How ‘The Mandalorian’ fits in the Star Wars timeline

Star Wars season is back, as season 2 of ‘The Mandalorian’ is right around the corner. Everyone and their grandma loves The Mandalorian. And on October 30th, we’ll see Mando and Baby Yoda return for another epic adventure. But, there are always some fans who are curious to know more about this show and the diverse universe in which it is placed. And one thing that especially confuses them is the place of this show in the Star Wars timeline. Moreover, Star Wars is an ever-expanding universe with numerous films, countless comics, and books. So, we decided to write on the place of The Mandalorian in the Star Wars timeline, and the context in the lore behind it.

When does it take place in the Star Wars timeline?

To understand simply when The Mandalorian takes place, you can look at the grand Star Wars timeline. The easiest answer is that it takes place in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. This means that the events of the show took place in between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy.

To be precise, The Mandalorian takes place in 9 ABY (Battle of Yavin, the first attack on the Death Star), which is five years after the events of the Return of the Jedi. To put this more into perspective, The Force Awakens takes place in 34 ABY. Therefore, The Mandalorian is far closer to the original trilogy than it is to the sequels.

That also raises a question, that what happened in the 5 years between Return of the Jedi and the show? Well, after the Empire collapsed, the Rebel Alliance tried to replace it with the New Republic. However, they were having a tough time bringing the Galaxy back together. And that was made clear by what we saw in The Mandalorian. The show takes place in the outer rims of the Galaxy, where the Empire still has somewhat of a hold. As Mando said, reporting the Empire’s forces to The New Republic would be “a joke.”

What about the Star Wars lore around The Mandalorian?

When you look at what was happening in the world around The Mandalorian, you can get confused. After all, we are very familiar with the Empire and the First Order, but not what happened in between them. So, here’s why the show’s world is so confusing and chaotic in the Star Wars universe.

The First Order hasn’t come into existence yet in The Mandalorian, but we’ll start seeing it unfold by the upcoming season 2. Until then, many crime organizations are teaming up with allies of the remnants of the Empire after the events of Return of the Jedi. Even though the Empire itself has weakened, but Imperial Officers like Moff Gideon and his stormtroopers from the finale do show that some leaders of the Empire still have a lot of power and influence.

However, to understand the Star Wars Universe of The Mandalorian, we have to look at some Jedi Lore as well. Especially the Dark Saber and everyone’s favorite – Baby Yoda. After all, he’s the only one we have seen who has the Force flowing through him. After Luke Skywalkers’ emergence, there’s of course a resurgence in the number of Jedis in the universe. Luke is soon going to open a Jedi temple too (where Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren emerged from and deemed the Temple as a failure). And so, it makes sense why Mando is taking Baby Yoda to more of “his own kind” called the Jedi. However, the Jedis have been historic enemies of the Mandalorians due to the Mandalorian-Jedi war between the order and Mandalore the Great.

A famous Mandalorian fan theory

There are a couple of fan theories that claim that we could see two very familiar faces in The Mandalorian season 2. One of them could be Boba Fett, especially because of the proximity of his timeline with the show. It is rumored that Temuera Morrison, the actor who played Boba Fett in the prequels, made an appearance in season 2 of the show. However, it will be interesting to see how Boba Fett survived in the Return of the Jedi after he fell in the Sarlacc Pit to be digested over a very long period of time.

However, another massive Star Wars star that could make an appearance in The Mandalorian is Luke Skywalker! It is entirely possible that Mark Hamill and Pedro Pascal could cross paths in the show, especially considering that Mando is on a mission to literally find the Jedis. And there is no bigger Jedi than Luke at this time in the Star Wars Universe. So, fingers crossed!