'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Finale Delivers a Twist Cloning Plot, Confusing Fans

Ever since the Sequel Trilogy introduced fans to a cloned Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), Star Wars has been obsessed with further exploring the concept of cloning in recent projects—and The Mandalorian is no exception.

Right off the bat, it was clear that Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff show, The Mandalorian, would touch on ideas introduced in 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. Within the first few episodes of Season 1, viewers saw the cold-blooded bounty hunter, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), rescuing baby Grogu from Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and his loyal assistant, Dr. Penn Pershing (Omid Abtahi), who had plans to experiment on the child for—at the time—unknown reasons.

Throughout Seasons 1 and 2, the question remained: what did Gideon want with Grogu? In Season 3, more details of Gideon’s nefarious plan finally came to light, with it being all but confirmed in the finale, “Chapter 24: The Return,” that Gideon was planning on using Grogu’s DNA in his attempts to create a Force-sensitive clone army of himself.

This came as somewhat of a surprise to longtime fans, who initially thought Gideon was assisting the Imperial Remnant in Project Necromancer—the Emporer’s contingency plan to resurrect himself, resulting in the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). In The Mandalorian “Chapter 12: The Siege,” this idea is hinted at during a scene where Mando, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) travel to the far side of Nevarro to blow up an Imperial Base.

There, the crew finds a recent hologram message from Dr. Pershing to Moff Gideon, in which Pershing mentions the need for a “high M count” (Midi-chlorian count) and notes that they were only able to take so much from “the Child” (AKA Baby Yoda). After further venturing into the laboratory, Mando, Greef, and Cara stumble across huge tanks holding what look to be Snoke clones.

The explanation of Snoke in the Sequel Trilogy is spotty at best, and fans were looking forward to finally getting some clarity on the matter in The Mandalorian. But in an unusual move, showrunners shifted the story’s cloning plot to Gideon in the Season 3 finale, who wanted to essentially create a Force-sensitive army of his own instead of aiding the Emperor’s sinister plans.

Why did Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau choose to do this? Well, it’s hard to say. Perhaps, the “Mando-Verse” is simply steering away from the cloning plot of the Sequel Trilogy and, rather, could be focusing on Grand Admiral Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) return, further connecting it to the upcoming Ahsoka series.

Or maybe, the showrunners decided not to overly-complicate The Mandalorian‘s Season 3 finale, which ended with a very straightforward, happy ending for each of its main characters.

Plus, it’s important to note that a different Star Wars show, the animated Star Wars: The Bad Batch, focuses on a similar cloning subplot, and will likely continue to explore Project Necromancer in its third and final season.

For now, it remains to be seen when or if we’ll ever get answers on Palpatine’s cloning scheme and the eventual creation of Snoke. This operation remains shrouded in mystery, leading fans to tirelessly theorize about how and when it was initially started. But although we may have yet to get an explanation in The Mandalorian, more information on Palpatine’s clones is almost certainly coming in future Star Wars projects.

What did you think of The Mandalorian Season 3 finale? Let us know in the comments below.