The Mandalorian Debunks Mace Windu Fan Theory

[Warning: This story contains The Mandalorian spoilers for “Chapter 20: The Foundling.”] In The Mandalorian‘s season 2 episode “Chapter 13: The Jedi,” Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) communicated with The Child through the Force to learn the foundling named Grogu survived Order 66. “Many masters trained him over the years. At the end of the Clone Wars, when the Empire rose to power, he was hidden,” Anakin Skywalker’s former padawan told Grogu’s ward, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), revealing that “someone” rescued Grogu from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant the night the Emperor ordered the Great Jedi Purge. But it wasn’t until The Mandalorian season 3 episode “Chapter 20: The Foundling” that viewers learned the identity of Grogu’s savior.

After “The Jedi” aired in 2020, Star Wars fans theorized who rescued Grogu from the Jedi Temple. Was it Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz), who is of the same species as Grogu and also escaped Order 66? Maybe it was Jedi Archives librarian and fellow purge survivor Jocasta Nu (Alethea McGrath). Others speculated it might have been the supposedly-slain Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson): according to the popular fan theory, Windu survived his apparent death at the hands of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and saved Grogu before going into hiding.

The Mandalorian Mace Windu Theory Debunked

“The Foundling” debunked the Windu theory with the reveal that Grogu’s savior was the Jedi Kelleran Beq (played by former Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best, reprising his live-action role from Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge). Jedi knights protected the child as the Emperor’s brainwashed clone troopers stormed the Temple — massacring younglings and Jedi alike — until Beq, having commandeered a speeder on a chase across Coruscant, got Grogu to safety off-planet with a jump into hyperspace.

Is Mace Windu Alive?

Jackson believes Windu is still alive, arguing a Jedi as powerful as Mace Windu could have survived being electrocuted and defenestrated. The actor, who starred in all three Star Wars prequels, has challenged Windu’s death as scripted by George Lucas in Revenge of the Sith: “As blue rays engulf his body, he is flung out the window and falls twenty stories to his death. No more screams. No more moans.”

“Of course he is [alive]! Jedi can fall from amazing distances,” Jackson told Entertainment Weekly in 2016. “And there’s a long history of one-handed Jedi. So why not?” Should the one-handed Windu return to wield his purple lightsaber once again, Jackson revealed it would be with the blessing of Lucas, who sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012. 

“George doesn’t have anything to do with [Star Wars] anymore,” Jackson said at the time. “George is like, ‘I’m okay with that. You can be alive.’”

New episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian season 3 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.