The Mandalorian season 3: release date, trailer, cast, plot and more

The Mandalorian season 3 is less than two months away – so it’s about time that you caught up on everything worth knowing about it.

Below, we’ve rounded up all the key information you need ahead of one of the best Disney Plus shows‘ return. That includes its release date, full cast list, story details (including potential spoilers, we might add!), its official trailers, how The Mandalorian’s third season could impact the wider Star Wars franchise, and more.

It goes without saying, but full spoilers follow for The Mandalorian seasons 1 and 2, plus spin-off show The Book of Boba Fett. If you’re not caught up on both shows on Disney Plus, you may need to skip parts of our cast and story sections.

The Mandalorian season 3 release date

The Mandalorian season 3 will be released on March 1, 2023. Its confirmed launch date meant The Mandalorian season 3 would be delayed slightly, with the series initially set to air in February.

It’s unclear if it’ll premiere with a single episode or if it’ll follow other Star Wars shows, such as Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and receive a multi-episode launch. We’ll update this section once we know more.

The Mandalorian season 3 trailer

The Mandalorian season 3 official trailer was released online on January 16. The keen-eyed among you’ll have noticed lots of references, Easter eggs, and potential story details in it, too. If you need some assistance on that front, though, you’ll want to read our Mandalorian season 3 trailer breakdown article.

Even with our expert insight, there’s plenty of the show’s next instalment that’s shrouded in mystery. Here’s hoping it lives up to the success of its two predecessors and delivers another entertaining chapter in Din Djarin and Grogu’s adventures.

Missed the first teaser for The Mandalorian’s third outing? Check it out below:

The Mandalorian season 3 cast

Here’s the confirmed cast list for The Mandalorian season 3 so far:

• Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin/the Mandalorian
• Grogu as himself
• Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon
• Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze
• Carl Weathers as Greef Karga
• Emily Swallow as the Armorer
• Omid Abtahi as Doctor Pershing
• Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Carson Teva
• Christopher Lloyd as TBC
• Tim Meadows as TBC

Pascal, Esposito, Sackhoff, Swallow, Abtahi, and Weathers all reprise their roles from previous seasons of The Mandalorian. 

Meanwhile, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is back as New Republic pilot Carson Teva, which was confirmed in season 3’s official trailer. However, Sackhoff won’t be joined by her Mandalorian colleague Koska Reeves, with Mercedes Varnado (better known as WWE star Sasha Banks) telling The Bleacher Report: “I’m not on next season.”

Having appeared in the Back to the Future and Star Trek franchises, Christopher Lloyd will make his Star Wars debut in a yet-to-be-confirmed role (per The Hollywood Reporter), while Saturday Night Live veteran Tim Meadows is also reported playing a part.

The one key player definitely not returning is Gina Carano, who portrayed former Rebel Shock Trooper Cara Dune in seasons 1 and 2. After an offensive social media post, Carano was removed from all future Lucasfilm projects back in early 2021. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” the company said in a statement. Carano has since fired back over her dismissal, with the actor claiming she’d been “bullied” by Disney and Lucasfilm – accusations that both companies have strenuously denied (via the BBC).

As for those behind the camera, Lucasfilm and Disney have confirmed its directorial line-up for The Mandalorian season 3. Rick Famuyiwa, Rachel Morrison, Lee Isaac Chung, Carl Weathers, Peter Ramsey, and Bryce Dallas Howard will all helm different entries in Mando and Grogu’s next outing.

The Mandalorian season 3 story

Spoilers follow for The Mandalorian season 2 and The Book of Boba Fett.

Here’s a brief story synopsis, courtesy of Lucasfilm: “The journeys of the Mandalorian through the Star Wars galaxy continue. Once a lone bounty hunter, Din Djarin has reunited with Grogu. Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. The Mandalorian will cross paths with old allies and make new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together.”

Not a lot to go on, but there’s plenty we can speculate on, based on the trailers and The Mandalorian season 2 finale. 

First, we were all desperate to find out if Din Djarin and Grogu ever reunited. That’s after Baby Yoda went to train as a Jedi with the one-and-only Luke Skywalker.

The second question was answered sooner than we thought, with The Book of Boba Fett’s fifth and sixth episodes –The Return of the Mandalorian and From The Desert Comes A Stranger – proving to be The Mandalorian season 2.5 in all but name. 

Across these episodes, Mando paid Grogu (or, rather, Luke) a visit, bearing a beskar chainmail shirt he’d asked the Armorer to make for Baby Yoda as a gift. Aware that Grogu might turn his back on his training if he saw Din again, Luke declined to let his padawan see his adoptive dad. Instead, he told Mando that he’d pass the present on.

Despite Luke’s best efforts, Grogu decided not to continue training in the ways of the Force. When Luke presented him with a choice between Mando’s gift or Yoda’s old lightsaber – a cruel decision to ask an infant to make – Grogu opted for the former. Realizing that Grogu longed to be reunited with Din, Luke sent Grogu back to Tatooine in his famous Red 5 X-wing, where they enjoyed a heart warming reunion in The Book of Boba Fett’s finale. The pair were last seen blasting off from Tatooine in the custom Naboo starfighter Mando had renovated with Peli Motto, a replacement for the Razor Crest that was destroyed by Moff Gideon’s Imperial remnant in season 2’s The Tragedy. 

Now Grogu’s back with his surrogate dad – and with some time at Jedi schooling behind him – The Mandalorian season 3 will see the kid flex even more Force-based powers than before. “This child has magic powers, [is] 50 years old, and can see the future,” Giancarlo Esposito told a young fan at GalaxyCon (via SlashFilm). “And we want everyone to know, eventually on this show, that [Grogu] could save our universe.”

