According to a new report, fans should expect to see a big Star Wars character show up in some of the franchise’s upcoming Disney+ series.
The success of The Mandalorian all the way back in 2019 spurred a renaissance for the franchise and led to multiple shows being ordered. This includes next year’s Skeleton Crew and Ahsoka along with 2024’s The Acolyte.
These new projects have also given fans the opportunity to see characters in parts of the Star Wars timeline that have never been seen before. Some of the highlights come in the form of Ahsoka after Star Wars: Rebels, Obi-Wan before A New Hope, and Cad Bane after his days in The Clone Wars and Bad Batch.
The most recent project to hit Disney’s streaming service was Andor, which went on to be loved across the board. Now it seems a character within that series will be showing up in other entries further down the timeline.
The Mandalorian's Sprawling Connection
Making Star Wars revealed some new information from their sources about a surprise Star Wars character who could show up in the shows taking place within The Mandalorian’s timeline.
This mystery figure? None other than Genevieve O’Riley’s Mon Mothma.
The report mentioned that they believe Mothma’s role will be more akin to a cameo than a full-blown role. As for why she’d show up in the first place, Making Star Wars points to Thrawn being the reason behind Mothma’s relevancy.
The now iconic Star Wars villain, who first made his debut on Star Wars: Rebels, will be leading the charge of an unknown threat against the galaxy. Thanks to Mon Mothma having created the Military Disarmament Act post Return of the Jedi (which aimed to greatly decrease the size of the Republic’s military forces), the galaxy is in a vulnerable place.
While O’Reilly hasn’t publicly discussed playing a role in anything connected to The Mandalorian, in a previous interview with ComicBookMovie.com, the actress talked about future crossovers with the rest of Andor’s large cast.
O’Reilly noted how she “hope[s] she gets to meet them all,” even possibly “more excited than the fans are:”
“I mean, I would hope she gets to meet them all. *laughs* If you even think about Rogue One and the characters in Rogue One, I’m fascinated to see who she crossed paths - who within Tony’s planetary mind - who she crosses paths with. I think she has the position to hopefully encounter many. It can only make her richer, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how Tony writes her to Rogue One, how far we have to go. I’m as excited about that, maybe even more excited than the fans are.”
The Thrawn Threat in The Mandalorian Saga
So what threat might Thrawn pose?
Well, previous rumors revealed the character would be showing up in Ahsoka. Not only that, but the series will pose as the introduction to an entirely new, never-before-seen area of space in the Star Wars universe.
Perhaps the Chiss will come back from New Space with some new weapon, army, or simply higher aspirations for himself.
Including Mon Mothma in these upcoming events would be a fantastic move and would help make all of these recent Disney+ stories feel more connected than they do now. If Mothma’s act of disbanding most of The New Republic’s military does open up the galaxy for an attack, exploring the complexities in those choices would be a smart direction to go.
Mothma has most recently been seen in Andor, and will continue as part of the show for its second and final season.
A crossover between the many Disney+ series’ is an idea that's been floated around many times, most recently being when Jon Favreau potentially revealed that some characters from The Skeleton Crew would find themselves in Mando’s fourth season.
Hopefully, Ahsoka, and the reintroduction of Lars Mikkelsen’s Thrawn himself, will give audiences a clearer idea of what a crossover would look like.
The Mandalorian’s third season is set to air on March 1, while Ahsoka is estimated to land sometime in mid-2023. As for Andor’s second season, the series just started up production, and the finished product isn’t expected to debut until 2024 at the earliest.
