” She was instead gifted the blade (by Sabine Wren on Rebels), and therefore wasn’t the heir apparent either. According to Mandalorian myth, if you’re simply gifted the sword instead of earning it in battle, you’re doomed to fail as a ruler. To be led by someone who didn’t win the Darksaber in combat also puts Mandalore itself in danger. The Armorer is suggesting that the way Bo-Katan acquired the weapon doomed not only her claim to the throne but also the entire planet. However, it’s important to remember that the Armorer is the head of a very small, orthodox Mandalorian religious group (possibly derived from the Death Watch from The Clone Wars, judging by their former base on Concordia), so she has very specific ideas about who should rule her people. She says that by following Bo-Katan, the people of Mandalore lost their way. Read more about the Darksaber here.
Mandalore and Mandalorian Lore
– The language she uses during Din’s training is Mando’a, a partially constructed conlang popular among Expanded Universe Mandalorian fans. It’s spoken several times by Sabine on Rebels. – This episode dramatizes the Night of a Thousand Tears, the Imperial bombardment of Mandalore. This takes place some time after the Republic takeover of the planet shown in The Clone Wars, which itself occurred mere hours before the Republic became the Empire. – The Imperial droids in the flashbacks are KX-series, previously seen in Rogue One represented by K-2SO and his Imperial brethren.
TIE/sa Bombers
The ships performing the bombing during the Night of a Thousand Tears flashback are called TIE/sa bombers. The “sa” stands for “Surface Assault,” which these TIE fighters do plenty of during the Mandalore scene. These bombers first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back and have become a staple of Star Wars video games over the years.
Glavis
The ring world is known as Glavis. From what we can tell, it looks like it’s home to all kinds of industries, including the criminal underground. This is the station’s first appearance in Star Wars but hopefully not its last. Like Bungie with their Halo series, there’s no doubt the Lucasfilm team took inspiration from Larry Niven’s 1970s science fiction novel Ringworld.
Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto
Mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) returns to help Mando build himself a new ship. We learn a few things about her along the way…like the fact that she once dated a Jawa.
BD-1 and Other Droids
– Peli’s newest helper is a BD-series droid, a line that was first popularized by BD-1 in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order. BD’s name is a short form of the creators’ term for him, “Buddy Droid.” – DUM-series pit droids continue to be a staple of Peli’s shop. They first appeared in The Phantom Menace.
Naboo N-1 Starfighter, Mando’s New Ship
– While she’s probably exaggerating to make the deal look sweeter, Peli’s information about the N-1 starfighter she rebuilds with Din is mostly right. These single-person ships were made on Naboo for the royal guard, as seen in The Phantom Menace. – Din takes the N-1 for a spin in Beggar’s Canyon, famous in A New Hope for Luke Skywalker’s assertion that flying a swoop bike there will translate to starfighter skills. It was first seen on screen as the site of the pod race in The Phantom Menace. – Pelli says the ship will be as fast as a fathier, the horse-like animals seen in The Last Jedi.
Luke Skywalker, Max Lloyd-Jones, and Carson Teva
– The New Republic cop with the larger role, Lt. Reed, is played by Max Lloyd-Jones, Luke Skywalker’s body double in the The Mandalorian season 2 finale.
Ishi Tib
Din’s alien employer near the beginning of the episode is an Ishi Tib, a species introduced in Return of the Jedi.
“Wizard”
This exclamation became a bit of a joke back in The Phantom Menace, when Anakin Skywalker used it to declare something cool. It’s recently resurfaced not only in The Book of Boba Fett but in The High Republic, where a young Jedi coins the phrase.
