The Mandalorian Officially Brings Grogu One Step Closer To His Perfect Jedi Master
El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel.
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The Mandalorian franchise has officially brought Grogu one step closer to his perfect Jedi Master. Grogu has been on quite a journey since his debut in season 1 of The Mandalorian. Being hunted for experimentation, meeting Din Djarin, reconnecting with the Force, training as a Jedi, leaving the Jedi, getting adopted, and joining Din on his adventures for the New Republic has given Grogu a chance at life few other fellow prequel-era Jedi got to experience.
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, which takes place after the divisive events of The Mandalorian season 3, the little green Force-wielder has clearly grown, demonstrating his independence, resourcefulness, and enduring love for his Mandalorian father. Still, Grogu has a lot left to learn — things Din will never be able to teach him. He's still vulnerable. Until he learns to harness his powers, he always will be. He deserves a Jedi Master who understands his struggle and his fears, his love for Din, and his incredible potential.
While a handful of Jedi are running around during the New Republic era — two of whom Grogu has already met — only one really has the skills, experience, and, most importantly, empathy to be Grogu's master. Thanks to The Mandalorian and Grogu, their meeting is now more likely than ever.
Grogu Left Luke Skywalker Because Of His Attachment To Din Djarin
Grogu's greatest obstacle to becoming a Jedi is his attachment to Din Djarin. Ahsoka Tano was too afraid to train him herself for that very reason. She recognized Grogu's emotional dependency and worried that he was experiencing the same level of attachment as her old master, Anakin Skywalker. She didn't want to be responsible for anyone else's downfall. Besides, as Ahsoka revealed after The Mandalorian season 2, Ahsoka already had another student, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren. She didn't have the strength to train someone as fragile and impressionable as Grogu. She still needed to heal.
Grogu needed someone else. Enter New Republic-era Luke Skywalker, trying to rebuild the Jedi Order after his heroic efforts during the Galactic Civil War. Having Grogu join Luke's academy seemed a no-brainer, until Luke, like Ahsoka, realized that something was holding Grogu back. In the end, Luke gave the youngling a choice: become a true Jedi or go back to the Mandalorians. Naturally, Grogu chose Din. While Luke giving Grogu a choice was understandable, it also proved that Luke, like Ahsoka, was afraid of what deep attachments might mean for Jedi. That same fear carried over into the sequel trilogy.
Though Ahsoka left the Jedi Order as a Padawan, she still grew up in its environment. Combined with her trauma from Anakin's fall and her confrontation with Darth Vader — something she's only truly healing from now, after her encounters with Force Ghost Anakin in The World Between Worlds — she was arguably more afraid of attachments than anyone.
Mandalorian-era Luke carries the entire weight of the Jedi legacy on his shoulders and was trained directly by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, both of whom were also famously cautious about emotional attachments (unlike Anakin, Obi-Wan left the love of his life behind to remain with the Jedi, as revealed in Star Wars: The Clone Wars). What Grogu really needs is someone who didn't grow up within the Jedi Order. Someone who found a new way to be a Jedi.
Star Wars Rebels' Ezra Bridger Isn't Like Other Jedi
Star Wars Rebels' Ezra Bridger isn't like other Jedi. Born on Empire Day, Ezra grew up on the Outer Rim planet Lothal. After the Empire captured his parents, Ezra was forced to live on the streets and steal food to survive. It wasn't until he met a group of fledgling Rebels, including Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, Garazeb Orrelios, and Order 66 survivor Kanan Jarrus (formerly known as Caleb Dume), that he found his path in life. He found a new family.
Training under Kanan, who was only a Padawan himself when Order 66 broke out — younger, even, than Ahsoka — Ezra learned to embrace the ways of the Jedi in a way that worked for him in this dangerous, new galaxy. The Jedi who survived Order 66 needed to adapt to a new way of life. The old ways wouldn't save them. For Ezra (and for Kanan, too), this meant bonding with the rest of the Ghost Crew.
Ezra watched Kanan have a healthy, romantic relationship with Hera. Hera was essentially a surrogate mother. Sabine became like a sister to him; they were so close that Sabine was willing to travel to a new galaxy to find him. Zeb became one of his closest allies. Kanan was so much more than his Master. He was a father, a mentor, a friend.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”
🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians
⚡The SithRule of two
⚙️The RebellionA new hope
🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way
👑The EmpireOrder 66
01
The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?
✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.
02
A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.
✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.
03
In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?
✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.
✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.
04
Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.
✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.
05
In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?
✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.
06
The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?
✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.
07
Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?
✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.
08
Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.
✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).
✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.
The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
The Ghost Crew needed each other, and Ezra became a better Jedi because of it. He's dealt with genuine heartbreak and grief and come out on the other side, shunning the influence of the dark and leaning on his friends to help him. When Kanan died in Star Wars Rebels season 4, Ezra didn't let his pain consume him. Instead, he channeled that energy into strength and used it to free Lothal and defeat Grand Admiral Thrawn. Ezra Bridger proves that a Jedi, a true Jedi, one who protects light and life, can thrive while having deep, meaningful relationships.
That's exactly what Grogu needs. Ezra would understand Grogu's love for Din and teach him how to handle the depth of his feelings without letting them consume him. He'd understand Grogu's Order 66 trauma and help him process those emotions. He'd help him strengthen his Force bond with other creatures. Ezra didn't learn in an academy setting, and Grogu wouldn't need to, either. They'd be the perfect match, and Ezra taking on a Padawan of his own would be a great way to honor his own Master's legacy.
The Mandalorian And Grogu Set Up Ezra Bridger And Grogu's Meeting
Luckily, Grogu and Ezra are that much closer to meeting in Star Wars' continuity. At the end of Ahsoka season 1, Ezra finally makes his way back to the primary Star Wars galaxy after years in exile. In the Ahsoka season 2 trailer, Ezra is shown hugging Zeb, a joyous moment that will no doubt mean a lot to Star Wars Rebels fans. It also means that Ahsoka and The Mandalorian's storylines are once again primed to overlap.
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, Din Djarin and Garazeb Orrelios work together in service of the New Republic. They've become allies, if not friends. Grogu and Din both trust him implicitly. How long until Zeb tells Ezra about the little green Force-wielder? How long before Ezra and Grogu meet through Zeb and Din's connection?
Though this could technically happen in Ahsoka season 2, especially with Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Imperial Remnant's direct attack on the New Republic, it's more likely to happen in future projects. Ezra and Grogu could meet in a hypothetical fourth season of The Mandalorian, should the franchise decide to return to the small screen after The Mandalorian and Grogu's disappointing box office run, or in Dave Filoni's previously announced New Republic-era Avengers-level culmination movie, first announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023.
Either way, Grogu will never find a better Jedi Master than Ezra Bridger. He deserves to balance his love for Din and his connection with the Force. Hopefully, The Mandalorian will let them meet sooner rather than later.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is streaming on Disney+.
The Mandalorian
- TV Show(s)
- The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka
- First TV Show
- The Mandalorian
- Cast
- Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Nick Nolte, Taika Waititi, Emily Swallow, Ming-Na Wen, Temuera Morrison, Rosario Dawson
- Created by
- Jon Favreau
- Upcoming Films
- The Mandalorian & Grogu
- First Episode Air Date
- November 12, 2019
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.