Characters In The Mandalorian Who Mean More Than You Realize

Some of the characters who've popped up in Disney+'s Mandalorian are simply callbacks to early Star Wars movies. Some, on the other hand, answer decades-old questions — while others just bring up more questions than the show may even have time to answer.

Pedro Pascal's Mandalorian — or "Mando" as head of the Bounty Hunters' Guild Greef Karga calls him — is a walking collection of mysteries and callbacks to older Star Wars lore. There's his rifle, which we see him using early against the beast that tries to drag his ship underwater in Chapter 1 and later to disintegrate Jawas and rival bounty hunters. It's the same weapon Boba Fett is armed with during his animated introduction in the Star Wars Holiday Special, though we never see Fett armed with it in the films.

We don't know a lot about the Mandalorian people yet, save for what we've gathered from scenes with the mysterious Armorer and other Mandalorian survivors — but the very presence of Mando — foundling or not — tempts us to hope we'll get to see more of this fictional culture, and maybe some answers to some more basic questions. For instance, will we ever see Mando without his helmet?

Plot-wise, the goggled, long-snouted character who calls the Mandalorian a ride early in Chapter 1 doesn't do all that much. He calls Mando a droid-driven speeder, Mando passes on the droid, and the alien calls him another speeder that's literally falling apart and driven by famous funny nerd Brian Posehn. But the goggled flutist has more meaning not only as far as Star Wars lore is concerned, but the ancient narrative roots The Mandalorian is tapping into.

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The strong, silent type | 0:14
Why the long face? | 1:09
Customer's always right | 2:34
Head in the clouds | 3:28
Not easy being green | 4:18
Talk soup | 5:24