Star Wars Addresses Where Grogu Went in the Sequel Trilogy Era
Where was Grogu during the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy? The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni has some thoughts.
When Luke Skywalker took Grogu as his student in The Mandalorian season 2 finale, some fans feared the worst for the little green guy. Did Grogu joining Luke’s new Jedi academy mean he was at the temple when Ben Solo turned to the dark side and destroyed the school along with most of its students? Had the future master of the Knights of Ren killed Grogu before the start of the Sequel Trilogy?
Two years later, we’re a little less concerned for Grogu’s future in the Sequel era. Having left Luke’s academy in The Book of Boba Fett to rejoin Mando, it seems Grogu’s Jedi days will have long been over by the time Ben becomes Kylo Ren decades later. Instead, he seems destined to learn the ways of the Mandalorians like his adoptive father before him — Grogu’s even started wearing some beskar chain mail armor to show his commitment. This is the way.
Still, Grogu’s new path in the “Mandoverse” of Disney+ shows doesn’t exactly clear up where the little guy went during the Sequel Trilogy era. Why wasn’t he around to help Rey and the Resistance fight the First Order? While we know the simple answer is that Grogu hadn’t been created yet when The Force Awakens kicked off the third Star Wars trilogy in 2015, it’s an interesting question from an in-universe perspective, and one THR recently asked The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni.
“That’s a great question, and we talk about many different things. That’s a question for a bunch of characters by the way, not just Grogu. Where are they during these events?” Filoni told the outlet. “If anything, having made The Clone Wars and weaving a tale so intricately between two movies that were much closer together, I’ve learned that there’s expansive room in this galaxy for us to tell stories and have characters doing things…So we’ll just have to wait and see how the story evolves and what makes sense. But in my experience, there’s definitely a way to weave everything together and make it exciting. It’s possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw [in the Sequel Trilogy] if the story has us somewhere else.”
In other words, Filoni suggests that, even though Grogu doesn’t appear in the Sequel films, the Star Wars galaxy is so vast that he could still be out there but on a completely different adventure that kept him away from all of that First Order and Sith Eternal drama. According to the producer, whatever Grogu might be doing during the Sequel Trilogy era wouldn’t even have to connect to those movies at all. While not exactly a definitive answer to the question of where Grogu is during the Sequel Trilogy — it’s hard to imagine the character’s story has even been mapped out that far into the future, anyway — Filoni is right that there’s still plenty of room to create new stories around the films when the time comes.
Beyond the movie trilogy itself, the Sequel era timeline remains largely unexplored, but that will probably change eventually, just like with the other major time periods in Star Wars. Just as The Clone Wars retroactively fleshed out all of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s adventures between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor have gone back to bridge the gap between the Prequel and Original Trilogies, Lucasfilm could eventually turn its attention to telling more stories in the Sequel era, including what Grogu and Din Djarin were up to while Rey, Finn, and Poe were doing their thing.
But first, it sounds like there’s still plenty of Grogu’s story to tell on The Mandalorian. Showrunner Jon Favreau has confirmed that he’s already written a fourth season of the hit show, with no sign of wrapping things up anytime soon.
“I think the beauty of this is that it’s a middle chapter of a much larger story,” Favreau told Total Film ahead of the season 3 premiere. “And though we’ll have resolution over time with these characters…it’s not like there’s a finale that we’re building to that I have in mind…Quite the contrary. I love for these stories to go on and on. And so these characters potentially could be with us for a while. I really love telling stories in their voice, and I love the way the adventures unfold and I’m looking forward to doing much more.”
