The Mandalorian episode five ‘The Gunslinger’ featured a bunch of references to the Star Wars prequel films that you might’ve missed when you first watched it.
The series has obviously been loaded with connections to various Star Wars movies and cartoons, but the latest episode has very strong references to all three of the prequel movies – particularly because it was based in Tatooine.
Speaking of The Mandalorian, if you’re looking for more Baby Yoda in your life, listen below:
We first saw Tatooine in A New Hope, but it’s where a lot of the action in The Phantom Menace took place as it was the home of Anakin Skywalker.
Fans would also recognise things like the Tusken Raiders and the Mos Eisley cantina where Luke and Obi-Wan first meet Han Solo and Chewbacca in the original trilogy.
When Mando first arrives in Tatooine, small repair droids approach his ship – fans may recognise these as DUM-series pit droids that were used for podracing.
Mando meets a young inexperienced bounty hunter named Toro Calican at the cantina who asks him for help in hunting dangerous criminal Fennec Shand.
When we first see Calican he is seen lounging in the cantina, looking casual and cocky – and very much Han Solo-esque. Though we soon see he’s much more easily flustered than Han.
The pair use speeder bikes to chase Shand across the desert – speeder bikes have of course been used in multiple Star Wars movies but this model is similar to the one Anakin used in Attack of the Clones.
When Mando and Toro try to figure out how to get closer to Shand, Mando says, “She’s got the high ground,” a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s famous line to Anakin before Anakin’s defeat.
Later in the episode, Shand tries to convince Calican that bringing in Mando would give him greater glory and she says that she still has time to make her rendezvous in Mos Espa, a port city on Tatooine. Mos Espa is where Anakin and his mother lived in Phantom Menace.
With only three more episodes left in the first season of The Mandalorian, I just want to put it out there that episode five could have included far more Baby Yoda, am I right?
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