‘The Mandalorian’ Could Season 2 Be A Backdoor Pilot For This Spinoff?

Over the weekend, news broke that Temuera Morrison would be taking on the mantle of Boba Fett in an appearance in season 2 of Disney+’s The Mandalorian. While we would have preferred that the bounty hunter had stayed dead in the belly of the Sarlaac pit, we are at least happy to see that they cast the man who played his dad, Jango Fett, in the prequel series. Meanwhile, it turns out that the news about Boba isn’t even the biggest Mando news of the weekend!

It was previously reported that Ahsoka Tano (to be played by Rosario Dawson) would be popping in on The Mandalorian in season 2 of the show, but now there are several rumors that the former padawan of Anakin Skywalker will not be showing up alone. Depending on the source, it now looks like she’ll be joined by either Sabine Wren, or possibly both Sabine and Rex.

If true, this creates several interesting questions. Who will play Sabine? There is no real news on this, but with the news that professional wrestler Sasha Banks is set to appear on the series, many people are taking the fact that she has purple hair to mean that she’ll be playing the former crew member of the Ghost. While the series has already gone the route of former fighters to great effect, at least Gina Carano/ Cara Dune appeared in several movies (Deadpool, Fast & Furious 6, Haywire) beforehand. If Banks is Sabine, she’ll be coming in off of a career that has entirely be made up of WWE appearances and reality show spots. We can’t imagine that Disney would risk a character with such an established fan base on someone without the chops to carry the role.

As to who could play Rex, well, there’s really only one choice and he’ll already be on set. Temuera Morrison’s Jango Fett was the basis for all of the Camino clones. So, Boba and Rex have the same DNA. Sure, when we last saw Rex he was old, balding, and a little bit of a chonk, but that’s nothing that can’t be taken care of in the makeup department.

The big question is, what does the potential appearance of these three characters mean? Well, when we last saw Ahsoka and Sabine, they were taking off for the outer reaches of space to look for Ezra Bridger and possibly Thrawn at the end of Rebels. The Mandalorian takes place just five years after the pair set off on their journey. It’s completely possible that Rex came along for one last adventure as it’s been rumored that he did survive the battle of Endor. So, are we looking at their appearance as a backdoor pilot to the recently announced “female-led” Star Wars series set to be run by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland?

We can’t imagine that Disney would want to overload the character base on The Mandalorian. The show thrives on the small stories it gave us in season 1. Bulking up the cast with Star Wars legends would be a waste of the vibe that made season 1 a hit. But, having them pop into the most popular Star wars property in years as a way to introduce their live-action counterparts for the first time could be a great way to build hype for a new series and to get the uninitiated interested in going back to watch Rebels and even Clone Wars ahead of a new live-action premier.