The Mandalorian season 2: Everything we know ahead of Baby Yoda’s return to Disney Plus on Oct. 30

“This is the way.” The Mandalorian, which gave us the gift that is Baby Yoda, kicks off season 2 on Friday, Oct. 30. A trailer released on Monday gave us another glimpse of the upcoming season, and a report suggested that season 3 will kick off production before the end of 2020. 

If you want to get primed, you can watch or rewatch all eight episodes of the first season of the live-action Star Wars series on Disney Plus. Or you could just read this handy primer.

Here are details about the next season.

What we know about season 2

“The Mandalorian and the Child continue their journey, facing enemies and rallying allies as they make their way through a dangerous galaxy in the tumultuous era after the collapse of the Galactic Empire,” reads the synopsis that dropped with the first trailer for the second season. 

We got another clue about Mando’s objective in the second trailer for the upcoming season — he mentions tracking down other Mandalorians so they can guide him to Baby Yoda’s kind.

The season will consist of eight episodes, and they’ll drop every Friday, according to a Disney Plus fact sheet for The Mandalorian season 2. That gives us a sense of the schedule, so you can plan your viewing times accordingly. Season 2 also continues the “chapter” naming convention from the first season, so it doesn’t start from chapter 1:

• Chapter 9: Friday, Oct. 30
• Chapter 10: Friday, Nov. 6
• Chapter 11: Friday, Nov. 13
• Chapter 12: Friday, Nov. 20
• Chapter 13: Friday, Nov. 27
• Chapter 14: Friday, Dec. 4
• Chapter 15: Friday, Dec. 11
• Chapter 16: Friday, Dec. 18

There’s also a tweet you can like to receive a reminder when each episode drops on Disney Plus.

Directors for the new season include creator Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed (the man behind Ant-Man and its sequel) and Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and Alita: Battle Angel), the release noted.

Season 3?

Favreau is hoping to start production on the show’s third season “before the end of the year,” he told Variety on Oct. 15. He’s been writing it “for a while,” according to a Variety report from April, and Lucasfilm’s art department has been working on concept designs. Production design reportedly kicked off on April 20.

From here on, we’ll highlight some of the reports about casting and returning characters for the second season. If you’d rather not know, beware of POSSIBLE SPOILERS from here on out.  

On March 20, Slashfilm reported that season 2 will see Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of the late Anakin Skywalker, make her live action debut. She’ll apparently be played by Rosario Dawson, whom you might remember playing Claire Temple in Netflix’s Marvel shows.

“That’s not confirmed yet but when that happens, I will be very happy. I’m very excited for that to be confirmed at some point,” Dawson told Variety in April.

Katee Sackhoff will apparently bring Bo-Katan Kryze, a Mandalorian warrior she voiced in The Clone Wars and Rebels, into live action in the second season. She shot her scenes in February, Slashfilm reported.

Bo-Katan, who played a pivotal role in the just-concluded The Clone Wars, held the Darksaber and united the clans of Mandalore in the final season of Rebels. Since those events, Moff Gideon took the weapon, but we don’t know how that happened.

Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese in The Terminator and Corporal Hicks in Aliens, will join the cast as a bounty hunter, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bill Burr will apparently also reprise his role as gunslinger Mayfield, according to i09.

In a Feb. 4 earnings call, Disney boss Bob Iger also mentioned the possibility that some of the show’s characters could go “in their own directions in terms of series” — hinting that we might see some Mandalorian spinoffs down the line.

Could Boba Fett show up?

It seems like he’s going to make his return in season 2 and be played by Temuera Morrison, according to The Hollywood Reporter and CNET sister site Comicbook.com. The actor previously played bounty hunter Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and also portrayed the clone troopers in that movie and Revenge of the Sith.

Jango was recruited by Count Dooku to serve as the genetic template for the clone army used by the Galactic Republic, as part of Darth Sidious’ super convoluted plot to wipe out the Jedi. Part of Jango’s payment was an unaltered clone that he could raise as his son — Boba — but the elder Fett was killed during the Battle of Geonosis.

The younger Fett was played by Daniel Logan in Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars CGI animated series, but The Mandalorian takes place decades later and a grown-up Boba would look identical to Jango.

However, Boba isn’t the only person with Jango’s face. Even though clone troopers were designed to age at an accelerated speed, some could still be alive. The Rebels series finale revealed that Commander Rex fought in the Battle of Endor (a few years prior to the events of The Mandalorian), while Commander Wolffe survived until at least the end of Rebels.

You might assume that Jango and Boba are Mandalorians because they wear the armor, but Mandalorian Prime Minister Almec dismissed them as pretenders during the Clone Wars. However, Almec wasn’t the most trustworthy character, so all bets are off as to the Fetts’ heritage.