So, in addition to levitating, choking, and looking implausibly cute, Baby Yoda can apparently see the future – which is an ability we’ve come across before in the troubled visions of Anakin and Luke Skywalker. Per season 3’s official trailer, Grogu will also be able to use his powers to see into his past. Based on that teaser, we’re sure to see flashbacks of Grogu’s time at the Jedi temple and potentially see how he survived Order 66, aka the Empire’s genocidal attack on the Jedi.

His clairvoyant abilities possibly explain why Imperial officers have been so keen to get his hands on the implausibly cute green kid, though Esposito did add that Gideon’s pursuit of Grogu is “for a very different reason than many people think”. 

Could that have something to do with a cloning subplot? The Mandalorian season 2 teased the Empire’s remnant forces (read: Doctor Pershing) were trying to use Grogu’s blood to create new Force wielders (they failed, FYI). It seems the show was pointing at the cloned origins of Supreme Leader Snoke, aka the sequel trilogy’s puppet villain, and the eventual return of Emperor Palpatine, which would make us sigh in The Rise of Skywalker.

And what of Gideon himself, who was incarcerated at the end of season 2? Esposito told TVLine: “You’re going to get some Moff Gideon. I mean, I always want more Moff Gideon – I’ve got to be honest with you! But, you know, you’re going to get a good amount. You always want to see the phoenix rise from the ashes. Or, you want to see a nefarious villain rise from the ashes. And believe me, he will.”

Moff Gideon’s ship is just one small part of the Imperial remnant forces out there waiting to be dealt with by the New Republic. For instance, we know Imperial leader Grand Admiral Thrawn is alive and being hunted by Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice. We expect Ahsoka’s pursuit of Thrawn to form the basis of her live-action show, but it’s possible we’ll see it picked up in The Mandalorian season 3 as well.

Then there’s the aforementioned story of the Mandalorians and the Darksaber, which was also significantly advanced by events in The Book of Boba Fett.

At the end of season 2, Mando won the Darksaber weapon – the Mandalorian blade highly coveted by Bo-Katan Kryze in her journey to reclaim the throne of Mandalore – from Moff Gideon . However, he couldn’t simply hand it over to Bo-Katan, causing tensions to mount as it became clear the pair would have to duel in order for Bo-Katan to reclaim the weapon.

Things got more complicated in The Book of Boba Fett when Mando tracked down his old cohorts from the Children of the Watch, a Mandalorian tribe, on the spectacular Glavis Ringworld. Although the Armorer agreed to fashion Grogu’s new beskar undershirt, Mando faced a challenge from Paz Vizsla (another Children of the Watch member) for the Darksaber. Mando won the fight, but he’s still got a lot to learn about wielding it.

Unfortunately, he’ll have to do it without guidance from the Armorer who – as well as providing some helpful exposition about the Great Purge, in which the Empire laid waste to Mandalore – also cast him out of the order. Mando’s crime? Removing his helmet in front of Grogu. According to Mandalorian creed, the only way Din can redeem himself is by visiting the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore, which may prove problematic seeing as – as Mando points out – the mines have been destroyed. Based on the official trailer, we know he’s heading back to Mandalore, so maybe he realizes there’s another way he can be forgiven for his transgressions.

Mando also has unfinished business with Kryze who, as we’ve seen before, has no issue with removing helmets. She also claims the Children of the Watch “fractured our people” in the first season 3 teaser, before pointedly asking, “Where were you then?”. In other words, it seems the future of Mandalore’s people is going to be a major plot point.

Could we see a Mandalorian civil war erupt? Based on the various Mandalorian factions that are scattered across the cosmos, maybe. It seems Din is trying to recruit some groups to his side and rally them into returning to their home world. It’s unclear, though, if a battle between Din’s forces and Bo-Katan’s Night Owls will occur.

“As you witnessed in the trailer there are a lot more Mandalorians in the season and with that many Mandalorians in one room, things are bound to go wrong,” Bo-Katan actor Katee Sakhhoff teased to Yahoo Entertainment: “I think this season is different, I think that it is The Mandalorian, it’s everything that people have come to love and know about the show, but I do believe that this season is a little faster paced and I do believe that tonally it’s like a moving train – you’ve just gotta get on.”

The Mandalorian season 3 spin-offs explained

There were two spin-offs in development, but The Book of Boba Fett has come and gone. Meanwhile, Ahsoka’s spin-off is currently in post-production ahead of a 2023 release, with Clone Wars/Rebels veteran (and Star Wars lore expert) Dave Filoni at the helm.

Both shows run concurrent to The Mandalorian, i.e. around five years after Return of the Jedi. Per Variety, the new Jude Law-starring Skeleton Crew is also set in the New Republic era, so there may be some overlap there, too.

Most intriguingly, there’s a plan for this sub-universe of shows to converge into a larger story. It sounds a little like what Netflix did in uniting its various Marvel superhero TV shows in The Defenders, but we’d expect Disney and Lucasfilm’s plans to be better received than that crossover was.

“These interconnected shows, along with future stories, will excite new audiences embrace our most passionate fans, and culminate in a climactic story event,” explained Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy during Disney’s Investor Day stream in late 2020. 

Some cast members have an idea of where the show is heading. In a 2022 IndieWire interview, Pascal teased that he’s aware of “what the plan is” for The Mandalorian season 3 and beyond. However, he couldn’t elaborate on it due to spoilers and NDA agreements in his contract.

It sounds to us, then, that we’re going to see either a miniseries or movie-length episode that brings these stories together – though we wouldn’t expect to see that for a few years. Either way, color us excited for what’s to come in The Mandalorian season 3 and beyond.

For more Star Wars content, find out how to watch the Star Wars movies in order. Alternatively, read our new Star Wars TV shows and movies explained guide for more on what’s to come in that galaxy far, far away.