Credit: Disney/StarWars.comThe Mandalorian has taken pop culture by storm. The Disney+ Star Wars series is one of America’s most popular television shows and has prompted dozens of merchandise collections, mostly featuring Grogu — formerly known, affectionately, as “The Child” and “Baby Yoda.”
Thanks to its overwhelming popularity, The Mandalorian Season 3 has already begun development — creator and showrunner Jon Favreau has even confirmed that he intends to start filming on-time in early 2021, previously telling Variety that ongoing pandemic restrictions are unlikely to impact production:
“We’re operating under the assumption that we’ll be able to go forward,” Favreau said. He noted that the innovative production technique pioneered for “The Mandalorian” — with wall-sized video panels for location backdrops — puts the show in a unique position within the industry.
“We’re in very small situations and oftentimes we have a lot of characters in masks,” he said. “And we also have a lot of digital work that augments things. So we’re a show that’s probably well-equipped to be flexible based on the protocols that are emerging surrounding work restarting.”
Now, reports have surfaced that The Mandalorian Season 3 will take fans back to a familiar planet — Naboo.
Naboo first appeared in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and is the homeworld of Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker’s lover and mother of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.
MovieWeb reports:
…it has also been rumored that The Mandalorian season 3 will be heading back to some other familiar places in the Star Wars franchise. A Naboo N-1 Starfighter has also allegedly been constructed for the next season. It is reportedly “yellow with a silver underbelly as seen in The Phantom Menace.”
Favreau and Dave Filoni are famously tight-lipped about the storylines in The Mandalorian — they didn’t even announce the existence of Grogu until Season 1, Episode 1 premiered in November 2019.
Therefore, nobody from the Mandalorian camp has confirmed or denied whether a return to Naboo is actually happening. It tracks with how the team has handled the show so far, though, with returns to iconic planet, Tatooine, in both Season 1 and Season 2.
Furthermore, we know there are already some new characters in development for the third season of the hit streaming series.
The only downside to a return to the beautiful planet of Naboo? The Gungans.
What do you think? Will Jon Favreau take fans back to Naboo for the first time in over 20 years — and hopefully not reintroduce Jar Jar Binks — in The Mandalorian Season 3?