The Mandalorian executive producer Jon Favreau has revealed that the idea to include Luke Skywalker in the season 2 finale came to them sometime during the writing process.
In “Chapter 16: The Rescue,” Mando managed to assemble quite the team to take on Moff Gideon’s Imperial loyalists. Though their efforts to break out Baby Yoda didn’t work nearly as well as they’d hoped. The epic standoff culminated in Din Djarin and his crew trapped inside the cruiser with dozens of Dark Troopers about to overrun them. Little did we know, however, that the greatest hero of the Rebellion and one of the most powerful light side warriors in the galaxy was on his way thanks to Grogu calling out to the galaxy a couple of episodes back.
The Last Jedi’s surprise cameo essentially shook the online community when the finale premiered over a month ago. But despite its monumental significance, it seems that the producers hadn’t really planned this from the get-go, as is usually the case with such twists. Favreau recently discussed the process of writing in the sequence in an interview with WGA, explaining the following:
“The story unfolded as I wrote it. The Mandalorian inherits a great deal from existing Star Wars stories, and when I write, that context is always a consideration. It became clear that, within the established continuity, certain things were likely to transpire. We have a tremendous amount of freedom afforded to us because of the gap in time between the films. Dave Filoni and I are in constant discussion regarding how each story choice is impacted by, and would impact, existing Star Wars material.”
In fairness, some Star Wars fans still find it baffling that Lucasfilm actually went ahead and brought back a younger version of Luke for the Disney Plus series. But in terms of how naturally it fitted into the story, we can’t help but agree with the showrunner’s sentiments. Yes, the resolution may’ve been a none too subtle Deus ex machina at the end of the day, but it made perfect sense within the continuity. And besides, I think we can all agree that the fandom needed the character to at least make one other appearance after his divisive fate in The Last Jedi.
The House of Mouse reportedly wishes to explore this period of Luke’s journey more extensively than before, too, so we wouldn’t be surprised if he returned in future seasons of The Mandalorian as well, though hopefully it’ll be with another actor taking up the mantle and the lightsaber.