‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Ending Explained: Is Moff Gideon Dead? And Is There a ‘Mandalorian’ End Credit Scene?

And that’s a wrap on The Mandalorian Season 3. After two months of action and adventure, the flagship Star Wars series has signed off for the third time. Din Djarin and his little green ward came, they saw, and they conquered our hearts once again. Also there were explosions and gunfights and crashing battleships and squeezable aliens, too. The Mandalorian truly has it all!

All that being said, we gotta talk about the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian. The episode had so much action in it, we’re going to need to break down some of the big moments and really think about what they mean for the future of the show and the franchise on the whole. SPOILERS ahead, obviously!

Is Moff Gideon Dead on The Mandalorian?

Considering that we live in a post-Rise of Skywalker world, it’s hard to say that anyone is definitively dead in a galaxy far, far away. That being said, as far as death scenes go, Moff Gideon’s was even more intense than Emperor Palpatine getting chucked down the Death Star’s core.

After throwing down against Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze and crushing the Darksaber, Moff Gideon confronts a foe that he can’t easily intimidate: the massive explosion caused by the Mandalorian fleet’s capital ship crashing into Gideon’s underground Imperial outpost.

That looks like a pretty definitive death scene for Moff Gideon, even for Star Wars. Still, there are a few ways Moff Gideon could have survived this moment, and they’re fresh on our mind since these plot-line exit strategies were featured in the Season Finale.

The first way Gideon could cheat death: that Dark Trooper armor. The last two episodes really hammered home just how tough beskar steel is, as Mandalorians and Imperial troopers alike all survived multiple laser blasts thanks to their armor. Now, an explosion like the one seen above is way different from a little pew pew laser blast. That doesn’t mean that it would be all that farfetched for Favreau and/or Filoni to say that Gideon’s Dark Trooper armor protected him from most of the blast if they ever wanted to bring him back.

The second possibility lies within Moff Gideon’s master plan. We learned in this episode that Gideon’s goal from the start of the series was to create an army of clones of himself, all implanted with the ability to wield the Force — an ability taken from Grogu’s DNA and grafted onto Gideon’s genetic makeup. Gideon sure did react to Din Djarin’s sabotage as if the Mandalorian killed all of his clones, but come on — you’re telling me Moff Gideon doesn’t have a spare clone or two stashed somewhere? If the showrunners ever want to work with Giancarlo Esposito again, all they have to do is cast him as one of Gideon’s clones.

Is there a Mandalorian end credit scene for Season 3?

There is not. The Mandalorian Season 3 ends with Din Djarin and Din Grogu (can someone explain Mandalorian nomenclature, please?) getting their very own cabin on a plot of land on Nevarro. That’s where they’ll live between new missions for their new off-the-books employer, the New Republic. Djarin made a proposition to Republic pilot Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), offering to hunt down and shut down other Imperial remnants for a retainer fee.

It’s a real cozy final shot, one that shows this father and son finally at peace in a home of their own. Hell, it’s so cozy that they get a very Looney Toons-esque circle wipe to black. For the first time in a very long time, things look good for these two.

As for what’s next for The Mandalorian and when we’ll get to see this new status quo in action — filming on The Mandalorian Season 4 is expected to begin later this year. That means that we should expect to see Season 4 premiere in late 2024 at the earliest. That’s a bit of a wait, but at least we know Djarin and Grogu are happy and at home in the meantime.