Skip to main content

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2’s legendary Star Wars beast, explained

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2, The Mines of Mandalore.

Coming off its lackluster season 3 premiere, The Mandalorian has returned with an episode that helps put the Disney+ series back on track. The episode, titled The Mines of Mandalore, sends Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu to the surface of its eponymous, destroyed planet. His journey to the planet’s living waters takes a dangerous turn, however, when he is captured by a malevolent alien lurking deep beneath Mandalore’s surface.

Fortunately, Grogu is able to travel off-planet and bring Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) back to save Din. After she does, Bo-Katan takes Din directly to Mandalore’s living waters where she herself was once baptized as a princess. Din’s redemption ceremony is, unfortunately, interrupted when he is dragged underwater by an unseen force.

As Bo-Katan is in the midst of dragging him back up, she briefly sees the beast responsible for Din’s near-drowning: A massive, horned underwater creature that looks a bit like a mammoth. She sees, in other words, a living, breathing mythosaur.

The mythosaur in The Mandalorian season 3, explained

Din Djarin holds a mythosaur pendant in The Mandalorian.
Lucasfilm

Mythosaurs are legendary creatures in Star Wars lore.

The infamously gigantic beasts were first discovered on the surface of Mandalore in the Outer Rim and it’s said that they were eventually tamed and ridden by some of the first Mandalorians. However, the mythosaurs were believed to have gone extinct long before the events of The Mandalorian. Despite that fact, the mythosaur skull nonetheless became one of the most traditional and popular symbols of Mandalorian culture.

Taking all of this into account, it’s not hard to see why Bo-Katan is so shocked to come face-to-face with an actual mythosaur at the end of The Mines of Mandalore. The mythosaurs not only hold a major place within Mandalore’s cultural history but the creatures have also long been believed to be extinct.

What does the mythosaur’s return mean?

Lucasfilm

The mythosaur’s apparent return, notably, ties into one prophecy that has been uttered several times in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett by The Armorer (Emily Swallow). The prophecy in question claims that the mythosaur will rise back up and herald a new age of Mandalore.

There is, of course, no telling whether Mandalore will or could ever be rebuilt. However, the appearance of a mythosaur in episode 2 of The Mandalorian season 3 certainly suggests that there may be more to the prophecy regarding Mandalore’s future than anyone has previously believed. If so, that means a new age for Mandalore may be just around the corner.

That’s not the only mystery fans will have to wait to see be resolved. Now that a new mythosaur has appeared in The Mandalorian, viewers may also want to start speculating about who — if any — of the show’s characters will, much like their ancient ancestors before them, attempt to tame and ride the gigantic beast.

New episodes of The Mandalorian premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.

Editors' Recommendations

7 things we wished Disney did differently with the Star Wars sequel trilogy
Fortnite Star Wars Scene

The Star Wars sequel trilogy was a divisive return to the galaxy far, far away. While it held so much promise with the success of The Force Awakens, subsequent films became the target of hate and ridicule from fans and critics to the point that everyone's hopes for the franchise seemed to have been dashed (at least until The Mandalorian came around).

The sad truth is that this trilogy was never going to live up to everyone's expectations, especially not with the astronomically high pedestal they had all placed the franchise on. Despite this, Disney could've done certain things differently that would've made it a more worthy follow-up to the original Star Wars movies.
7. Spacing out the films more

Read more
Mando and Grogu reunite in The Mandalorian season 3 trailer
A Mandalorian walks next to Grogu in The Mandalorian season 3.

Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal from The Last of Us) and Grogu reunite and navigate the galaxy in the new trailer for The Mandalorian season 3, which Lucasfilm released during Monday night's NFL playoff game.

At the end of season 2, Mando left Grogu in the hands of Luke Skywalker (Star Wars' Mark Hamill). However, the bounty hunter and "Baby Yoda" reunited in The Book of Boba Fett. In season 3, Mando and Grogu head to Mandalore so that Din "may be forgiven for his transgressions." According to the logline, Mando will encounter other Mandalorians as he crosses paths with "old allies and makes new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together."

Read more
Beyond The Bad Batch: what’s next for Star Wars animated shows
The members of Clone Force 99 in promo art for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2.

The Star Wars universe continues to expand its galaxy far, far away on Disney+ with supplemental content like the animated show The Bad Batch. Season 2 has just premiered on the streamer, continuing the intimately scaled and daring missions of the titular band of veterans formerly known as Clone Force 99.

The show has proven to be promising so far. Still, other animated works under the Star Wars corner of Disney have given fans a taste of how versatile it can be both conceptually and artistically. Visions was an anime spin on the mega-franchise, providing stylistically distinct approaches to it in a sort of "what if?" narrative format. This would be an exciting template for exploring the Legends continuity stories -- formerly known as the Expanded Universe -- that captivated so many longtime fans.
Capitalizing on the growth of animation

Read more