8 Times Star Wars Has Retconned The Mandalorian In The Last Five Years

Even just five years after its premiere, The Mandalorian has already been retconned quite a few times by Star Wars. Now that The Mandalorian has cemented its place not only as one of Star Wars’ best TV shows, but also as one of Star Wars’ most successful sub-franchises, there have been multiple spin-off projects that have started to change the original story that was told back in 2019. This is especially true now that the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu movie is on the way.

The Mandalorian itself has been a major source of Star Wars retcons, most notably for the way it builds a bridge between the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and the sequel trilogy. This is also the case with its new Mandalorian lore, which has rewritten a lot of what Star Wars audiences thought they knew from both Star Wars Legends (previously the Expanded Universe), Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Star Wars Rebels. In the years since, however, The Mandalorian itself has also been retconned, and here are the 8 biggest ways in which that has happened.

8 Din Djarin Had Never Been To Mandalore Prior To Season 3

But His Family Name Was Registered There

It’s revealed by Din Djarin himself in The Mandalorian season 3 that he had never been to Mandalore before embarking there on his quest for redemption. Din explains to Grogu that he was raised on Mandalore’s moon, Concordia, and so he only ever saw Mandalore from a distance. This helped him to empathize with Grogu, who was understandably frightened by the swirling atmosphere of Mandalore’s damaged surface after the Great Purge. This, however, completely changes one line from season 1 for the worse.

Din identifies Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian season 1 finale because of the ISB officer’s knowledge of his family name, and the only record of his family name was kept in the registers of Mandalore – which Gideon would have had access to during the Purge. This makes no sense after season 3, since there would be no reason for Din’s name to be registered on Mandalore if he himself had never even been there. It could be retconned later on that Din was referring to Concordia here and not Mandalore, but as it currently stands, it’s utterly nonsensical.

7 The Armorer & Paz Vizsla Weren’t The Only Children Of The Watch Left

A Whole Group Reappeared After The Book of Boba Fett

The Mandalorian season 3 continues its pattern of retconning by changing something that had only just been established a year earlier in The Book of Boba Fett – and even earlier in The Mandalorian season 1. Season 3 opens with a ceremony that sees Ragnar Vizsla swearing the Creed and receiving his helmet, which happens in the audience of many other members of the Children of the Watch. This is the first viewers see of Paz’s own foundling, and the covert as a whole, aside from a few brief scenes in season 1.

The Book of Boba Fett, however, had previously revealed that the Armorer and Paz Vizsla were the only members of Din Djarin’s covert left after the events of season 1. It was shown that many members of Din’s covert had perished on Nevarro after they revealed themselves to save him from Greef Karga’s bounty hunters, and The Book of Boba Fett reinforced that by showing the Armorer and Paz rebuilding from the ground-up on the Glavis Ringworld. In season 3, however, they have somehow grown their ranks immensely in a very short period of time.

6 Grogu Never Actually Wanted To Train As A Jedi

He Told Luke Skywalker He Wanted to in Season 2

“Choose your path” has become a defining slogan for Grogu and The Mandalorian after The Book of Boba Fett, when Grogu actively chooses to return to his father and learn the Mandalorian Way rather than take the path of a Jedi. Luke Skywalker has Grogu make this choice after observing that Grogu’s heart hasn’t been in his Jedi training, something that he, as a son who never got to reconcile with his father until it was too late, would certainly understand. This alters the course for Grogu’s future, but it also changes the entire meaning of The Mandalorian season 2.

Din Djarin spent the entire season trying to find a Jedi who would train Grogu, something that became more difficult after Ahsoka Tano declined and sent them to Tython. At that point, it seemed like Grogu didn’t really want to train as a Jedi, but he ultimately did reach out to Luke on Tython and told Din, through Luke, that he wanted his father’s permission to pursue Jedi training. This clearly showed that Grogu did want to train as a Jedi, even though The Book of Boba Fett and season 3 have since established that this was never truly the case.

5 The Armorer Is The Only One Of Her Kind

She is No Longer Just “A Mandalorian Armorer”

The Armorer’s role has been something of a mystery ever since The Mandalorian first began, but season 3 adds some key context to her character. She is treated and regarded as someone in a revered position that goes back for generations, not as one of many but rather as one-of-a-kind. This is what qualifies her to be not only the leader of the Children of the Watch, but also a figure that even Bo-Katan Kryze respects – despite the latter’s initial uncertainty about the former’s religion.

