The Mandalorian Got So Bad For One Avoidable Reason 

Considering that fans thought this series finally made Star Wars interesting again after the botched Sequel Trilogy, audiences were left asking a simple question: why did this series suddenly get so bad?

The most likely answer is that the show was always meant to end after the second season.

One of the main reasons we believe this is that The Mandalorian has always revolved around the relationship between Din Djarin and Grogu (or Baby Yoda, as we have refused to stop calling him).

We see our titular protagonist rescue the little green guy in the first episode of the show, and over time, Grogu continues to grow stronger in The Force.

This all culminates with a season two finale in which a CGI Luke Skywalker takes the unconventional Padawan learner in for formal Jedi training, leaving The Mandalorian to continue his space cowboy adventures without his pint-sized companion.

Unfortunately, season three of The Mandalorian essentially undoes all of the narrative work of the second season. After Grogu unexpectedly ditches Luke Skywalker to return to his adoptive space daddy in The Book of Boba Fett, season three features a return to the status quo where they continue to travel the stars and get into misadventures.

There were some good moments here and there, but the stark drop in quality between seasons two and three left fans wondering how such a killer show could rapidly decline.

In retrospect, the answer seems obvious: The Mandalorian seemed designed to end after the second season for multiple reasons, including the fact that the Djarin and Grogu have an amazingly emotional farewell scene together.

Additionally, the show’s second season seemed to spend a lot of time setting up future Disney+ shows. That made it seem that when we next saw The Mandalorian, he’d be a supporting character in someone else’s adventures, which is what happened (more or less) with his Book of Boba Fett appearance.

Why did Disney continue with The Mandalorian after the series had reached such an organic conclusion and seemingly bid goodbye to Grogu?

The obvious answer is money: after The Mandalorian became the one show to salvage Star Wars after The Rise of Skywalker landed with a thud, The House of Mouse had a strong incentive to keep the show going.

That incentive grew even stronger after Disney canceled the planned Rangers of the New Republic show featuring Cara Dune, especially because that would otherwise have been the most logical place to tell new Din Djarin stories.  

Cynically, we also have to consider Disney’s motivation to sell as much Grogu merchandise as humanly possible.

Somewhat infamously, the corporation didn’t have much Grogu merchandise ready to go when The Mandalorian launched, and this led to a frenzy of fans trying to hand Disney their money for toys featuring the cutesy character.

Now, store shelves are positively saturated with Grogu merch, and Disney is well aware that the longer they stretch this show out, the more money they can make from toy sales.

The Mandalorian’s fourth season will air in 2025, and given the quality of the third season, we’ve got a bad feeling about this. It’s possible Disney has learned its lesson and will once again deliver quality stories featuring Din Djarin and Grogu.

But if history is any indication, we’ll get so much filler and setup for future shows that we’ll be rooting for someone to use the Darksaber to put us out of our misery finally.