Mando and Grogu are back with some thrilling adventures in The Mandalorian season 3, from their treacherous journey into the mines of Mandalore to their mission to save a young foundling from the beak of a giant bird to their high-octane standoff with a band of pirates. But the season has divided Star Wars fans with a couple of oddly uncharacteristic episodes and storylines. The third episode of the season, “Chapter 19: The Convert,” barely featured the Mandalorian at all as it introduced the New Republic’s amnesty program and the dark fate met by cloning engineer Dr. Pershing.
With its ruminations on intergalactic bureaucracy and its blurring of the line between good and evil, “The Convert” felt more like an episode of Andor than an episode of The Mandalorian. The fifth episode, “Chapter 21: The Pirate,” became a standard Mandalorian outing in its second half, but its first half and its epilogue were centered around Captain Carson Teva doing the rounds in his X-wing. Perhaps these storylines don’t feel like Mandalorian storylines because they weren’t conceived as Mandalorian storylines. A Mandalorian spin-off called Rangers of the New Republic was announced by Lucasfilm around the same time as Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett. Like those other spin-offs, Rangers of the New Republic was planned to directly tie into the events of The Mandalorian.
However, in May 2021, when The Book of Boba Fett was well underway and Dave Filoni was working on the scripts for Ahsoka, Variety reported that Rangers of the New Republic was no longer in “active development.” When the series was scrapped around the same time that Gina Carano was fired from the Star Wars franchise for a string of controversial social media posts, it was widely speculated that the two were related. Since Cara Dune became a marshal in The Mandalorian’s second season, it seems likely that Rangers of the New Republic was being developed to revolve around Cara. With Carano out of the Star Wars ensemble and no intention of recasting the role, a Cara-centric spin-off was no longer viable.
Some setup for the Rangers of the New Republic series can be spotted in The Mandalorian season 2 and The Book of Boba Fett. Teva popped up in a couple of Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett episodes, to the point where it seemed like he was the only New Republic pilot in the galaxy, apparently to set up his starring role in Rangers. After springing Migs Mayfeld from a New Republic prison so he could help Mando infiltrate an Imperial refinery, Cara was so impressed with his sharpshooting skills and his commitment to eradicating the Empire that she let him go, which seemed to pave the way for a future team-up. It seems that Rangers of the New Republic would’ve revolved around Cara, Teva, and Mayfeld all teaming up to investigate the Imperial Remnants and expand the worldbuilding teased by The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian and all of its spin-offs are building to a “climactic story event” (per Variety) – the Infinity War of the Mando-verse – so every storyline is integral to the build-up to that eventual payoff. Rangers of the New Republic might have been called off as a series of its own, but Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau needs to fold in some crucial plot points from the canceled series elsewhere in order to properly set the stage for this climactic story event. If this event is a large-scale battle between the Mandalorians and the Imperial Remnants, then the New Republic will probably be a significant factor.
According to IGN, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy clarified that the creative team “had never written any scripts or anything” for Rangers of the New Republic, but hinted that elements of Rangers might be “absorbed” into The Mandalorian. She didn’t confirm anything, but she said, “Some of [Rangers of the New Republic] will figure into future episodes, I’m sure, of the next iteration of Mandalorian.” Season 3 seems to be showing the first evidence of that absorption. In every other episode, the show pivots away from Mando for a New Republic-centric storyline that was likely intended for the Rangers series. From Dr. Pershing’s mind-flaying to Moff Gideon’s mysterious disappearance, a lot of plot points from The Mandalorian’s third season seem like they were supposed to be in Rangers of the New Republic’s first season.
Rather than shoehorning Rangers of the New Republic storylines into Mandalorian episodes, it would’ve been great if Favreau and co. Could’ve figured out a way to incorporate Din Djarin into some of these narrative arcs. Between The Book of Boba Fett having episodes starring the Mandalorian and The Mandalorian having episodes with scarce screen time for the Mandalorian, this whole small-screen Star Wars universe is starting to feel a bit messy. Hopefully, the climactic story event that it’s all building towards will be worth it.