Mandalorian season 3

After an extended absence, · Drawing a parallel to Din's own spiritual journey, and existence as an unwilling apostate, the episode—aptly titled “The Apostate”— ...

One of the most exciting aspects of Season 3 of The Mandalorian is the fact that Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder now have billing on the series, which was long overdue considering both men bring the physicality to the role that audiences have fallen in love with since Season 1. It’s clear that these two are going to have a lot of friction in Season 3, which makes for a great contrast to how helpful she has been during his previous quests. Despite their newfound masses, The Armorer and the rest of the Children of the Watch are overpowered and losing to the beast. From there, the episode shifts into the formulaic “mission of the week” styling that The Mandalorian has become known for. Drawing a parallel to Din’s own spiritual journey, and existence as an unwilling apostate, the episode—aptly titled “The Apostate”— opens on Concordia with a young member of the cult taking his vows. [The Mandalorian](https://collider.com/tag/the-mandalorian/) has finally returned with its exhilarating Season 3 premiere, which sees Din Djarin (voiced by Pedro Pascal) picking up where things left off in The Book of Boba Fett.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 1 has been released on Disney Plus, with Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin and Grogu returning. Here's what we thought.

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). [Disney Plus](http://www.radiotimes.com/disneyplus) on Wednesday 1st March — [sign up to Disney Plus now for £79.90 for a year or £7.99 a month](https://disneyplus.bn5x.net/c/1236178/564546/9358?subId1=radiotimes-1793520&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2Fen-gb). She does offer Djarin some directions to the Living Waters on Mandalore - but not before calling him a "fool" and telling him there's "nothing left" of Mandalore. Plus, Favreau recently made it clear that he has no idea how the story will end — a situation that can often lead to meandering plots and shows that go on for simply too long. Check out more of our [Sci-Fi](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/) coverage or visit our [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) and [Streaming Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/streaming-guide/) to find out what's on. She's more than a little lost after Djarin won the Dark Saber from her in season 2. The only problem is that IG-11 sacrificed himself way back in season 1 - but some of his parts have been recovered. Her forces have left her and, really, it's just quite a sad sight. This is a modal window. "He was sent off to a New Republic war tribunal." Not everyone's happy about it though, as pirate Vane proves when he and his gang of brothers cause trouble for Karga. Someone else that surely won't come back to haunt our heroes, right?

The Mandalorian season 3 kicks off with 'The Apostate', a relaxed but fun episode full of familiar faces that sets up the next steps in Din Djarin and ...

With the pirates out of the way (for now), Din states he’s come back to try to resurrect IG-11 in order to get some extra help on Mandalore. Seeing Din trying to understand the Anzellans’ broken Basic (English in the Star Wars universe) while uncomfortably sitting inside the cramped space is exactly the kind of zany Star Wars imagery we’ve come to expect from The Mandalorian. The final scene of the episode sees Din and Grogu visiting a Mandalorian castle on Kalevala, another planet (seemingly untouched and peaceful) in the Mandalorian system. Only its upper torso appears to have survived the explosion, but it’s now part of a statue that reminds the town’s citizens of their atypical hero. After some back-and-forth, a showdown ensues – The Mandalorian likes to remind viewers it’s a Western at its core – and everyone but Vane falls dead to the ground. Moreover, there’s a construction boom, and Greef Karga promptly offers Din and the Child the chance to settle down and live off the land. Despite what legend and Mandalorian pessimism says, the planet isn’t poisoned nor completely uninhabitable, and some scavengers are even making a profit out of stuff and minerals they find on the planet with little trouble. Amidst all the chaos and confusion, he risks his life to save the kid from getting devoured before Din Djarin saves the day with a plasma torpedo from his shiny new It seems like the Armorer knew Din wouldn’t be able to redeem himself, since Mandalore was off-limits according to them, but that wasn’t made clear at all in Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett. As a result, the apostate Mandalorian has at the very least earned an audience with the Armorer. But it’s not your average “mission of the week” episode, as the (roughly) 30-minute runtime provides more than enough space for visiting several locations and meeting a handful of major characters. Things get off to an unexpected but rocky start as we witness a Mandalorian initiation ceremony that is interrupted by a giant gator-turtle-like creature.

The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere goes back to the show's beginning, checking in on the state of the world and key characters while setting Din Djarin on a ...

