We Could Return To This Forgotten Planet In 'The Mandalorian' Season 3
The Mandalorian has done a great job of showcasing different worlds in the Star Wars galaxy. Lots of them are new, but there are also familiar ones like Tatooine and Tython. As such, there has been talk about whether we may see another familiar planet in season 3 or beyond. One that has not been showcased onscreen very much in recent years. And there is a possible precedent for its possible appearance, given the Legends references on the show and how willing the creative team is to pull certain things from Legends.
The planet that we are talking about is, of course, Coruscant. First introduced in Timothy Zahn's original Thrawn trilogy novels released in the early 1990s, it became well known to general audiences as the city planet capital of the galaxy in the prequel trilogy. It was showcased in a lot of prequel era Expanded Universe content, as well as both Clone Wars era TV shows. It was even featured in stories set decades and even over a century after the films, all the way to the future of the Star Wars: Legacy comics in Legends, where it is a major location in a pivotal conflict that feels like the culmination of the EU.
RELATED: REPORTED: Mandalorian Season 3 Will Wrap Filming Spring 2022
But during the Disney era, there was, for a while, a huge shortage of Coruscant appearances onscreen. It appeared that there was a shift away from prequel-inspired content, with the new focus being on original trilogy-inspired content. The TV show Star Wars Rebels only showed Coruscant via a HoloNet news image in the episode "Empire Day." And the planet was strangely missing from the sequel trilogy. Some fans thought at first that it was the planet destroyed by Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens, but that was actually Hosnian Prime. The plan was to save Coruscant's use in case another filmmaker wanted to use it, and that almost happened via Colin Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates, the Episode IX we almost got before it became The Rise of Skywalker. It would've become the First Order capital and even included a stormtrooper uprising led by Finn.
To be fair, Coruscant was featured via flashback in Rogue One, and various books and comics started to include it more, as prequel-inspired content became less "taboo" in the Disney era. We even got to see it in the final season of The Clone Wars. But a live-action return to Coruscant, and for more than just a few seconds, would be great.
The way that The Mandalorian could do this is by utilizing it in a way similar to the original Thrawn trilogy. The third book in that trilogy, The Last Command, features Grand Admiral Thrawn leading the Siege of Coruscant. We know from season 2 that Ahsoka Tano is looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn. This, coupled with the inclusion of Thrawn trilogy location Mount Tantiss at the end of The Bad Batch season 1, seems to hint at an adaptation of the Thrawn trilogy. Perhaps something similar to that story is what some of the live-action shows are building toward.
Personally, if the creatives are building toward something like this, I believe that it is a bit too early for the Siege of Coruscant. I expect that we will not see a live-action Thrawn until the Ahsoka series, which seems like it might not come out until 2023 at the earliest. However, other shows like The Mandalorian could lay down the seeds and get us familiar with Coruscant again before it gets attacked. We should get to see what the new status quo is for the planet, before seeing it attacked. In Revenge of the Sith, we did not really get to see how the citizens were reacting to the Battle of Coruscant, so it would be pretty bold if the live-action shows ever go there. For now, I can imagine Din Djarin perhaps trying to fulfill an important mission on Coruscant. A live-action return to this planet would be very welcome.
READ NEXT: Armorer Actress Discusses Her Character's Future After 'The Mandalorian' Season 1
Source(s): Screen Rant