One of the most surprising things about watching The Book of Boba Fett was seeing how much it did to set up The Mandalorian Season 3. After bringing back Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) in its fifth episode, Boba Fett’s sixth and seventh installments caught up with a number of other Mandalorian characters, and even found time to bring Din and Grogu back together.
The Mandalorian spin-off also saw Grogu choose a life with Din over one at Luke Skywalker’s nascent Jedi academy. In doing so, Grogu also chose to claim a piece of beskar chainmail instead of the green lightsaber that used to belong to Yoda. But according to one new rumor, The Mandalorian Season 3 will see Grogu make up for that loss in a truly unexpected way.
A Surprising Return — A new report from MakingStarWars.net claims that the highly anticipated third season of The Mandalorian will see the return of IG-11, the Taika Waititi-voiced droid from The Mandalorian’s first season. The report doesn’t offer any details about how the droid returns, or if it’s even the same one viewers got to know back in 2019.
However, the report does say that IG-11 will fill a surprising role in The Mandalorian Season 3. Apparently, the droid will be used as an Iron Man-esque suit for Grogu. The little guy will allegedly sit inside “the chest of a modified IG-11 who has been reinforced with beskar.”
The connections to Iron Man don’t stop there. According to MakingStarWars, IG-11 will also provide Grogu with “data on probabilities of success” in much the same way that Tony Stark’s trusty AI companion Jarvis does. Additionally, while it’s said that IG-11 will protect Grogu “when need be,” the droid will still be controlled by Grogu, who will apparently use it to lay waste to some of Din Djarin’s enemies in The Mandalorian Season 3.
As is always the case with Star Wars rumors like this, make sure to take these claims with a massive grain of salt for now.
Introducing Iron Grogu — Grogu gradually became more powerful over the course of The Mandalorian’s first two seasons, but The Book of Boba Fett leveled up the character’s Jedi abilities quite a bit. The latter series not only included scenes of Grogu leaping and flipping around like a prequel-era Yoda, but also had him use his force powers to tame an out-of-control rancor. With that in mind, it seems only natural that Grogu will continue to get stronger in The Mandalorian Season 3.
Giving the character a mech suit fashioned out of an IG-11 droid is certainly a unique way for The Mandalorian to go about doing that next season. At the very least, it would allow Grogu to keep up with Din and his other companions without having to be lugged around all the time.
The Inverse Analysis — For all the fans out there who would prefer that Star Wars take as little inspiration as possible from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Grogu getting his own Iron Man suit and Jarvis-esque AI companion probably won’t be something they’ll be happy to see. But to the show’s credit, letting Grogu pilot an IG-11 droid that’s capable of dealing some serious damage does fit in well with his adorably destructive personality.
That’s assuming this rumor is accurate, but Star Wars fans won’t know if that’s the case until The Mandalorian finally makes its long-awaited return on Disney+.