Her speech to Din about the power of the Darksaber as a symbol and how her movement fell apart without it underscores the burden of the artifact Din now carries. There are also apparently plenty of other members of his sect around, and it wouldn’t be surprising if one of the characters from this episode’s opening scene later emerges as a new rival for Din. Grogu’s best moment is grabbing and hugging one of the Anzellans working on repairing IG-11, earning him the reprimand “bad baby.” Hopefully he just wanted to cuddle and didn’t plan on slurping the mechanic down like a frog. The recurring gag where Din shares Grogu’s name with former allies who basically refuse to acknowledge it feels like a nod to any fan who prefers to keep calling the critter Baby Yoda. The only way he can be cleansed of his sins is in the living waters in the mines of the devastated planet Mandalore. He and Din quickly dispatch a group of pirates serving Captain Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie of Sweet Tooth), a new character that will undoubtedly continue to cause trouble this season.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers about the third-season premiere of “The Mandalorian,” “The Apostate.” CNN —. Success has its privileges, ...

[“The Book of Boba Fett”](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/26/entertainment/the-book-of-boba-fett-episode-5-recap/index.html) (really “The Mandalorian Season 2B”), the premiere felt low-key in its narrative scale. What that left, in an episode written by executive producer Jon Favreau, were enjoyably small bits of comedic business, most of them involving Grogu, a.k.a. (Karga did explain the absence of Cara Dune after Disney opted to

The Mandalorian Chapter 17, "The Apostate," brings Din Djarin and Grogu back together for a whole new adventure!

Other than the IG-11 revelation, we already sort of knew the rest of the motivating factors behind Din and Grogu’s mission to Mandalore and the brewing conflict with Bo-Katan. The fan-favorite droid was one of the very best things about the first season, and while his death was a fitting tear-jerker, it’ll be great to see him (and Taika Waititi) re-enter the fold. The return to Nevarro and reunion with Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga (that’s High Magistrate Karga to you) serves the sneakily profound purpose of giving Din and Grogu’s journey to this point a sense of scope and just how much time has passed since season 1. The dynamic between Kryze and Din is fast becoming one of the most fascinating aspects of the story, and it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to play out as the season moves forward. It’s this attention to detail that helped the Original Trilogy capture the imaginations of so many, and it’s nice to see the old tenets of the franchise still upheld so respectfully by Rick Famuyiwa’s camera. The introduction of pirate king Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie) is a standout moment just for the expert characters design. And Pedro Pascal’s ability to tell a soulful story without the use of his face, partnered with an animatronic scene partner, speaks to how great he is as an actor and why we’re all so obsessed with him at the moment. Following the duo’s stint in the less-than-stellar [The Book of Boba Fett](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-wars-the-mandalorian-season-3-book-of-boba-fett-problem/), this re-introduction to the mainline [Star Wars](https://www.denofgeek.com/star-wars/) series is a much-needed palate cleanser. Some of the best moments of the episode are the brief respites we get of Din and Grogu simply sitting together. And then as Daddy Din and Grogu swoop in for the save, we get to feast our eyes yet again on his bitchin’, souped-up Naboo N-1 Starfighter, which has got to be one of the coolest-looking signature starships in franchise history. There are some deep-seated, philosophical quandaries at the heart of Din’s desire for atonement and redemption with his clan of religious zealots vs. [The Mandalorian](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-mandalorian/)’s season 3 premiere, “The Apostate,” is that it reminds us that this show is all about adventure.

It's a fun return for the Star Wars adventure on Disney Plus, but what have you missed between seasons?

Mando takes the remains of IG-11 to the Anzellans, jabbering animatronic mechanics in delightfully Star Wars style. - The Trandoshans also appeared in the Boba Fett series. It turns out the statue is made of the droid's actual remaining parts, allowing the Mando to resurrect the bot. Vane and his thirsty pirates insist on a drink for old times' sake, reminding Karga that he paid them for murder and mayhem back in the good old days. Luckily the Mando swoops in to save the day. This seaweed-encrusted freebooter looks inspired by the fantastical creatures of the Pirates of the Caribbean, warning Mando that he better start believing in ghost stories because he's in one. Their leader, the Armorer, builds a new helmet in a fetching shade of turquoise, carried onto a beach where a youngster feels the sun on their face for the final time. It was one of the best installments of the otherwise underwhelming series and is well worth a watch, but that doesn't change the fact that season 3 of the Mandalorian only just started and you already have homework. That episode also reveals a chunk of backstory about the Mandalorian's sect, the Children of the Watch, and why they left Mandalore -- check out our full Well, in between seasons, the stars of the Mandalorian appeared in an episode of another Disney Plus series, The Book of Boba Fett. In the [finale of season 2](/culture/the-mandalorian-season-2-finale-recap-a-star-wars-legend-tracks-down-mando-and-baby-yoda-luke-skywalker/) the Mando dropped off Grogu with everyone's favorite Jedi, Luke Skywalker. Season 3 episode 1 is a concentrated burst of entertainment showcasing all the best bits of Star Wars: laser gun shootouts, soaring space battles and tentacle-faced pirate captains.

