The Mandalorian Season 3 is officially underway, with the fourth episode premiering on Disney+ in just a few days' time. But as the show goes on, we find ourselves asking more and more questions about Grogu (AKA "Baby Yoda"), with the biggest one being his whereabouts during the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. So, where is he?
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The Mandalorian (2019), along with every other show in the "Mando-Verse", so The Book of Boba Fett (2021) and the upcoming Ahsoka (2023), all take place five years after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), which marks the end of the original Star Wars Trilogy.
This places the show 25 years before the Sequel Trilogy begins with Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015). So, it's reasonable to assume that The Mandalorian will never encroach on this timeline. However, now that producer Jon Favreau has confirmed that Season 4 is in the works, it is possible.
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He also said that he wants to do at least five seasons of The Mandalorian, and while it's very unlikely that this will give the show enough time to "catch up" with the sequels, never say never, because anything is possible in the Star Wars universe. Not only that, but at some point, we'll have to see Grogu all grown up.
In fact, many fans have been wondering for some time now whether the show will do a time-jump, be it through a simple leap (or many leaps) forward, or through some other means, such as the main character being frozen in carbonite, or actual time travel, something Ahsoka is expected to explore.
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As such, fans have also been wondering if The Mandalorian will tie into the Sequel Trilogy, something Favreau has also previously hinted at. Are Disney and Lucasfilm planning on using the show to "fix" those films in the same way that Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) has with the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy?
With all of that said, even if the show does end up visiting the sequels' timeline, then Grogu wouldn't appear that much older anyway. Being the same species as Yoda (and Yaddle), Grogu ages some ten times slower than humans do, so while he's described as being "50 years' old", he's really only around five, just as it's reasonable to view Yoda as 90 instead of 900 years' old.
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However, adding an extra 25+ years onto Grogu does mean that he'd be somewhat different. For starters, he'd be able to speak, something The Mandalorian Season 3 is already leaning into having him do. Is the show simply preparing us for a very different version of Grogu?
Think about it: why else would the show have gone to such great efforts to have him undergo some Jedi training with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), only to have him back with Din Djarin/the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), who is already starting to train him in the ways of the Mandalorian?
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There's really only one way these questions can be answered, and that's the Sequel Trilogy. Whether the show ever goes there or not, the fact of the matter is, whatever Grogu ends up becoming later in life, whether it's a Jedi or a Mandalorian or some combination of the two, he is alive during the sequels' timeline. The other question is; where is he?
From a creative standpoint, the answer is quite simple: the character of Grogu had not been developed while the films were being made and released into theaters, from The Force Awakens all the way through to Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), although granted there was some overlap between the final film and The Mandalorian, which premiered on Disney+ the same year.
It's very similar to the "Ahsoka problem". We know that she was alive and around during the Prequel Trilogy, but seeing as she didn't come into existence creatively until 2008, which is when The Clone Wars aired, she doesn't appear in any of those preceding films. Only retrospectively are we able to add her into the background of those films with our mind's eye.
The same applies to Grogu. While he didn't exist while the sequels were being made and churned out, he does now. The difference between the two, though, is that Ahsoka's whereabouts are known during the prequels.
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Check it out the official trailer for The Mandalorian Season 3 below:
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As per StarWars.com, here's the official synopsis for The Mandalorian:
After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.
The Mandalorian Season 3 stars Pedro Pascal (Din Djarin/The Mandalorian), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), Emily Swallow (The Armorer), Omid Abtahi (Dr. Pershing), Amy Sedaris (Peli Motto), and Tim Meadows and Christopher Lloyd in undisclosed roles.
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The Mandalorian Seasons 1, 2, and 3, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), and Andor (2022) are now streaming on Disney+.
You can also enjoy all the animated shows -- Star Wars Rebels (2014), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022), and Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021), as well as all 12 Star Wars movies, and more. Other upcoming live-action shows include Ahsoka (2023) and Skeleton Crew (2023).