Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 2 Easter Eggs Explained
Chapter 18 of The Mandalorian, “The Mines of Mandalore,” is full of easter eggs, callbacks, and references to other parts of the Star Wars universe!
“The Mines of Mandalore” may be the most consequential episode of The Mandalorian released yet. No one expected Din and Grogu would get to the planet of the Mandalorians so soon after last week’s side quests, but season 3 decides to deliver the goods in its second episode, including a moment fans have been waiting for since Din received his new mission in The Book of Boba Fett.
Navigating Mandalore’s wastelands is anything but an easy task for our heroes, as they soon discover many dangers await them in what remains of Sundari. Along the way, the duo encounters many easter eggs and references to other parts of the Star Wars universe. Here are all the callbacks we spotted in “The Mines of Mandalore”…
Mandalore and Sundari
We wrote about Mandalore and its capital city last week but to recap: Mandalore was first introduced in issue #68 of Marvel’s classic Star Wars comics in 1983. But George Lucas first came up with the idea of Mandalore while creating Boba Fett for The Empire Strikes Back. The mines of Mandalore are under the civic center at Sundari, which was once the planet’s capital. It was first introduced in The Clone Wars.
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, although Bo-Katan still can’t believe it. When the Mandos are trying to swim back up from the living waters, they spot a massive eye looking back at them. It clearly belongs to some kind of kaiju-sized creature that’s been sleeping down there for a very long time.
Well, folks, this seems to be none other than a mythosaur. According to ancient Mandalorian legend, these giant creatures used to walk the planet, and warriors used to even ride them around in battle. They’re such a big part of Mandalorian culture that the skull of the mythosaur became one of the key symbols of the warriors of Mandalore. In fact, the mythosaur was first introduced as a symbol on Boba Fett’s armor in The Empire Strikes Back.
Thought to have gone extinct centuries ago after a great cataclysm on the planet, Bo-Katan and Mando learn that might not be the case after all…
You can read way more about the mythosaur and what it’s return could mean for the future of the Star Wars universe here.
Mandalore the Great
Mandalore the Great is mentioned in the episode as this great leader from the distant past. While he’s a creation for Disney canon, he’s undoubtedly modeled after the legendary Mand’alors featured in Legends continuity, such as Mandalore the Ultimate, who led his people in a great conquest against the Old Republic. If you’ve played Knights of the Old Republic or read the comics of the same name, you know all about Mandalore the Ultimate.
General Grievous?!
No, that’s not him. The mad scientist cyborg spider thing living in the depths of Sundari seems to be a brand-new creation, but clearly shares more than a few similarities with the infamous Clone Wars general. The foe seems to have once been an organic being before fitting itself with droid parts, including what looks like fluttering robo-wings. Was this creature once a Geonosian who decided to pull a Grievous?!
Alamite
The ogre-like creatures that attack Din, Grogu, and Bo-Katan on Mandalore are apparently called “alamites.” This is their first appearance in Star Wars. We hope they get a spinoff series down the line.
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Bo-Katan’s Gauntlet Kom’rk-class Fighter
It looks like Bo-Katan is still flying a Gauntlet starfighter in the years after Return of the Jedi. This Kom’rk-class ship was originally flown by the Mandalorian rebel group Death Watch during the Clone Wars. Bo-Katan was once a member of this faction, putting her in direct opposition with her sister, Duchess Satine Kryze, and her pacifist government in Sundari.
Concordia
While Mando is giving Grogu a lesson in astronavigation, he points out a Mandalorian moon called Concordia, which was first introduced in The Clone Wars. It’s where Mando was raised by the Children of the Watch as a foundling. Meanwhile, Bo-Katan and her group live on Kalevala, which you can read more about here.
R5-D4
Now that is a name we haven’t heard in a long time. In fact, R5-D4 wasn’t even referred to as such in A New Hope. In the film, he’s just the poor droid that doesn’t get to go on cool adventures with Luke Skywalker because of his bad motivator. Fortunately, the Jawas eventually fixed this cute little droid up, and he’s been working at Peli Motto’s garage since The Mandalorian season 1. But “The Mines of Mandalore” finally gives R5 the chance to go on the epic quest that was all but stolen from him by his faulty parts.
In the old Legends days, R5 was actually given a much more honorable backstory than just being a piece of junk. A non-canon (even back then) comic book story by Peter David and Martin Egeland for the Dark Horse anthology Star Wars Tales reimagined R5 as “Skippy the Jedi Droid,” a valiant hero who sacrificed himself so that R2-D2 could reach Obi-Wan with Princess Leia’s message. Will The Mandalorian eventually reveal the same about canon R5?
You can read more about R5’s new role on The Mandalorian here.