Fans have been clamoring for Boba’s return to the Star Wars galaxy despite his fall into the maw of a hungry sarlacc in Return of the Jedi. We saw a mysterious person approach assassin Fennec Shand’s body on Tatooine in the final moments of the fifth episode, with Fett’s trademark spur sound effect, but the show didn’t follow up on that tease in the first season.

We’ll also see Timothy Olyphant, who played gunslingers in Deadwood and Justified, joining the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His character will apparently wear Boba Fett’s armor, Slashfilm noted in a follow-up report.

Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy of novels, which are set between Return of the Jedi and The Mandalorian, included Mandalorian armor that’s heavily implied to be Boba’s getting recovered from the sarlacc’s maw and worn by former slave Cobb Vanth. Using the armor as a symbol of power, he becomes sheriff of Freetown (a settlement on Tatooine) and offers sanctuary to anyone willing to battle the world’s crime syndicates. It’d make more sense for Vanth to have been the one who inspected Shand’s body in season 1, but we’ll see.

Fans of the Legends material (developed in novels, comics and games prior to 2014) will recall that Boba escaped the sarlacc in that continuity and went on to become the leader of Mandalore in a very different (and non-canon) post-Return of the Jedi galaxy. 

What happened in season 1?

You’re in luck! I wrote detailed recaps of each episode that you can use to catch up:

Chapter 1: The Mandalorian

Chapter 2: The Child

Chapter 3: The Sin

Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Chapter 7: The Reckoning

Chapter 8: Redemption

Read more: 30 best movies to watch on Disney Plus 

What’s up with Baby Yoda?

This little guy captured everyone’s hearts the moment he appeared in the season premiere, and we’ve got a whole separate guide for him. He’s officially known as The Child. We don’t know his real name, race or home planet, but he can use the Force pretty effectively, and the Imperial Remnant wants him.

Oh, and the most detailed version of the puppet apparently cost around $5 million.

Is there a bounty of Mandalorian merch?

Merchandise hunting is a complicated hobby, but you know you want it. Since the show’s debut last November, a mountain of toys and other collectibles have been released. Highlights include Hasbro’s six-inch Black Series and Vintage Collection. 

There’ll be a steady stream for season 2 as well, like Lego’s huge Baby Yoda set, Polaroid’s Mandalorian-themed instant camera and Hasbro’s crowd-funded Razor Crest. Lucasfilm will reveal new collectibles each Monday from Oct. 26 to Dec. 21 — a merchandising push known as “Mando Mondays” — capitalizing on the second season.

Is there any tie-in literature?

As is Star Wars tradition, readers will be able to dive in further. A bunch of books were revealed on the official Star Wars site in June. The major ones are:

The company noted the books will start coming out this fall. Preorder pages revealed that the art book will be released Dec. 15 (and cost $40), while the novel has been delayed until fall 2021 (for $29). Marvel and IDW will also bring out comics inspired by the show.

“At the moment, we’re keeping things under wraps — including the title, synopsis, and cover,” Christopher wrote in a blog post about his novel. “But that does mean I get one of those cool and mysterious Cover Not Final placeholders.”

What’s the deal with the documentary?

Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is an eight-episode making-of series that includes interviews with The Mandalorian’s cast and crew, new footage from the show’s production and round-table conversations hosted by Favreau. Episodes began dropping on Disney Plus, starting May 4. Here’s what they cover:

1. Directing
2. Legacy
3. Cast
4. Technology
5. Practical
6. Visualization
7. Score
8. Connections

The titles are pretty self-explanatory, aside from the second one. It looks at George Lucas’ continuing impact on Star Wars and features a pretty amazing monologue from director Dave Filoni, who worked directly with Lucas on The Clone Wars. He’ll make you think about The Phantom Menace in a whole new way.

What’s a Mandalorian?

Mandalorians are humans from the Outer Rim world of Mandalore, its moon Concordia and the planet Kalevala, whose story was largely told in The Clone Wars and Rebels.

Their world went through major political upheaval during the Clone Wars and early days of the Galactic Empire’s rule, but many of the clans united under the rule of Bo-Katan Kryze after she took control of the Darksaber. The black-bladed weapon was created more than 1,000 years earlier by Tarre Vizsla (the first Mandalorian to join the Jedi Order) and became a symbol of leadership. It also showed up in The Mandalorian’s season 1 finale.

Who’s in it?

Pedro Pascal (best known for playing Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones) is the bounty hunter behind the helmet: He’s a lone Mandalorian gunfighter operating in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

He’s joined by a star-studded cast, though a couple of these characters didn’t survive season 1:

Who else is involved?

Directors for the first season:

Favreau, Filoni, Colin Wilson and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy are the executive producers, with Karen Gilchrist as co-executive producer.

The Mandalorian is among the first projects for ILM TV, a division of Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic visual effects company. The show’s soundtrack is composed by Ludwig Göransson, who scored Black Panther, Venom and Creed II. Göransson’s Black Panther score won him a Grammy and an Oscar in 2019.