Editor's note: The below piece contains spoilers for the season finale of The Book of Boba Fett.
While The Book of Boba Fett focuses on Temuera Morrison’s titular bounty hunter, the series also revealed where Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) went after The Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale. To make things even better, Din Djarin is much more than a cameo in The Book of Boba Fett, as the series does a great job teasing what we can expect from Season 3 of The Mandalorian. But how does The Book of Boba Fett change Din Djarin’s story? And what challenges will the Mandalorian face in future Star Wars productions?
Now that The Book of Boba Fett has reached its finale, it’s time to break down Din Djarin’s journey and consider where the proud warrior might go next.
The Child Returns
In the first season of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin meets the Child, a young being with a deep connection to the Force. Unaware of where the Child came from, Din spends the whole season bonding with the youngling and learning more about his tribe. Season 2 of The Mandalorian follows Din while he tries to find Jedi who could train the Child and keep him safe from the remaining Imperial troops that want to harness his powers. The second season of The Mandalorian ends up with Din and the Child parting ways, as Luke Skywalker takes the youngling under his care. It’s a tear-jerking ending, as Din finally completes his mission, but loses his adoptive son at the same time.
The Book of Boba Fett shows how the Child, Grogu, has been training to master the Force. Luke is pushing Grogu to get in touch with his dormant powers, which leads us to learn that the child is a Padawan who survived the massacre of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant, when Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) led stormtroopers to slay all the would-be Jedi – time to rewatch Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Luke Skywalker also feels that Grogu is torn about becoming a Jedi or returning to Din Djarin to be raised as a Mandalorian foundling. The Jedi faith essentially insists that all members of the Order let go of emotional attachments, and it’s evident that Grogu created a loving bond with Din. Luke gives Grogu a choice between Beskar armor that had been gifted by Din and Yoda’s old lightsaber, letting the child know that his answer would define the rest of his life.
Grogu chooses the Mandalorian’s armor and reunites with Din at The Book of Boba Fett's finale. The two fly away from Tatooine together, so it’s fair to assume Season 3 of The Mandalorian will explore the duo dynamics. Will Din train Grogu to become a Mandalorian? Will Grogu keep his connection to the Force? Will people dare to cover Grogu’s cute face with a Mandalorian helmet? All these questions are left to answer in Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
The Faith of the Mandalorian
When Din is reintroduced in The Book of Boba Fett, the Mandalorian is searching for the survivors of his tribe, which got decimated by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and the Imperial troops. Din finally reunites with the Armorer (Emily Swallow) and Paz Vizla (Tait Fletcher with the voice of Jon Favreau) and learns the three of them are all that’s left from the tribe who followed Mandalore’s faith to the letter. The Armorer is focused on rebuilding the Mandalorian faith and bringing new younglings to the folder. However, when she learns that Din has removed his helmet at the end of The Mandalorian’s Season 2, she expels the Mandalorian.
Din is no longer a true Mandalorian in the eyes of the Armorer and Paz Vizla. What’s worse is that the only way Din has to redeem himself is to bathe in the underground waters of Mandalore. That’ll be hard to achieve since the planet was laid to waste by the Empire, and the mines of Mandalore were apparently destroyed in the process. Even though he is no longer a true Mandalore, The Book of Boba Fett underlines how Din is still attached to his faith. So, Season 3 of The Mandalorian should follow Din as he tries to go back to Mandalore and reconnects with the Creed.
The Darksaber
When Din defeats Moff Gideon at the end of The Mandalorian Season 2, he becomes the true heir of the Darksaber, a sacred weapon that only the ruler of Mandalore should wield. Unfortunately, the Darksaber can only be taken by combat, and other people would like to challenge Din for the weapon. The Book of Boba Fett features a duel between Din and Paz Vizsla, a direct descendent of the Darksaber’s creator who thinks he has the right to claim the weapon. While Din wins the contest against Paz Vizsla, the episode reveals that Din will have a hard time holding onto the Darksaber and that he’ll have to fight to keep it.
Season 2 of The Mandalorian also introduced the live-action version of Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff), the leader of the Nite Owls, a Mandalorian faction fighting for control of the Darksaber and the right to rule Mandalore. Since Bo-Katan is not the one to take down Moff Gideon, she ultimately fails to recover the Darksaber. Din won the right to carry the Darksaber, and while Bo-Katan doesn’t consider him an enemy, she might still be willing to fight him for the throne.
During the events of The Book of Boba Fett, Din also starts his training to master the Darksaber, a dangerous weapon that demands its wielder to be at the peak of their physical and mental capacities. The Book of Boba Fett also shows that Din is not yet a master of the Darksaber and will have to go a long way before using it without putting himself in danger. Season 3 of The Mandalorian will likely keep exploring the Darksaber mythology, leading Din to either accept his place as the true ruler of Mandalore or pass the black lightsaber to the hands of someone more willing to take the throne. Be it as it may, The Book of Boba Fett showed that Din’s journey is far from ending and that many plot threads still need to be explored.