‘The Mandalorian’ on Disney+: 5 Things You May Have Missed in Episode 1

Early in the episode, a rough guy in the saloon taps the Mandalorian’s armor and asks if it’s made of beskar steel. A little later, the Mandalorian is given a chunk of beskar steel that’s been stamped with the Imperial insignia as payment for taking on his client’s (Werner Herzog) bounty. This is a big moment for the Mandalorian, seemingly culturally significant with almost religious undertones. The Client says that beskar “belongs with the Mandalorians” and that he has a whole “camtono” of the steel waiting for the Mandalorian (an Easter egg in an Easter egg: a camtono is a safe, the kind that Willrow Hood was seen carrying in Empire Strikes Back–and yes, it looks like an ice cream maker). After getting the beskar steel tablet, the Mandalorian takes it to a local forge where it is melted down and molded into a pauldron. The unnamed blacksmith, played by Emily Swallow, notes that this piece of beskar was “gathered in the Great Purge.”

Beskar is the type of steel that Mandalorian armor is forged from, and while we’ve seen Mandalorian armor in action since 1980, it wasn’t named until until an issue of Star Wars Insider published in 2006. The steel was entered into modern Star Wars canon in a 2017 episode of Star Wars Rebels (“Heroes of Mandalore”). This is, however, the first mention of the Great Purge.

When the Mandalorian visits his local forge (support local businesses!), he passes under an entryway adorned with a shiny skull. Later in the episode, when the Mandalorian is learning how to ride a blurrg (more on them later) from his new ugnaught pal (Nick Nolte), Kuiil says that the bounty hunter shouldn’t have a problem with mounting the beast. After all, his ancestors once rode the great mythosaur! Those two seemingly disparate moments are connected, as that skull is a mythosaur skull.

The mythosaur skull has long been used as Boba Fett’s insignia on merchandise, and that skull is the first time it’s popped up in live-action. The mythosaur is actually a creation of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars series, a series that has long been out of canon. It debuted in 1983’s issue #69, a month after the first appearance of the planet Mandalore. The Mandalorian marks the first time the mythosaur has been mentioned in modern Star Wars canon.

If the first episode is any indication, The Mandalorian is going to be packed with cameos. First, if that fearful, fledgling mythrol sounds familiar, that’s because Horatio Sanz is underneath that blue fish-man makeup. Saturday Night Live alum Sanz gets the honor of originating a brand new Star Wars species, as he’s the first-ever mythrol.

Brian Posehn then pops up as a speeder pilot paid by the Mandalorian to ferry him and his mythrol prey to his ship, the Razor Crest. Unfortunately for Posehn, he doesn’t survive the gig (he gets eaten by a ravinak, another new Star Wars creature).

The Mandalorian loves excavating thought-lost artifacts from old Star Wars canon. In addition to the mythosaur, there are numerous references to old Star Wars properties that you can’t stream on Disney+. There are two shout-outs to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special: the Mandalorian carries the same rifle that Boba Fett uses in the special’s animated sequence, and Horatio Sanz’s sadsack mythrol says he was hoping to “be free for Life Day,” which is the special’s central holiday.

And then there are the blurrgs, which were originally featured in the 1985 TV movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. They since popped up in a few episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but The Mandalorian marks their first live-action appearance in 34 years.

While we don’t yet know the Mandalorian’s name, we do know that he’s not Boba Fett. That doesn’t mean we won’t see Boba Fett on the show eventually–and he might even be in the first episode. When the Mandalorian enters his people’s compound, you can see plenty of people wearing Mandalorian armor. One person in the shadows appears to be wearing armor that matches Boba Fett’s grey-blue, red, and yellow color scheme. Could that be Boba Fett?

At this point in continuity, Fett is believed to be dead after falling into the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi. The Mandalorian, which is set five years later, could be the bit of canon that establishes that Fett is alive. Or, more likely considering how much Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni love random bits of forgotten Star Wars lore, maybe this guy is Jodo Kast!

Stream The Mandalorian on Disney+