The Mandalorian was considered a huge success thanks to its willingness to be more than just a Star Wars series like all the others. It focused on the Mandalorian himself and his discovery of the existence of Grogu, a young member of the same species as Yoda. While having a “Baby Yoda” was a hard callback to the original movies, it was still fresh enough to keep The Mandalorian exciting and fresh for fans as it explored a part of the universe that the movies never approached. However, when Andor showed something even more original with its debut, The Mandalorian began to become more of a call-back series to older stories.
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Three years ago, The Mandalorian might have finally jumped the shark when it came to call-backs to things from Star Wars past. This was the episode where the series brought in the droid known as R5-D4 for no reason other than nostalgia.
Why Would The Mandalorian Bring In R5-D4?
For younger fans, R5-D4 was just a droid that appeared in one scene in the first Star Wars movie, later re-titled Star Wars: A New Hope. This was the droid that Uncle Owen was going to buy from the Jawas on Tatooine. However, when he agreed to buy the droid, it glitched and malfunctioned. Luke Skywalker convinced his uncle to get a different one, and they chose R2-D2 instead, which was an important plot point as it was R2-D2 that led Luke to Princess Leia and began his rise as a Jedi Master. It should also be noted that R5-D4 faked the malfunction at the request of R2-D2 to help that droid escape.
That said, when George Lucas created Star Wars, his deal with the studio allowed him to keep all rights to merchandising and toys. This means that he could create a toy line that had as many characters as he could imagine. He turned it into an empire, and of those toys, he even created bit characters who only appeared once, like Hammerhead from the Cantina and, yes, even R5-D4. Kids buying Star Wars action figures in the early 1980s likely owned an R5-D4 figure along with R2-D2 and C3PO.
That is pretty much why The Mandalorian likely included R5-D4 in the series, just to call back the nostalgia and memory of viewers remembering playing with the little droid action figure as kids. By bringing in R5-D4, it was a way to show how his heroics in faking his malfunction helped R2-D2 start the mission to overthrow the Empire. In The Mandalorian, Din Djarin purchased R5-D4 for his mission to the Living Waters of Mandalore, so the little droid finally got his own moment in the sun.
However, that is also problematic because this is just throwing something from the past into the series and ensuring that it continues to be a hunt for Easter eggs rather than a show looking to the future. The Mandalorian was no longer looked at as something unique and was becoming more of a look into nostalgia. This was the moment that The Mandalorian officially jumped the shark.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
