Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2, The Mines of Mandalore.
Coming off its lackluster season 3 premiere, The Mandalorian has returned with an episode that helps put the Disney+ series back on track. The episode, titled The Mines of Mandalore, sends Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu to the surface of its eponymous, destroyed planet. His journey to the planet’s living waters takes a dangerous turn, however, when he is captured by a malevolent alien lurking deep beneath Mandalore’s surface.
Fortunately, Grogu is able to travel off-planet and bring Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) back to save Din. After she does, Bo-Katan takes Din directly to Mandalore’s living waters where she herself was once baptized as a princess. Din’s redemption ceremony is, unfortunately, interrupted when he is dragged underwater by an unseen force.
As Bo-Katan is in the midst of dragging him back up, she briefly sees the beast responsible for Din’s near-drowning: A massive, horned underwater creature that looks a bit like a mammoth. She sees, in other words, a living, breathing mythosaur.
The mythosaur in The Mandalorian season 3, explained
Mythosaurs are legendary creatures in Star Wars lore.
The infamously gigantic beasts were first discovered on the surface of Mandalore in the Outer Rim and it’s said that they were eventually tamed and ridden by some of the first Mandalorians. However, the mythosaurs were believed to have gone extinct long before the events of The Mandalorian. Despite that fact, the mythosaur skull nonetheless became one of the most traditional and popular symbols of Mandalorian culture.
Taking all of this into account, it’s not hard to see why Bo-Katan is so shocked to come face-to-face with an actual mythosaur at the end of The Mines of Mandalore. The mythosaurs not only hold a major place within Mandalore’s cultural history but the creatures have also long been believed to be extinct.
What does the mythosaur’s return mean?
The mythosaur’s apparent return, notably, ties into one prophecy that has been uttered several times in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett by The Armorer (Emily Swallow). The prophecy in question claims that the mythosaur will rise back up and herald a new age of Mandalore.
There is, of course, no telling whether Mandalore will or could ever be rebuilt. However, the appearance of a mythosaur in episode 2 of The Mandalorian season 3 certainly suggests that there may be more to the prophecy regarding Mandalore’s future than anyone has previously believed. If so, that means a new age for Mandalore may be just around the corner.
That’s not the only mystery fans will have to wait to see be resolved. Now that a new mythosaur has appeared in The Mandalorian, viewers may also want to start speculating about who — if any — of the show’s characters will, much like their ancient ancestors before them, attempt to tame and ride the gigantic beast.
New episodes of The Mandalorian premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.
