Star Wars Celebration: 6 highlights from The Mandalorian panel

The Mandalorian expands its reach across the galaxy.

On Saturday, Mandalorian Executive Producers Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau took the stage at the Star Wars Celebration for Mando+, a panel on the future of Disney+’s hit series Star Wars and its spinoff, The Book. by Boba Fett” and the upcoming “Ahsoka”.

They were joined on stage at the Anaheim Convention Center by a veritable plethora of guest stars, including the “Mandalorian” himself, Pedro Pascal, his doubles Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder, longtime series director Rick Famuyiwa, and returning cast members Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Emily Swallow and Katee Sackhoff. Also in attendance were The Book of Boba Fett lead actress Temuera Morrison and the stars of the upcoming Ahsoka, Rosario Dawson and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. The star-studded cast chatted about joining the world of Star Wars and, while keeping a low profile on plot details, teased events to come in the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian.

Here are all the highlights from the Mando+ panel:

New footage teases a fight between Mando and the Mandalorians

During the panel, fans were treated to a first look teaser from the upcoming third season. Although Filoni and Favreau said the footage would be the same as Thursday’s Lucasfilm presentation, the new footage was actually much longer. While it started out the same way, confirming Weathers’ reappearance as Greef Karga on the series, the extended footage shows a character telling Grogu ominously, “You don’t think your father’s the only Mandalorian, do you?”

The trailer then shows Din Djarin, or “Mando” (Pascal), fighting other armored Mandalorian warriors. The teaser ends with Mando and Grogu flying to the planet Mandalore, where Mando intends to regain his honor by visiting the “living waters” beneath the mines on the planet.

Bo-Katan Kryze will have a starring role in Season 3

Season 3 teaser footage revealed an important role for Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kyrze. Originally created for Filoni’s The Clone Wars series, Katan is a Mandalorian warrior searching for the Darksaber, a weapon currently held by Mando, which would make her the rightful heir to the dominion of Mandalore. After first appearing in Season 2 of the show, “The Mandalorian” sees Sackhoff as the main antagonistic force in Season 3, with Mando and Grogu hunting for the darksaber. While she didn’t reveal any new plot details, Sackhoff spoke about how much the character of Bo-Katan meant to her and how important she will be for The Mandalorian in the future.

“My dad raised me on science fiction, he raised me on strong characters, and when I was little we didn’t have a lot of strong female characters to talk about,” Sackhoff said. “Having the opportunity to play the women I’ve had the privilege of playing throughout my career has been a gift, and strong women keep presenting themselves to me… and the fact that they’ve trusted me [Bo-Katan] I pinch myself to live action.”

Rick Famuyiwa is promoted to executive producer

Although the Mando crew were keenly aware of what’s to come once the series premieres in its third season, Favreau dropped some behind-the-scenes news: Famuyiwa, who has directed three episodes of the series in the past, was promoted to executive producer. When asked how that feels, Famuyiwa joked that he’s only just getting the news, but genuinely expressed his excitement at leading the creative world of The Mandalorian.

“It has always been a dream of mine to tell stories in this world, this universe, this galaxy,” Famuyiwa told the crowd.

When asked if he had anything to say about Season 3, Famuyiwa fell silent and responded with a blunt “no”.

“That’s why you’re producer Rick,” Favreau joked.

The Star Wars animation-to-live-action pipeline

Originally an animated character played by Ashley Eckstein, Ahsoka Tano has become one of the breakout stars of the Star Wars universe, with Rosario Dawson portraying the character in her live-action debut in Season 2 of The Mandalorian , presented by Dawson. And she’s not the only Star Wars animated character making the move to live-action.

During the panel, fans got a very early taste of Ahsoka, which is currently in filming and set for release on Disney+ next year. Though brief, the teaser confirmed that Bordizzo would star in the series as Sabine, who originally starred opposite Ahsoka in the Star Wars Rebels animated series. The trailer also featured Rebels droid Chopper and ended with a picture of Ahsoka taking a look at the art of the main cast from the animated series – and teasing that fan-favorite characters like Ezra, Hera and Kanan were in the live-action show could occur.

The panel also featured a surprise guest appearance from Chopper, with Dawson taking out the friendly droid to meet the audience. Following the sneak peak footage, Bordizzo joined the panel to discuss bringing popular Mandalorian warrior Sabine to life.

“I know how much Sabine means to a lot of people, and since I’ve seen ‘Rebels,’ she means a hell of a lot to me, too,” Bordizzo said. “So I think you’re going to be really looking forward to the journey that’s ahead of you.”

The Book of Boba Fett appears to be closed

Morrison was one of the most excited members of the panel as he made his grand entrance on stage wearing a traditional Māori haka and received a standing ovation from the audience. But while fans were treated to footage from Mandalorian and Ahsoka, there were no teases or mentions of a possible second season of The Book of Boba Fett.

While Morrison — who also portrayed Fett’s father Jango in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, a film celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special panel on Friday — has the potential to pop up in many different time periods and corners for the star Wars Galaxy, there was no confirmation that the character would appear in Season 3 of The Mandalorian or Ahsoka, nor any teasing for future projects. Instead, Morrison spent his time on stage thanking fans for the support they were showing “Boba Fett” and informing them that Ming-Na Wen – who co-directed the series as master assassin and mercenary Fennec Shand – was her love sends The actor shared this via Twitter Earlier on Saturday that she tested positive for COVID and was unable to attend the celebration.

After the panel, however, Morrison spoke up diversity Senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin on the red carpet and admitted he doesn’t know what’s next for the bounty hunter.

“There is no official word yet. They filmed it like it could just be a nice book and we read the book,” Morrison explained. “Otherwise we could write another book. And I keep missing the guy who has the pen… I was close down there but he keeps disappearing on me so I’m going to ask them what’s on their mind because it’s out of my control.”

There is no “Mandalorian” without Grogu

Of course, no conversation about The Mandalorian would be complete without a special appearance from the little green dude himself. Grogu was the final surprise guest during the hour-and-a-half panel, joining the group for a Mando family portrait as the talk, hosted by ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan, drew to a close.

Season 3 of The Mandalorian begins in February 2023, with Ahsoka following later next year.

One big happy Mando family!

The cast and creators of @themandalorian, #BobaFett’s bookand #Ahsoka performed here on stage today #StarWarsCelebration! pic.twitter.com/5u6WZCBMrh

– Star Wars (@starwars) May 28, 2022