The Mandalorian: Where Is Grogu in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy?

"When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be," Yoda (Frank Oz) told Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) with his dying breath in 1983's Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Sequels, spin-offs, and animated series would reveal that not to be true: by the time of The Mandalorian, set five years post-Jedi, the galaxy is rich with active Force users like Grogu, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). But what becomes of Mando's 50-year-old ward by the time of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, circa 34 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin)? 

"That's a great question, and we talk about many different things," Dave Filoni, executive producer and director of The Mandalorian, told The Hollywood Reporter when asked if Star Wars creatives have figured out where Grogu is during the sequel trilogy. "That's a question for a bunch of characters by the way, not just Grogu. Where are they during these events? If anything, having made The Clone Wars and weaving a tale so intricately between two movies that were much closer together, I've learned that there's expansive room in this galaxy for us to tell stories and have characters doing things."

Filoni continued: "As a kid, when Yoda said, 'When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be,' to Luke, I took that very literally. Well, now we know that's anything but true. There are many different people that could wield the force, and maybe Luke is the last Jedi as far as what Yoda would consider a Jedi. So we'll just have to wait and see how the story evolves and what makes sense. But in my experience, there's definitely a way to weave everything together and make it exciting. It's possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw [in the sequel trilogy] if the story has us somewhere else."

When Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) let Grogu go with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to learn the ways of the Force, fans feared the worst: by the time of the Star Wars sequels, Skywalker's new Jedi Order was long ago destroyed by Luke's nephew — and first Jedi student — Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). But The Book of Boba Fett revealed Grogu chose the Way of the Mandalorian over the path of the Jedi, seemingly sparing the child from becoming another of Ren's victims at Skywalker's ill-fated Jedi Academy.

For now, Grogu's whereabouts by the time of The Force Awakens remain a mystery. (Nearly three decades separate The Mandalorian, set within The New Republic era on the Star Wars timeline, and the Rise/Fall of the First Order era of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.) Season 2 episode "Chapter 13: The Jedi" revealed Grogu's origins, with Ahsoka connecting with the child through the Force to learn he was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant until the Empire rose to powerat the end of the Clone Wars.

As for Grogu's Star Wars future, series creator Jon Favreau teased an "evolution" in the Grogu-Mando dynamic following Skywalker's training. New episodes of The Mandalorian are streaming Wednesdays on Disney+.