WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 6 "The Prisoner," which premiered Friday on Disney+.
Since Kylo Ren’s derisive comment in The Force Awakens about no longer using clones as Stormtroopers, it seemed like Disney wanted to sweep some of the more embarrassing bits of Star Wars lore under the rug. Sure, the company won’t deny the prequels happened, but why not put a little distance in there?
Except that’s not what Disney's doing elsewhere. While the animated shows have embraced the prequels, The Mandalorian moves that into live-action. If you can have some fun with it, nothing is really off-limits.
We first saw this willingness to go there in the pilot episode, where a bounty Mando captures wants to go home to spend Life Day with his family. We later see Mando using Boba Fett’s tuning-fork looking weapon, both of which came from the much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special. Considering the controversial place the Holiday Special has in Star Wars history, getting direct references in a major Star Wars property is a big deal.
At the same time, though, these references were pretty tame. Sure, they’re references to the Holiday Special, but not the hated parts. Life Day is just a Wookiee holiday that seems to have spread to other cultures. The animated Boba Fett sequence is generally considered the best part of the special and set the stage for the character being a memetic badass, despite not doing all that much to earn it.
However, in Episode 6 of The Mandalorian, one reference leaves Disney nowhere to hide. It’s not just acknowledging the prequels without a snide comment or winking at the audience to say, "Isn’t this stupid?" Instead, Disney is embracing one of the most hated parts of the prequel trilogy.
As Mando is meeting his new crew, they’re harassing him about Mandalorian culture, specifically that he never takes his helmet off. It hits its peak when Mayfeld (Bill Burr) says, "I wonder what you look like under there. Maybe he’s a Gungan. Is that why ‘Yousa don’t wanna show your face?’"
Yes, The Mandalorian made a pretty straightforward joke about Gungans, and Mayfeld even does a Jar Jar Binks impression. They’re treating the Gungans as just another part of the Star Wars universe. They’re treated like any other group of people that get made fun of, like another reference earlier in the episode.
When Mando’s old friend Ran introduces Mayfeld as "one of the best triggermen I’ve ever seen. Former Imperial Sharpshooter," Mando had his turn to do the mocking. "That’s not saying much," Mando says with a scoff before Mayfeld throws back "I wasn’t a Stormtrooper, wiseass."
These jokes are treated almost identically, showing The Mandalorian is willing to embrace the somewhat checkered past of Star Wars. When fans tell jokes about Stormtroopers, they’re light-hearted jabs about the films they love. Jokes about Gungans are angry jokes about the films they feel betrayed by. While other recent Star Wars media treats Jar Jar as a joke or a pariah, The Mandalorian is willing to embrace Gungans as just another part of the world.
Between this and Ahmed Best’s new role as game show host, Disney is doing its best to keep bringing back some of the hated parts of Star Wars in a more palatable form. From the beloved parts of the original trilogy, with Baby Yoda and jokes about Stormtroopers, to the parts that are hated, like Gungans and the Holiday Special, The Mandalorian is helping to bridge the gap between the better and worse parts of the Star Wars franchise. If you can make it fun or cool, why should anything be off-limits?
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte. A new episode arrives each Friday on Disney+.