The Mandalorian Season 3 Premiere Is ‘Now That’s What I Call Star Wars’

Apart from Din undertaking the quest to travel to Mandalore and meeting up with Bo-Katan (who has given up on her quest all of a sudden), nothing of note really occurs. There’s Mando’s unsuccessful attempt at reviving the remains of IG-11, as he needs a faithful droid to navigate the potentially-dangerous surface of Mandalore.

However, the delight of “The Apostate” lies in its details — Grogu having a great time on a revolving chair and force-summoning an orange treat for funsies, IG-11 menacingly crawling towards Din like some horror creature from beyond, and Din having to take the mangled droid to the Anzellans for repair. “Star Wars” is incomplete without a quick visit to a droid-repair shop, where some sort of alien creature offers some seminal piece of information that makes the plot a-going. It is a time-honored franchise tradition that works in this case, thanks to Grogu, who grabs an Anzellan and squeezes him like some squeaky toy (forcing Din to embody dad mode).

In essence, the season 3 premiere of “The Mandalorian” whips out time-tested franchise tropes that have had their hits and misses in the past, but the show somehow manages to create a breezily fun, thrilling opener that will undoubtedly raise the stakes as time passes. We glimpse a droid rapidly chopping meat on the street, a hostile IG-11 being squashed with Greef Karga’s bust, and Grogu intently absorbing Din’s pearls of wisdom when it comes to planet-hopping and bounty hunting.

These unstated moments — along with ones that are a big deal, such as the presence of Purrgils, or the space whales Grogu sees while they are traveling through hyperspace — make the episode a solid jumping-off point for an adventure that is only about to get better. This is the way.