The Mandalorian Setting Up A Star Wars Multiverse?
Mandalorian star Carl Weathers called the upcoming season part of the Star Wars multiverse, leaving excited fans hopeful for a new multiverse storyline.
Hype is greater than ever for The Mandalorian, especially with the third season premiering on March 1. To help build that hype up, veteran actor Carl Weathers (who plays Greef Karga in the show) tweeted out how he thought a poster for the show was “too cool.” But what really has Mandalorian fans so excited is that in his tweet, he mentioned the “Star Wars Multiverse,” leaving some wondering if Star Wars will soon explore a multiverse saga.
Now, before we get too excited about The Mandalorian suddenly bringing a Star Wars multiverse into the narrative, it’s worth mentioning that the actor may have just been referring to the Star Wars universe as a “multiverse.” These days, the word “multiverse” has been used for so much genre media that Carl Weathers may have just intended it as a synonym for “universe.” But if he meant to say multiverse, this could mean some big things for the fandom.
Compared to franchises like the MCU or DCU, Star Wars doesn’t really have a proper multiverse. Before the Sequel Trilogy went into full gear, there was a vast Star Wars Expanded Universe that comprised a larger canon, but those works have all been removed from canon and retroactively labeled as Star Wars Legends. If this tweet about The Mandalorian really is serving as an announcement of a Star Wars multiverse, maybe it means we will get some new content focus on fan-favorite EU characters like Corran Horn or Jaina Solo.
If the events of The Mandalorian suddenly make a Star Wars multiverse happen, what is likelier is that we will get more glimpses of what might have been in different universes, similar to what the MCU did with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. So far, the closest we have come to this is the excellent trilogy of Star Wars Infinities graphic novels that started coming out in 2002.
Each of them revolved around what would happen if a major Star Wars event went down differently. This included what would happen if Luke Skywalker failed to blow up the first Death Star or what would have happened if Luke just froze to death on the planet Hoth before getting rescued.
And it’s possible that The Mandalorian’s third season will focus on a Star Wars multiverse element that was already introduced back in Star Wars: Rebels. That show introduced a place called The World Between Worlds that let characters access different points in time and space, allowing Ezra to pull Ahsoka from two years in the past to save her from Darth Vader. Perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of what happens in another universe where Ahsoka is killed by her former master, or maybe someone will mess with The World Between Worlds accidentally or intentionally and create a fractured multiverse.
Ultimately, the smart money bet is still that Mandalorian star Carl Weathers simply meant to say “Star Wars Universe” rather than “Star Wars Multiverse.” Still, if Star Wars wants to start doing multiversal adventures, there is strong fan demand and even canonical ways to make it happen. Honestly, though, we’d be happy just to see Poe Dameron look up and say “somehow, the Expanded Universe returned” and just leave it at that.
