‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Was a Waste of Time: What Went Wrong

The Mandalorian Season 3: what the hell happened? When the show returned after two and a half years in carbon freeze, I was surprisingly — alarmingly — underwhelmed. I — a Star Wars fan for over 32 years, one who had a near-religious experience at his first Star Wars Celebration last year — left the Season 3 premiere with a big shrug and a confused “huh.” The Season 3 premiere offered nothing new for Mandalorian fans, instead opting to just remix elements from the Season 2 premiere (can we please stop fighting giant monsters?) and run through the supporting cast saying, “This one is here, that one is there.” It was worrying, but there was still room for hope — hope that the season would gain momentum and reclaim some of its old rough-and-tumble charm. Now that Season 3 is firmly in the rearview, though, it’s clear that my initial assessment of the premiere holds true — and applies to the entire season. The Mandalorian Season 3 was a waste in every way, and I think I know where it went wrong.

The biggest misstep lies in its treatment of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, now Din Grogu because who the hell knows how Mandalorian names work? Season 3 was a waste of two seasons’ worth of character development for Djarin (seriously, that’s his first name now? I don’t know — !). It seemed pretty clear to me, especially after Season 2’s brilliant chapter “The Believer,” that this entire series was built around the theme of faith vs. family. There are whole TV networks built around the concept of faith and family, but pitting the demands of spiritual beliefs against the well-being of your loved ones? That’s a bold statement, especially for a TV-PG franchise like Star Wars. But it was clearly right there, as Djarin was repeatedly asked to break his adherence to ancient religious tradition in order to save the life of his son. It was an incredibly powerful and valuable story, one that culminated with Djarin choosing to take off his helmet (his religion’s #1 No No) to say goodbye to his son in order to give him a better life.

Season 3 undid all of that. The season started with Din Djarin’s zealot-ish quest to engage in a traditional baptism in order to be welcomed back into his orthodox sect — hostile planet, scavengers, robots, and underwater monsters be damned. After two seasons of pushing the boundaries of Djarin’s faith, we’ve snapped back to the blind adherence that the show was questioning. Making matters worse, the show dragged Grogu and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) into it too — that is until the Armorer (Emily Swallow) randomly decided that the rules of their religion don’t apply to Bo-Katan, or something? And everyone was immediately cool with that? I don’t know.

This focus on The Way and all of its arbitrary rules and traditions sucked a lot of the fun out of The Mandalorian, wasting its cast. The first two seasons were packed with characters that did not get along and definitely didn’t follow the rules. Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) is a perfect example of that, what with her manic delivery and unhinged tales of hooking up with Jawas. But there was also grizzled gunslinger Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant) and Horatio Sanz’s hapless Mythrol! And all the side alien characters, like the Mon Calamari wearing Chris Evans’ Knives Out sweater, the Frog Lady, Dr. Mandible — not to mention Grogu himself.

Remember how Grogu used to be a real handful? Remember the running theme of Season 2 where Grogu would just try to eat everything? Remember Djarin figuratively pulling his hair out while trying to watch this kid? Where was all of that this season? The only unimpeachable moments of Season 3, the moments that most felt like the show we all love, were any scene with the Anzellan droid makers and when Grogu kept punching the “yes” button on his new IG-12 mech suit and then used his new grabby hands to swipe food from street vendors. Instead, we spent most of this season with a bunch of hyper-religious Mandalorians who never showed their faces.

Making matters even worse? The cast that we had — Pedro Pascal! Katee Sackhoff! Giancarlo Esposito! — was wasted. They were given the most cliched, first-drafty dialogue ever heard in this galaxy.

Seriously, how do exchanges like this make it from the page to the stage without anyone being like, “Hey, I’ve heard this literal exact back and forth precisely one million times already”? But that’s how every scene sounded! You know the dialogue is bad when even a master like Giancarlo Esposito comes across as if he’s performing for the back of the high school gymnasium.

Maybe the dialogue felt so stilted because there was no real plot to progress. The season wasted opportunity after opportunity to do anything interesting. What if Grogu didn’t want to engage in Mandalorian trials? What if Bo-Katan remained steadfast in her atheism? What if Moff Gideon had weaseled his way into the Imperial Amnesty program? Or what if Captain Carson Teva had suspected actual Mandalorians of breaking Gideon out of his prison ship? What if Elia Kane’s status as a mole for Gideon was ever threatened? Or what if Kane had a change of heart? What if the Armorer was actually a spy like we all spent the last week theorizing? What if Paz Vizsla’s death mattered at all — like, what if it mattered to his own son? I’m not even suggesting that my rewrite ideas are great, nor do I think a show should have plot twists so obvious that fans called them weeks earlier. I am suggesting that maybe The Mandalorian Season 3 could have done… literally anything. All of that — the derailing of momentum in favor of a conflict-free plot filled with deadly serious characters who speak as if they have a button on their back that says up to 6 unique phrases — adds up to one waste of a season.

