Rangers of the New Republic is one of two Mandalorian spin-offs coming to Disney+. The Star Wars universe is getting bigger and fans are pumped!
At Disney’s recent Investor Day, Lucasfilm announced a boatload of new Star Wars content being developed for the Mouse House’s streaming service. This included two spin-offs from Disney+’s flagship series, The Mandalorian, that have been subtly set up by the show’s two seasons: Ahsoka, which will revolve around Rosario Dawson’s live-action version of the beloved character, and Rangers of the New Republic, which will revolve around the starfighters policing a post-Empire world.
While Ahsoka’s focus on a fan-favorite character might make it the more exciting of the two upcoming spin-offs, there are also plenty of reasons to look forward to Rangers of the New Republic.
Apparently, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni don’t quite have their hands full with making The Mandalorian one of the greatest shows on the air right now; the dream team behind Mando’s adventures will also be heading up the new spin-offs.
They’ll be developing the groundwork for both Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic, and the two series will tie in closely with their future plans for The Mandalorian.
By the time the sequel trilogy begins, the New Republic has been eradicated and the First Order has risen up in the Empire’s place. The Force Awakens doesn’t take a second to enjoy the victory at the end of Return of the Jedi.
As The Mandalorian has shown, the destruction of the second Death Star was just the beginning of wiping out the Empire. Rangers of the New Republic will explore the immediate aftermath of the Empire’s defeat.
The announcement of Rangers of the New Republic coincided nicely with The Mandalorian’s revelation that Cara Dune has taken a job as a marshal for the New Republic.
This seems to be setting up Gina Carano for a leading role in the series, or at least a major role in the ensemble. Since her debut in the first season, Dune has been a beloved Mandalorian character and her return in the second season was praised by fans.
One of the main problems with the sequel trilogy is that it dives right into the conflict between the Resistance and the First Order without explaining anything about the aftermath of Return of the Jedi and the rise and fall of the New Republic.
While The Mandalorian has been helping to round out the gap between the original and sequel trilogies better than the latter trilogy itself did, Rangers of the New Republic can explore this aspect in even more depth.
While Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine will always be Star Wars’ best villains, they’ve got plenty of stiff competition: Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Count Dooku — and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Ahsoka beating Thrawn’s location out of Magistrate Elsbeth sets him up as the Big Bad for The Mandalorian’s trio of TV shows, which could be a lot of fun.
The offshoots from The Mandalorian won’t be standalone series that break away from the mothership. The storylines in The Mandalorian will influence the storylines in Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka and vice versa.
The three shows are reportedly building toward a “climactic story event,” so their storylines will weave in and out of each other on the way to the big finale, which could be a battle against Grand Admiral Thrawn to reclaim Mandalore.
Bill Burr’s fan-favorite side character Mayfeld returned in this year’s batch of Mandalorian episodes. He helped Mando infiltrate an Empire facility to find out where Grogu was being held while Cara, Fennec, and Boba kept an eye on them from afar.
After Mando and Mayfeld ended up having to shoot their way out of there, Cara complimented Mayfeld on his sharpshooting and faked his death to free him from his prison sentence. This might have been setting up Mayfeld for a role in Rangers of the New Republic.
Among the tantalizing Star Wars projects announced at Disney’s Investor Day was a movie directed by Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins called Rogue Squadron. Nothing is known about the plot except that it will revolve around starfighter pilots.
It’s unclear if these starfighter pilots are working with the Rebel Alliance or the New Republic, but if it’s the latter, the movie might tie into Rangers of the New Republic.
Moff Gideon’s relentless quest to abduct Grogu on The Mandalorian has revealed the Imperial Remnant, a band of Empire sympathizers who are struggling to keep Palpatine’s bureaucratic governing body alive with the few ships and bases that remain of their once-gargantuan domain.
While The Mandalorian has only depicted the Imperial Remnant in the context of its search for Grogu, Rangers of the New Republic will be able to explore the extent of it and flesh out that aspect of the post-Return of the Jedi canon.
Fans of the sequel trilogy don’t tend to be fans of the original trilogy, because the former short-changed almost every legacy character from the latter. Han was killed before sharing another scene with Luke, Luke was recharacterized as a bitter jerk in his one major appearance, and Leia was turned into Peter Pan.
These characters can all get more satisfying post-Return of the Jedi adventures in Rangers of the New Republic, courtesy of cameos like Luke’s slaughter of the Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian. A young Leia can be created with Billie Lourd and CGI like in The Rise of Skywalker.
