10 outrageous predictions for ‘The Mandalorian’ season 2

“The Mandalorian” will return for its second season Friday, bringing us back to a galaxy far, far away and back into the loving arms of Baby Yoda.

“The Mandalorian” season 2 will take us back to the story of Mando, a man who identifies as a Mandalorian and has traveled across the galaxy as a bounty hunter of sorts. In the show’s first season, Mando teamed up with the Child — who the internet named Baby Yoda, even though he is certainly not the baby version of Yoda, who is dead in the “Star Wars” timeline — and evaded capture from the remnants of the Empire. The first season ended with Mando and the Child venturing off to find the Child’s origins, and possibly interact with the Jedi, a known collective of Force users.

Oh, and Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) showed up with a darksaber — a black lightsaber that first appeared in “The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” animated shows. He’ll begin his search to find the Child and the Mandalorian as we move forward into the next season.

There is definitely a lot of hype around the upcoming season.

There will be so many easter eggs

There’s bound to be a number of references and easter eggs to the entire “Star Wars” universe in the new season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the Millennium Falcon flying in the galaxy, or we overhear a slight chat from two characters about what happened at the forest moon of Endor. We may see remnants of the Empire, or even a framed photo of war heroes like Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. Whatever happens, be on the lookout for multiple references to the other live-action projects.

A young Luke Skywalker will appear

Calling it now. We will see a young Luke Skywalker pop up somewhere in this show. It could be from far away so we don’t see his face — that way they don’t have to go through the entire process of hiring an actor and dealing with that fiasco. Or maybe we’ll see his X-Wing flying about and see only his profile. Either way, a nice nod to the original trilogy would be to give us a shot of Luke Skywalker going about his New Republic business as the Mandalorian seeks to accomplish his own mission.

Disney+ Media Relations

The Mandalorian will lose Baby Yoda

I wouldn’t necessarily say this is an outrageous prediction. But the Mandalorian will lose Baby Yoda at some point in the season. Maybe the Empire takes him away. Or the Jedi snag him up to bring him to a new Jedi temple or something. Either way, we’ve seen these two together for a good chunk of the show. So it wouldn’t be shocking if they were separated from each other and had to reunite at the end. It’d be a little similar to what happened at the end of season 1, but this would extend multiple episodes.

A Palpatine appearance?

We know we’re getting more shots of the Empire. I’m feeling like they’re going to drop an Emperor Palpatine appearance or voice over somewhere in this show, mostly as a way to clean up the mess that was “Rise of Skywalker.” Maybe we’ll hear our first radio transmission or see a glimpse of one of his proxies beginning to work on the next stages of his return.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

Boba Fett didn’t survive, but his armor did

There’s a lot of hype about what happened to Boba Fett. Since the show began, there have been questions about whether the bounty hunter survived his fall in “Return of the Jedi.” I am predicting that he didn’t and a lot of the rumors are red herrings meant to throw us off the course. The armor will still be around. But someone will have stolen it from him — no idea how that would happen but whatever — and is claiming to be him without actually being him.

Disney, Lucasfilm

Baby Yoda’s first words

Baby Yoda hasn’t spoken on “The Mandalorian.” He doesn’t seem to know the common language, and is mostly stuck in the phase of life where you’re goo-goo and ga-gaing all over the place. Get ready. The Child’s first words are coming, and I bet they’ll mean something to the entire plot of an episode.

There will be a ‘High Republic’ reference

Disney and Lucasfilm plan to release a new project in the coming months called “Star Wars: The High Republic.” It will be a series of comic books and novels based 200 years before the Skywalker Saga and “The Phantom Menace.” I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear a character’s name or a slight reference to something in that series as a way to cross promote the two. We know “Star Wars” and Disney are good at the whole cross-promotion thing, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that here.

StarWars.com

We’ll visit historic sights

Exegol, Kimjimi, Endor, Mustafar — we’re going to see some epic planets from the history of “Star Wars.” I don’t know where we’ll go, but I expect we’ll revisit Tatooine and, if we’re lucky, Coruscant. Hopefully they’ll add little title cards before the characters reach each planet, that way we know where they’re going. But either way, it’d be exciting to see a return to some of these historic placers in the new season.

Disney+ Media Relations

We’ll get a flash forward of Baby Yoda, but grown up

I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw a flash forward scene in the “The Mandalorian” season, showing the Child all grown up and preparing for the end game of the series. This will give a clear indication about what the Child’s ultimate purpose is (and prove to many that this is not, in fact, the baby version of Yoda). And it speaks to my final prediction, which is ...

The Mandalorian will die

This might not happen in season 2, but I am a strong believer in the idea that this show is about the Child becoming the Mandalorian — much in the same way that the “Walking Dead” comics were about main character Rick’s son Carl, and his journey. We’re going to learn that Baby Yoda wants to become the Mandalorian, and this entire story is about his or her journey to get there.

Bonus: Baby Yoda is a girl

Yeah. We too easily assume that Baby Yoda is Baby Yoda, a young boy. I expect we’ll be calling the Child by the name Baby Yaddle by the time the series is over.