But what went wrong? I think all of Season 3’s problems can be blamed on other shows happening. The biggest offender is The Book of Boba Fett, a show that I believe was intended to be Season 3 and then retroactively stretched thin to become a show of its own due to the restrictions of the early pandemic. I think the original plan was to probably start Season 3 with the last three episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, starting with Din’s aimlessness without Grogu, his thwarted attempt to reconnect with the kid, and then Grogu’s return to Din during Boba Fett’s war for the Tatooine underworld. Then the second half of Season 3 would have been the retaking of Mandalore, which would make sense because oh my god was this season treading water! We had a whole episode where the Mandalorians fought a giant bird! And, just spitballing here, it would’ve made sense for Boba Fett — the most famous Mandalorian — to be part of the taking of Mandalore, right? Instead, the most important plot point of The Mandalorian Season 3 — the reunion of Din and Grogu! — took place in The Book of Boba Fett. And then The Mandalorian Season 3 and Disney+ included no mention of those episodes happening.

This exact problem is happening again, by the way, with The Mandalorians Seasons 2 and 3 setting up Grand Admiral Thrawn as a major threat — and he won’t show up until Star Wars: Ahsoka. The Mandalorian has to stop wrapping up its most important stories in other shows and stop initiating major stories that will be told in other shows.

The other show that really hurt Season 3 was probably HBO’s The Last of Us — y’know, the other sci-fi show starring Pedro Pascal as a grumpy father figure. Principal photography on Mando Season 3 was completely enveloped by filming on The Last of Us, a show that actually required Pascal to be on set as opposed to just in a recording booth. Note the promotion of Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne to co-starring in Mando Season 3; those have been the guys in the Din Djarin suit when Pascal’s not, and now they’re higher-billed. This is also the first season wherein we never saw Din Djarin’s face, which may be due to the fact that he was (I’m assuming) never physically on set. And knowing that Pascal wouldn’t be able to show his face on The Mandalorian, maybe that’s why Din Djarin got a lot more religious this season and kept his helmet on.

But the real competition likely came from Star Wars: Ahsoka, the show overseen by Dave Filoni.

I’ve already theorized that the parts of the Mandalorian that we love, the character work, epic action, and giddy goofiness, comes from Filoni. Filoni’s limited involvement in Season 3, which was likely due to pre-production on Ahsoka, left Favreau to make… this. And y’know, Mando Season 3 feels a lot more like Book of Boba Fett (another practically all-Favreau production) than it does Mando Season 2. It’s likely that Dave Filoni’s influence extended far beyond whatever the writing and directing credits of any particular episode indicated. If Star Wars: Ahsoka has all the vibes we missed this go ’round, it’ll make sense.

What does this mean moving forward? Like I just said, I think Star Wars: Ahsoka has the potential to right the ship, but the future for The Mandalorian doesn’t seem bright to me. Considering how Season 3 ends, with Din Djarin and Din Grogu camped out on Nevarro between gigs hunting Imperials for the New Republic, it would be so so so easy for the show to make Season 4 a series of done-in-one adventures told by 8 auteurs. Let The Daniels, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Taika Waititi, Rian Johnson, Dave f’ing Filoni — hell, Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland tell their own stories with Mando and Grogu! But… Jon Favreau has already written the entire season, which leads me to believe that we could be in for more of the same stilted dialogue and wasted potential. Reminder: Rick Famuyiwa, director and writer of some of Seasons 1 and 2’s best episodes, was promoted to executive producer this season… and he directed three episodes but I’d say his influence was barely felt. I wouldn’t mind it if Rick got a pass on those scripts, Jon…

I have loved The Mandalorian from Day One, but Season 3 really tested my faith in this series. In the wake of Andor and with Star Wars: Ahsoka coming soon, and with Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte in the works, can we still call The Mandalorian the flagship of the franchise? Let’s hope that the Mando crew can right some of these wrongs before production begins later this year. Because there truly is too much Star Wars coming out, and much of it looking too fresh and exciting for another season of The Mandalorian to waste our time.