The latest episode of ‘The Mandalorian’ drew upon the ‘Star Wars’ video game legacy for a potentially seismic reveal.
You can usually count on The Mandalorian to wrap up an episode with an important, if perhaps obscure, twist, and Chapter 12, “The Siege,” was no exception. After he survived his ship’s crash at the end of Season 1, we’ve known that the nefarious Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito, who is a lovely person in real life, despite his habitual casting as baddies) would be coming after Baby Yoda and his erstwhile Space Daddy. But now we know that when Gideon does confront Mando and his ward, he’ll have some back-up likely drawn from a corner of the Star Wars universe quite familiar to fans.
The episode ends with Moff Gideon in yet another Imperial base (man, they sure had a lot of them left over after the Battle of Endor) overseeing an entire bank of unidentified robots. And like so many elements seen on screen, there is of course a potential backstory tied to tons of previously established lore.
“Dark troopers,” essentially a far more terrifying upgrade on Stormtroopers, were first introduced in the video game Star Wars: Dark Forces. The manufacture of the Phase 1 versions were a major part of that game, set around the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, and made subsequent appearances in games including Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars Galaxies.
It’s also important to note that dark troopers have not, until now, technically been considered Star Wars canon since much of the expanded universe was reclassified as “Legends” for simplicity’s sake — but then again, The Mandalorian has already found inspiration in Ralph McQuarrie‘s unused concept art — it’s hardly a shock to see executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni incorporate another part of Star Wars lore into the action.
As The Mandalorian takes place after the destruction of the second Death Star and the fall of the original Empire, what Moff Gideon is developing likely represents a later evolution of the dark trooper concept (multiple iterations have appeared in the games). The one look we got at this new fighting force doesn’t indicate whether these will be completely robotic fighting units or armored skeletons for stormtroopers — both of which are options from the games — but they’ll clearly be formidable adversaries.
When might we end up seeing them fight? The answer will come in the next few weeks, to be sure, as new episodes of The Mandalorian roll out each Friday. In the meantime, read about how Chapter 12 attempts to redeem the concept of midi-chlorians, as well as our mid-season review.
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