By George Bate & Josh Bate
The Mandalorian returned with an action packed premiere full of interesting easter eggs and references. Here’s everything The HoloFiles noticed in Chapter 17: The Apostate.
The Mandalorian foundling who receives his helmet at the start of the episode is played by Wesley Kimmel, who previously played the Tusken kid part of Boba Fett’s found family in The Book of Boba Fett. Kimmel is also the nephew of TV host Jimmy Kimmel.
Helmets for Mandalorian children look slightly different, with wider horizontal and vertical strips. In a neat easter egg, some of the new Mandalorian helmets sold in stores for kids to wear are fashioned after the type of Mandalorian helmets actual Mandalorian children would wear.
After defeating the dinosaur turtle (that’s what we’re calling the massive monster at the beginning of the episode), Din Djarin and The Armorer discuss the Empire’s destruction of Mandalore. In this discussion, they speak about the Empire’s tactic to destroy the planet through glassing, a process by which blaster fire from TIE Fighters crystallized the planet’s surface. This concept of “glassing” comes from the now non-canon Legends / Extended Universe continuity.
As Grogu and his dad travel to Nevarro through hyperspace, giant space whales known as purrgils can be seen also traveling through hyperspace. Purrgils were mentioned by Bail Organa recently in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and previously appeared in Star Wars Rebels. In this series, the purrgils played a key role in sending the flagship with Thrawn and Ezra Bridger into the unknowns of space.
Greef Karga addresses the fate of Cara Dune in the episode, explaining that she was recruited by New Republic special forces after turning in Moff Gideon. New Republic special forces have appeared in various canon projects, including the novels Alphabet Squadron and Aftermath.
Kowakian monkey lizards, the same species as Salacious B. Crumb from Return of the Jedi, appear in a tree on Nevarro. This is in stark contrast to the Nevarro seen in the series pilot as Kowakian monkey lizards were being grilled by food vendors.
Greef Karga makes mention of Nevarro being in the Hydian Way, which is a hyperspace route first introduced in Legends / Expanded Universe continuity.
The pirate characters causing some trouble on Nevarro wear jackets that are similar to another notorious pirate – Hondo Ohnaka. A coincidence or could Hondo be heading to the Mandoverse soon?
The droids Din Djarin visits to repair IG-11 are Anzellans, the same species as Babu Frik from The Rise of Skywalker.
The coolest new character to debut in The Mandalorian is the pirate king Gorian Shard. Shard is of species not previously seen, but definitely has elements that harken back to the Drengir from the High Republic era. Shard is played by Nonso Anozie, an English actor who previously played roles in Game of Thrones, Zoo, RocknRolla, and Cinderella.
Kalevala, the planet in the Mandalore system where Bo-Katan is staying, previously appeared in The Clone Wars.
Bo-Katan states that the mines of Mandalore are underneath the city of Sundari, which was also seen in The Clone Wars.
New episodes of The Mandalorian debut Wednesdays on Disney+.
Check out our review of Chapter 17: The Apostate below.