This, however, is a stark contrast to what Din Djarin told Peli Motto in The Mandalorian season 2. When explaining his quest to her, he informed her that it was “a Mandalorian armorer” who had sent him on this journey, which evidently implied that the Armorer was simply one of several others. Season 3, however, has challenged this idea completely. The Armorer seems to be the only one that Din truly knows, despite what he told Peli Motto, and the same goes for all the other Mandalorians. This has made the Armorer a mystic figure, which has increased her mystery.

4 IG-11 Has Come Back To Life

IG-11 Previously Died on Nevarro

One of the most controversial aspects of The Mandalorian season 3 arrives when Din Djarin attempts to resurrect IG-11, the beloved bounty-droid-turned-nurse from season 1. Din does this on the grounds that IG-11 is the only droid he trusts, which is fair given how serious his droid trauma is from the attack on his homeworld as a child. While this initial attempt isn’t successful, IG-11’s body is used by Grogu later on as a mech suit, before Din finds another IG head and has the Anzellans bring IG-11 back to serve as Nevarro’s Marshal.

This has completely rewritten the sacrifice IG-11 made in The Mandalorian season 1. In one of the season’s most emotional moments, IG-11 acknowledged that he could not survive in any possible scenario, and that he was going to die saving the Nevarro crew rather than die by trying to survive with them. Even Din was moved by IG’s sacrifice, with the droid analyzing his tone and detecting sadness. Now that IG-11 is back, however, this moment feels more meaningless, though IG’s new iteration has yet to truly unfold.

3 Din Djarin’s Helmet Rule Is Back To Its Status Quo

Him Breaking the Rule in Season 2 Didn’t Change Anything

Another one of the most controversial retcons in The Mandalorian season 3 is the way it treats Din Djarin’s helmet rule – and the character arc that comes with it. Season 3 sees Din seeking redemption for removing his helmet in season 2 by going to the Living Waters on Mandalore, as the Armorer had told him to in The Book of Boba Fett. Din not only accomplishes this incredibly difficult feat, but he also sticks to his rule the entire season, making it the first in the TV show’s history to exclude even a single helmet-less Din Djarin scene.

This wouldn’t have been a problem if The Mandalorian season 2 hadn’t implied that things were going to be different for Din after he chose to remove his helmet. This is because he did it not just once, but twice, both times putting Grogu’s needs and wants ahead of his own. It was also after he met other Mandalorians for the first time, those who could actually remove their helmets without consequences. Rather than leaning into this change and story potential, however, the show went back to the helmet rule’s status quo, making these choices feel less important.

2 The Great Purge Happened During The Galactic Civil War

The Purge’s Date Has Been Retconned Several Times

While it was The Mandalorian season 1 that introduced the Great Purge into Star Wars lore, it’s season 3 and other Star Wars properties that have since gone into depth on what actually happened, and when it happened. Curiously, the video game Star Wars Outlaws provides the most recent update on when the Purge took place, confirming that it happened at some point in 3 ABY – just a year before the Battle of Endor. This means the Mandalorians were under siege and scattered during the events of the Galactic Civil War.

The Purge’s timeline, however, has been retconned many times in the last five years. Though season 1 never established a firm date, it seemed as if it had certainly happened before the war, possibly just after Bo-Katan Kryze had been given the Darksaber by Sabine Wren. It was in the Ahsoka season 1 finale that the droid Huyang said the Purge had happened after the war, which vastly changed what audiences thought they knew about it. Now, it’s been placed in the middle of these two extremes, but there’s precedent for that being changed again.

1 The Mandalorian’s Timeline Has Been Retconned Several Times

Star Wars Cannot Decide When This Series Unfolds

The Great Purge isn’t the only important piece of The Mandalorian that has been repeatedly retconned. The timeline for The Mandalorian as a whole has been somewhat infamously changed time and time again, with creatives and official Star Wars sources constantly contradicting one another. As it currently stands, according to the Star Wars: Timelines book, everything from The Mandalorian season 1 through The Book of Boba Fett all happens in the year 9 ABY. This, however, cannot possibly be the case.

Series creator Jon Favreau has stated before that the distance between the events is the same, or at least very similar, to that which the viewers experienced in real-life, essentially meaning that each season (including The Book of Boba Fett) is just about a year apart from one another. This fits much better with the show as a whole; Nevarro’s radical changes alone couldn’t have taken place in just a single year’s time. Still, as it stands, The Mandalorian has taken place entirely in 9 ABY, though it will hopefully be retconned again later on.