The premiere falls victim to the Star Wars shared universe and 'Book of Boba Fett,' while still obscuring Pedro Pascal's wonderfully expressive face.

Favreau seems to be signaling that he values the cool visual of the helmet more than he does the value of letting one of [the most expressive actors](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/the-last-of-us-episode-6-recap-pedro-pascal-powerhouse-joel-ellie-threat-rutina-wesley-1234678616/) working in television today use his greatest weapon. (*) In “The Return of the Mandalorian,” the Watch was basically down to the Armorer and Paz Vizsla. Perhaps the arc of this season will be Din recognizing that some of the Watch’s rules are bad, in the same way that Ahsoka eventually recognized the dangers of the Jedi rules against emotional attachments. “The Return of the Mandalorian” and everything that’s happened since has walked all of that back. [Breaking Bad-ish scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKMdzJFcyro)) where the malfunctioning, legless IG-11 crawls around the floor with his one remaining arm to try to kill Grogu. Meanwhile, hilariously, the one Book of Boba element that does get re-explained is the part about Mando’s banishment and path to atonement, which is already in the opening montage. First he needs to get IG-11 fixed, because he needs a droid to help him go to Mandalore, and this is somehow the only one he trusts, even as we saw in both Season Two and especially in “The Return of the Mandalorian” that he has largely gotten over his fear of droids. [The Mandalorian](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/mandalorian-season-2-finale-rescue-recap-1105641/) Season Three. So he has to travel the galaxy to find a replacement memory circuit, and only then can he go back to Mandalore to see if it’s even safe to visit. And I imagine any Mandalorian-only viewers were baffled by a lot of “The Apostate.” Mando and Grogu are reunited and Mando has a sleek new ship, neither of which are explained. So we are reminded of IG-11’s sacrifice [in the Season One finale](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/mandalorian-season-finale-recap-redemption-931455/), Greef Karga discussing the gentrification of Nevarro, and the purge of Mandalore. We do not see a single frame of footage featuring Luke Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, or Grogu, even though Mandalorian Season Two ended with Mando and the little guy saying goodbye, seemingly forever, and even though

Main Players: Mando, Grogu, Greef Karga, and a nasty—but easily disposable—band of pirates. Director: Rick Famuyiwa, who has helmed some of the best episodes of ...

[Watch The Mandalorian on Disney+](https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-mandalorian/3jLIGMDYINqD) [CGI Luke Skywalker Boot Camp](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a38971109/cgi-luke-skywalker-mandalorian-book-of-boba-fett/) in The Book of Boba Fett, returning to the basics that made us love the show in the first place. [Giancarlo Esposito and his bedhead.](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35005767/giancarlo-esposito-the-mandalorian-season-2-finale-interview-moff-gideon-the-boys-better-call-saul/)) We're still warming back up to this corner of the Star Wars-verse. Give your [Grogu plushie](https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/g31137205/baby-yoda-gifts/) a high five. [The Mandalorian](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35013423/the-mandalorian-season-3/). Pop on [The Mandalorian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YDKxcdIXBs) [ theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YDKxcdIXBs) and dive in. Not really giving a damn that Bo-Katan is just stewing in the middle of nowhere on an uncomfortable-looking throne, he peaces out and the episode ends. Mando and Grogu travel to the closest thing this series has to a home base: Nevarro, which is hardly the sketchy bounty-hunter planet it used to be. Apparently, he needs to travel to Sundari, Mandalore's capital city, where the entrance to the mines is location. He stuffs Grogu in the droid hole and jets away. But in this episode, everyone insists to Mando that the world has been ravaged and poisoned, so much so that it isn't worth visiting. The only way to rejoin the Mandalorians?

Season premieres are hard. Season premieres of a hit Disney+ Star Wars series with an incredibly complicated and wide-ranging plot are even harder.

As with any other story about Mandalore, Bo-Katan is a major player, but instead of delivering the Mandalorian Civil War between her and Mando, it’s instead more of a cultural exchange, each learning more about the other’s faction. The Mandalorian has always prioritized the episode in its storytelling — each of its “Chapters” delivers a thematically unified, standalone story. It’s all a result of the disjointed storytelling we’ve seen since the end of Episode 2, both in-universe and out of it. The Book of Boba Fett established the Living Waters, but this episode had to repeat the explanation for those who didn’t see it. Every complaint about Episode 1 is completely dismissed by Episode 2, which immediately clicks back into gear with a trip to Tatooine to see Peli Motto. After watching the first two episodes of the season, we can promise it’s worth it in the end.

