How Disney’s ‘Mandalorian’ Season 2 Is Appealing To Multiple ‘Star Wars’ Fandoms

The second season of The Mandalorian will try to stand out via multi-generational Star Wars fan service and added value elements in the form of Boba Fett and Ahsoka Tano.

That the second season of Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian, the Star Wars TV show streaming on Disney
DIS
+, will feature an apparently “not dead” Boba Fett isn’t necessarily a surprise. There were moments in the show’s first season that hinted at a resurrection for the fan-favorite bounty hunter, last seen plunging into a sarlacc pit in the opening act of Return of the Jedi, might pop up in this post-original trilogy episodic. But Hollywood Reporter is alleging that he will indeed return, played by Temuera Morrison. It’s a key piece of casting for what could be, for better or worse, a very fan-friendly second season.

Morrison portrayed Jango Fett, Bobba’s father (in terms of Bobba being a clone of his dad), in Attack of the Clones. He re-dubbed Jason Wingreen’s dialogue in 2004 DVD releases of Star Wars (where Boba showed up in an added “Special Edition” sequence), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It will allegedly be a small role and another way, along with episodes directed by (among others) Peyton Reed, Robert Rodriguez and Carl Weathers) a way in which the second season of The Mandalorian will be attempt to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle popularity of the Jon Favreau/Dave Feloni show’s first season.

Sure, the first season was unique in terms of being a weekly Star Wars TV show that told a mostly stand-alone story and, at least in the middle episodes, felt like an old-school “melodrama of the week” TV show akin to The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk. Baby Yoda was a viral sensation, while the show’s simple, straightforward narrative (”What crazy adventure will The Mandalorian get into this week?”) worked as an alternative to the “mystery box” dynamics of The Rise of Skywalker. So, what do you do for an encore? Well, in this case, added value elements and multi-generational fan service.

Neither things are intended to be criticisms. Fan service is can be applied in a way that feels consistent with the story (the “Proof that Tony has a heart” funeral memento in Avengers: Endgame) or obtrusive and needlessly jolting (the reveal in The Dark Knight Rises that John Blake’s real name is Robin). As a general rule, fan service that means more to the fans then to the characters within a scene is what gets you in trouble. Even then it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. I still find the last five minutes of The Dark Knight Rises quite moving.

Bringing back Boba Fett and, as previously reported, casting Rosario Dawson as the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano, is arguably “fan service.” They are both “added value elements,” which is usually when a popular character, a popular actor or, best of all, a popular actor as a popular character, shows up in the sequel to A) get fans excited about the next go-around and B) assure folks that the next installment won’t just be a retread. Think the Chipettes in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Health Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight or Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a good guy cyborg in Terminator 2.

Will the second season of The Mandalorian feature Pedro Pascal’s masked warrior and Baby Yoda interacting with a bunch of previously established Star Wars characters? Maybe, maybe not, but Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: Rebels has a strong track record of bringing in established “original trilogy” characters without detracting from the narrative or the character-specific journeys of its pre-A New Hope Rebel heroes. And yeah, as much as I roll my eyes at the idea of Darth Maul somehow surviving being sliced in half and tossed down a bottomless pit, the stories concerning Maul within The Clone Wars and Rebels were compelling in their own right.

The two big “added value elements” thus far arguably appeal to different generations of Star Wars fans. Most of the folks who still cling to the idea of Boba Fett being more than a glorified cameo player with a cool outfit are older Star Wars fans who grew up on A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Conversely, those who adore Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein in Clone Wars and Rebels) are comparatively younger fans who grew up on the Prequel Trilogy and/or the Clone Wars TV show when it aired its first five seasons on Cartoon Network from 2008 to 2013.

That’s obviously not to be exclusionary in terms of presumably overlapping fandoms, and that’s not to say that every Boba Fett fan is the sort that got cranky when Ahsoka kicked Darth Maul’s butt in a light saber duel during the third-to-last episode of Clone Wars (or when Gina Carino started kicking butt in The Mandalorian). However, the second season of The Mandalorian will appeal to fans that want a live-action Star Wars TV show, those who like Baby Yoda and the title character, those who like Boba Fett and those who like Ahsoka Tano. Disney is trying to ensure that The Mandalorian is no one-season wonder.

As coronavirus-related lockdowns put the brakes on Disney’s theme parks, cruise ships, theatrical blockbusters and ESPN sports coverage, Disney+ is the one piece of good news, with 54.5 million subscribers and an upswing in new households due to social distancing. The Mandalorian is the one unmitigated breakout original series amid its various newbies in Disney+’s first year of existence. With the MCU shows delayed due to the pandemic, Din Djarin is going to be comparatively carrying Disney+, in terms of original content, for awhile. But with special guest stars representing multiple generations of Star Wars fandom, The Mandalorian season 2 may be the hero Disney needs right now.