The Mandalorian Season 3 Trailer Brings Back Fan-Favorite Character From Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The first official trailer for the third season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian was released at D23 Expo on Saturday and gave fans their first look at the eagerly anticipated new season which is set to arrive on Disney+ in February 2023, including the reunion of Din Djarin and Grogu as well as what’s next for Din. The trailer also reveals glimpses of new faces in the upcoming season as well as a familiar, fan-favorite one from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Babu Frik.

Babu Frik was a fast fan-favorite from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, offering a bit of hilarious comic relief during the character’s appearance in that film and it’s expected that Babu Frik may bring some of that same energy to The Mandalorian. The character’s appearance in the new trailer isn’t a huge surprise, however, as it was revealed earlier this year that the character would make an appearance. During a panel at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year which included Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, it was revealed that the beloved character would appear in the upcoming season. Given the timeline of The Mandalorian compared to Babu Frik’s first appearance in The Rise of Skywalker, this upcoming appearance puts Babu Frik roughly 25 years or so prior his time roaming the galaxy with the Spice Runners of Kijimi.

Additionally, Babu Frik won’t be the only Anzellan to appear. A teaser shown at Celebration showed quite a few other Anzellans. It will also be interesting to see how Babu Frik is when we encounter him in The Mandalorian. Creature supervisor Neal Scanlan previously revealed that the character was heavily reworked for The Rise of Skywalker.

“The real idea from J.J. was that little Babu would be a character very much like he is in the film, but not necessarily doing the job that he’s doing in the film,” Scanlan explained. “He was much more of a kind of a medium almost. Originally, Rey went to see Babu in order to find some information and he almost would exist in an environment very specifically tailored to his own size, so almost scaled to him. So, when we started to design Babu—Ivan Manzella designed him, and he was costumed very differently than what you see in the final movie. So as a character, he was there very, very early on in J.J.’s world, the role that he played changed several times.”

Season 3 of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is set to debut in February 2023.

Are you excited for more Babu Frik? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!