The episode opens with The Armorer (Emily Swallow) methodically forging a new helmet, a process that, from all appearances, seems to be unchanged since time ...

Is Bo-Katan right about the Children of the Watch contributing to the decline and fall of Mandalore? Even if “The Apostate” is mostly about what’s to come (with some summing up of what happened between seasons), it still offers plenty of reasons to keep following Din and Grogu’s journey. Din outmaneuvers his opponents using some nearby asteroids for cover only to wind up in the guns of the hulking vessel of Pirate King Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie), an intimidating (if mossy-looking) villain who really does not like Din (and likes Din even less after he escapes his clutches). “Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the Purge,” she tells Din, and the planet is “ravaged, plundered, and poisoned beyond repair.” But Din isn’t prepared to despair. The streets are filled with merchants (and a vegetable-chopping droid), musicians, and creatures of all races, including a Mon Calamari and some Kowakian cousins of Salacious Crumb. Nevarro, he wants them to know, is “no longer friendly to pirates.” When the other pirates don’t get the message, Karga and Din take them out. The Armorer takes a moment before replying, “This is the way.” And with that, the premise of The Mandalorian’s third season has been established. With the gator (and the opening titles) out of the way, Din catches up with the Armorer, who’s not mad, but she is disappointed. To Karga, it’s nonsense Din can ignore and live the good life with Grogu by his side. In the meantime, we got [The Book of Boba Fett](https://www.vulture.com/tv/the-book-of-boba-fett/), a series that was only tangentially related to The Mandalorian apart from a stretch of episodes that were absolutely crucial to the story of The Mandalorian. Could this be the end of the Children of the Watch? Helmet forged, she emerges from a cave to join the others on a lakeside beach in the middle of an otherwise desolate landscape, where she prepares, with great pomp and ceremony complete with drums and banners, to bestow the helmet on a somber-looking dark-haired kid.

A man in armor and a cape walks down a marble hallway as a small creature. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, a.k.a., Baby Yoda, have rejoined since “The ...

But to leave the planet, Din and Grogu have to evade a band of pirates. So, at the end of this chapter, this is where we leave the Mandalorian: standing before someone who has been both an ally and an enemy, and asking for help. But to help him survive the potentially hostile planet, he needs the help of the assassin droid IG-11, which sacrificed itself to save him and his cohorts back in Season 1. When those pirates show up and start making demands, Din lends his gun to a Wild West-style shootout in the streets. Our heroes’ final stop this week is on Kalevala, a planet near Mandalore, where they find a near-empty castle and an embittered acquaintance: Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), the fallen Mandalorian political leader. Favreau and the director Rick Famuyiwa begin this new season with a scene in which a Mandalorian boy receives his first helmet from the Armorer (Emily Swallow), and is asked to make his pledge never to remove it. This has been a point in this show’s favor from the beginning. Din tells the Armorer that he believes enough of Mandalore still stands for him to perform the necessary rituals and cleanse himself. If, on the other hand, you also watched the spinoff series “ [The Book of Boba Fett](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/arts/television/the-mandalorian-boba-fett-temuera-morrison.html),” you know that in its last few episodes, Din and Grogu reunited to help their pals on Tatooine take down a vicious criminal gang. That is when our heroes come speeding in from outer space in their N-1, to save the day. Given that it has been a while since the last real “Mandalorian” episode, Favreau shows an impressive amount of restraint in keeping this premiere relatively short. Most of Mandalore has been rendered uninhabitable by years of civil war and the death throes of the Empire.

The Mandalorian Season 3 has arrived! Join beskar-armored hero Din Djarin and the foundling Grogu on a new adventure, streaming only on Disney+.

You can stream both series on Disney+ — and go behind the scenes with the Disney+ docuseries, Disney Gallery.This is the Way.For more on The Mandalorian, explore StarWars.com’s previous coverage:Check out the Season 3 poster and trailerBrush up on the story so far in StarWars.com’s The Mandalorian\u0026nbsp;refresher Bake some blue milk macarons inspired by the seriesFind out which Mandalorian armor suits you with StarWars.com’s quizGo inside the innovative technology powering The Mandalorian Din Djarin is a Mandalorian no more, according to the Armorer.And with the premiere of The Mandalorian Season 3 today on Disney+, we find the once proud Mandalorian warriors scattered throughout the galaxy, a fractured people.

