The Mandalorian Reveals What The Canceled Rangers Of The New Republic Spinoff Could Have Been

This article contains spoilers for season 3, episode 5 of "The Mandalorian."

Series creator Jon Favreau certainly knows that the Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal, et al) and Grogu duo is a huge reason why viewers continue to tune in to "The Mandalorian" on a weekly basis — but the show isn't solely about their (mis)adventures. Throughout the course of a little over two and a half seasons, the pair have come across several fan-favorite characters who could easily shoulder the weight of their own entire spin-off shows. Some of these guest stars, such as Temuera Morrison's Boba Fett and assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), have already gone on to headline "The Book of Boba Fett." Others, such as Timothy Olyphant's Cobb Vanth or Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan Kryze, have stolen the spotlight during their many appearances yet remain supporting players. With the latest episode, however, we may have just received our biggest hint yet at what a since-shelved spin-off could've looked like.

Early on in "Chapter 21: The Pirate," the assault on Nevarro by the pirate warlord Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie) motivates the reluctant Magistrate (er, make that High Magistrate) Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) to send out a distress call to the New Republic. Who else but our old friend Captain Carson Teva, the X-wing pilot portrayed by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee in season 2, should respond with the urgency the situation requires. But as he struggles to get the slow-moving New Republic bureaucracy on Coruscant to approve sending reinforcements and protect the planet, this plotline can't help but recall Lucasfilm's plans for a very different "Star Wars" show altogether.

In effect, "The Mandalorian" is giving us a glimpse into what the now-scrapped "Rangers of the New Republic" spin-off series could've been.

In a better world, Disney and Lucasfilm would've originally cast a much less vitriolic (and, dare I say it, slightly more talented) actor than Gina Carano as Cara Dune, the ex-Rebel soldier featured in the first two seasons of "The Mandalorian" who was meant to lead "Rangers of the New Republic." In light of her terribly offensive comments, the studios made the wise choice to part ways with her entirely and cancel any plans for her spin-off series. But while all that storytelling potential seems to have been squandered, "The Mandalorian" might have repurposed some of that original concept into its latest episode.

The indications of what this spin-off could've been start when we visit Carson Teva in a ramshackle bar populated by other former Rebels and now-current Rangers of the New Republic. Alerted to the message sent by Greef Karga, Teva happens to be the one to spring into action in honor of their past shared history. But it's easy to imagine an entire series where Dune, Teva, and other do-gooder adventurers respond to distress calls scattered throughout the galaxy, operating as the law people of the Wild West — an apt comparison in an episode featuring pirate kings and other criminals running roughshod in a chaotic, post-Empire galaxy.

While Teva's rescue efforts get caught up in the muck of New Republic politics, stonewalled from helping because of petty bureaucracy, that only makes the prospects of a ragtag and technically law-breaking group of renegades acting in the best interests of the defenseless all the more exciting. Without the help of the New Republic government and free to choose their own missions, I for one would've been on board with the "Star Wars" version of Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force.

While the overall reputation of the sequel trilogy has been soured by the thoroughly divisive "The Rise of Skywalker," there's one major oversight from "The Force Awakens" that may have kneecapped the new movies before they ever really got off the ground. Decades after the fall of the Empire, the state of the galaxy and its new political reality without an evil emperor calling all the shots anymore were never really explored at all. Sure, we knew that the First Order had risen from the ashes of the Empire, the Rebellion had been replaced by the Resistance, and somewhere in the middle of it all was some government entity known as the New Republic. Otherwise, however, "The Force Awakens" never really stopped to explain any of this.

Now, it seems that "The Mandalorian" has decided to help tie up some of those loose ends, paying off Kathleen Kennedy's prior comments that "Rangers of the New Republic" would "...figure into future episodes, I'm sure, of the next season of 'The Mandalorian.'"

That seems to have come to fruition, as season 3 dives further into the new status quo of a recently-freed galaxy. Just because the Empire is (mostly) no more, naturally, doesn't mean that bandits and pirates and certain overambitious Imperials no longer pose a threat. By bringing Teva back into the action and finding himself at the whims of a corporate quagmire on Coruscant, "The Mandalorian" continues its interest in paralleling the New Republic with the Empire. In the process, season 3 may be killing two birds with one stone: providing important world-building context for the New Republic while giving us more insights into the paths left untraveled in "Rangers of the New Republic."

New episodes of "The Mandalorian" premiere on Disney+ on Wednesdays.