As Season 3 of Star Wars’ well-loved space western, The Mandalorian begins to wind down, its co-creator, Dave Filoni, seems pretty confident that everyone will be on board for its final episode.

The Mandalorian Season 3 has aired six of its eight episodes on Disney+, with the finale, Chapter 24, set to arrive on Wednesday, April 19. So far, we’ve seen Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his tiny charge, Grogu, more or less take a backseat in the overall story as Bo-Katan Kryze (Kate Sackhoff) takes center stage. Bits and pieces of the New Republic have also been explored, showing an uneasy galaxy trying to band together in the wake of the Empire.

Now that Din has atoned for his sins by bathing in the Living Waters underneath Sundari (causing Bo-Katan to stumble across a legendary Mythosaur), it’s time to bring forth a new age of Mandalore—and Bo-Katan is the one to lead it. With Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) imminent return, coupled with the fragility of the New Republic, all signs are pointing to trouble for the remainder of the season.

And according to Filoni, the final episode of Season 3 will bring all Mandalorian fans together for one epic event. Speaking with Collider, the longtime Star Wars director claimed that fans will be “cheering” at the end of The Mandalorian Season 3, but it will also leave them scratching their heads, wondering what’s next:
They’ll [fans] have a lot to take in, and I think with any good ending there’s the moment you’re in it when you’re cheering and you feel satisfied, but then there’s a little bit after that where you think back at all the things that happened. Maybe you start to put them together in a different way and you realize it’s an ending, but there are other things happening out there in the galaxy that now you know more about.

While it’s unclear what components of The Mandalorian‘s Season 3 finale he’s referring to in his remarks, Filoni could be hinting at a number of things. Perhaps, fans can expect to see cameos from Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) or Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), who have long been rumored to appear in the season. Or maybe, we’ll get a first glimpse at live-action Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). In the past, final episodes of The Mandalorian have given us shocking, large-scale resolutions with similar cameos, the most notable being Luke Skywalker’s internet-breaking entrance in “Chapter 16: The Rescue.”

And deliver on his promise, Filoni must. Season 3 has proven to be perhaps the most divisive of The Mandalorian thus far. Many Star Wars fans have put showrunners on blast for the achingly slow story progression and flashy celebrity cameos (taking the form of Jack Black and Lizzo, specifically). Meanwhile, others are just happy to see fights involving Mandalorian warriors at their prime, as well as callbacks to the Prequel Trilogy and Star Wars Rebels.

Though reception remains generally positive, the third season of The Mandalorian has the show’s lowest ratings thus far, with a staggering 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, with a fixed end in sight for some of these characters following the newly-announced “Mandoverse” crossover movie, showrunners must be strategic about how to pace the story moving forward—and nailing this season’s finale could be key to setting that up, as well as gaining back Disney-Star Wars’ skeptics’ trust.

It’ll be interesting to see if Filoni can keep his promise of delivering a satisfying finale to The Mandalorian‘s third season and if it will leave some threads open to be explored in future projects. Fans’ expectations are indeed high, but with Filoni and Jon Favreau at the helm, it’ll hopefully be something special. New revelations will almost undoubtedly come to light ahead of the finale, keeping fans revved-up and excited for a Season 4.
Are you looking forward to seeing how everything will unfold in the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian? Let us know in the comments below.