The Mandalorian's Season 3 premiere sets the stage for an adventurous third season of the hit Disney Plus Star Wars show.

We still don’t have a clear sense of who the Big Bad will be this season or what struggles Mando and Baby Yoda will face on Mandalore, let alone in their search for the droid’s parts. He tells her to make up her mind and that he’s going regardless and he’ll find out the truth and let her know. Her forces have melted away thanks to her lack of the Darksaber, which Mando currently possesses and which she needs to take in battle for it to not curse her. Then Mando needs to either shake off his attachment to the Armorer and her fanatical Covert or he needs to find atonement in the Living Water. And then the fight for Mandalore can begin in earnest, whatever that looks like. We actually don’t know if one of these is Frik or if they’re just other Anzellans who sound just like him (thanks to Shirley Henderson doing the voices of all of the above). For all of Bo-Katan’s talk of superstition when it comes to Mando’s faction, she and her people sure hold a lot of their own magical beliefs. Mando and Baby Yoda were visiting Nevarro and Karga with a purpose: To resurrect IG-11 (Taika Waititi) the bounty droid turned nurse droid who sacrificed himself to save the group. Once in hyperspace, while Papa Mando naps, Baby Yoda stares out the domed window of his little room and sees shadowy shapes in the beams of hyper-light. They look like space whales, and this is easily one of the best moments in the entire episode. They let Vane get away which comes back to haunt Mando and Grogu when they leave Nevarro and are ambushed (unsuccessfully) by Vane and his men. Next, we see how things have changed, especially for Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and his hometown of Nevarro, which is almost unrecognizable now in its time of prosperity, unfettered by either Imperial holdouts or New Republic bureaucracy.

Din Djarin (Pascal) and Grogu (Grogu) are reunited, but the bounty hunter known as The Mandalorian is no longer a Mandalorian, having admitted revealing his ...

As in The Last Of Us, he’s now playing a surrogate father and a questionable mentor, warmly teaching little Grogu (the cutest new Star Wars character we’ve seen since the original trilogy ended) in the ways — or rather The Way — of the Mandalorian. Plus, a new foe arrives in the mossy-faced form of space pirate Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie), who understandably takes against Mando for killing a bunch of his men. Grogu, meanwhile, continues to bring the adorable factor, giggling as starship blasters fire and spinning happily in Karga’s big office chair. Atoning for this transgression, we learn via inflexible gang leader The Armorer (Emily Swallow), is a matter of “bathing in the living waters of the mines of Mandalore”, located — in an odd little detail — beneath a civic centre. Mando’s primary concern this season is not delivering Grogu to safety (apparently that shiny vest absolves him of any claims of minor-endangerment), but getting back into his Mandalorian gang: the faceless cult which, during The Book Of Boba Fett’s best episode (you know, the one without Boba Fett in it), cast him out for daring to take off his helmet so Grogu could look him in the eyes for that ‘last’ goodbye. Back in late 2020, The Mandalorian seemed to have reached its natural conclusion after 16 fantastically taut and stylish chapters, when laconic, helmeted anti-hero Mando (Pedro Pascal) bested pencil-moustached baddie Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and delivered an emotional farewell to his teeny bat-eared ward Grogu, apparently destined to achieve Jedi mastery under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker.

Chapter 17 of The Mandalorian, "The Apostate," is full of easter eggs and references to other parts of the Star Wars galaxy! Here are the callbacks we've ...

This location was first introduced in the very first episode of The Mandalorian. [she was recruited by New Republic special forces](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-wars-the-mandalorian-gina-carano-cara-dune-canon-status/). This bit of worldbuilding was first introduced in the now non-canon Legends continuity. We’ve seen all these species on The Mandalorian and Along the way, we learn that a character from [The Mandalorian](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-mandalorian/)‘s past is making a surprise return. – This season is all about Mandalore, the home world of the Mandalorians. We’re back on the volcanic planet of Nevarro this episode. It now serves as Bo-Katan’s base of power, although without the Darksaber it’s unclear how much power she still has with the Mandalorians. Unfortunately, the only way to bring back the more nurturing version of IG will be to find a part the Anzellans need to fix him properly. Despite being reprogrammed by Kuill in season 1, a revived IG-11 reverts back to its original directive: eliminate the Child. Nevarro’s gone legit and the pirates have been cut out of the spoils. [“The Apostate,”](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-wars-the-mandalorian-season-3-episode-1-review/) we reunite with Mando and Grogu for a new adventure to Mandalore.