The Mandalorian: Has the hit Disney+ series lost its mojo – and its crown as the best Star Wars show?

REVIEW: A lot has happened in the more than two years since The Mandalorian’s last official chapter.

While its replacement The Book of Boba Fett ultimately disappointed, 2022’s Andor seemed to steal Star Wars’ first live-action, small-screen spin-off’s (apart from the best-forgotten Holiday Special of course) unofficial title as the best series the franchise has ever come up with.

And on the evidence of this week’s first episode of season three, the Jon Favreau-created space western might have to work a little harder to win that crown back.

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First off, a warning – if you didn’t make it all the way through Temuera Morrison’s Boba’s bacta-tank flashbacks and battles with spice-running syndicates, then you might find yourself a little confused in the opening moments. The second-half of Fett turned into a semi-Mando series, as the beskar-clad gunslinger turned up to help Boba, having dropped off a gift to his former travelling companion Grogu (the character formerly known as Baby Yoda) who was now undergoing Jedi-training with none other than Luke Skywalker.

Perhaps sensing his young charge was a little distracted, Luke gave him everyone’s favourite little green guy a choice, accept Mandalorian Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) chain-mail and abandon his studies, or stay and take ownership of Yoda’s lightsaber. Grogu picked the bling clothing.

So now, we join our reunited duo, as Djarin begins his quest for redemption. But if he hoped a last-minute intervention to prevent a ceremonial catastrophe at the hands of a giant waterborne reptile would earn him a few brownie points with the Mandalorian Armourer (Emily Swallow) – he’s horribly mistaken.

“You removed your helmet and – what’s worse – you did so of your own free will, you are no longer a Mandalorian,” she chides, adding the coup de grâce that the path back from exile is now not possible because the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore were destroyed in “the purge”.

“What if the mines still exist?” Djarin queries, producing a relic he obtained from the Jawas that suggests the planet of Mandalore might not be as poisonous as most believe.

After promising to make a visit and provide proof of him bathing in the waters, Djarin and Grogu then head to Nevarro to visit an old friend – the now High Magistrate Greef Karga (Carl Weathers).

As well as telling them the fate of both Marshall Cara Dune and the nefarious Moff Gideon, Karga invites Djarin to become the former’s replacement and become part of the landed gentry on the now booming independent trade planet. Djarin though, is not for turning and only needs one thing from Nevarro for his potentially extremely dangerous mission – to resurrect the only droid he trusts.

Yes, from a creature feature-inspired starting set-piece to a shoot-out with pirates, not much about season three’s opening gambit feels particularly fresh. We get to see what appear to be relatives of franchise fan favourites Salacious B. Crumb and Babu Frik, but suddenly the Star Wars empire feels very small again – at least in its storytelling variety.

Even new potential big bad – Pirate King Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie) – feels like he’s escaped from another Disney franchise (you know the one with the character who channels Rolling Stone Keith Richards) and might even be a relative of Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones.

That said though, with an economy of scripting, Favreau has at least set the wheels in motion for the seven episodes to come. Let’s just hope the road to Mandalore is a little more exciting and unexpected than its beginning.

The first episode of Season 3 of The Mandalorian is now available to stream on Disney+.