This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

Things looked very grim for Din Djarin, Grogu, and Bo-Katan at the start of The Mandalorian season 3. Ambushed by Moff Gideon and the Empire on Mandalore and now on the run on their own home turf, our brave Mandalorians seemed headed for a tragedy in “The Return.” Some fans even predicted Chapter 24 might be the end of the line for our pal Din Djarin. Of course, none of this turned out to be the case!

In what turned out to be an action-packed but heartwarming conclusion to this season’s major storylines, Din, Bo, and Grogu team up to save the day and reclaim Mandalore for their people. It even seems like they’ve taken Gideon down for good this time (although the Imperial baddie always finds a way to pop up again). By the final scene of the episode, Bo-Katan has become the true leader of Mandalore once again and Din has officially adopted Din Grogu has his son, making him his Mandalorian apprentice in the process. Oh, and Taika Waititi’s IG-11 is back, this time as Nevarro’s new marshal, while Din and Grogu sit back and relax in their little house gifted to them by High Magistrate Greef Karga. This is such a happy ending for our heroes it could almost be mistaken for a series finale to The Mandalorian!

Except we know it’s not. For one thing, showrunner Jon Favreau previously confirmed that he’s already written The Mandalorian season 4, mapping out a whole new adventure for Din and Grogu that we’ll presumably get to watch some time after Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew but before the recently announced Dave Filoni Mandoverse movie. And indeed, the finale leaves just enough plot threads dangling to set up a season 4.

It all comes down to a pivotal scene back on the New Republic base on Adelphi. Din and Grogu pay New Republic space cop Carson Teva a visit to offer up his services as a more discerning bounty hunter for the fledgling galactic government. Instead of working for whoever pays the most credits, mercenary style, Din will freelance for Carson specifically, taking down Imperial scum wherever they may be holed up in the Outer Rim. It’s a way for Din to train Grogu in the ways of bounty hunting but with a moral compass as well as a way to help Carson protect the planets and people the New Republic is still too weak (and bureaucratic) to mind. While Carson says his New Republic higher-ups will never approve of a bounty hunter taking on government-sanctioned assignments, Din says this can stay between them.

This new arrangement where Din works unofficially for the New Republic, serving as a wandering bounty hunter lawman for the credits, not only nods to this show’s Samurai and Western movie origins, but also seems to be a way to revive the Rangers of the New Republic spinoff concept that Lucasfilm previously shelved. Din and Grogu can now be those titular rangers in the upcoming The Mandalorian season 4.

Although the show, which was reportedly set to star Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, was canceled after the actor was fired from the franchise, the ideas for the series were never completely scrapped. Even before the premiere of season 3, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy teased that some of the things that we could have seen in Rangers of the New Republic would instead by folded into The Mandalorian.

“We’d never written any scripts or anything on that,” Kennedy told Empire (via Syfy) in 2021. “Some of that will figure into future episodes, I’m sure, of the next iteration of Mandalorian.”

Sure enough, season 3 takes a much deeper dive into New Republic society than ever before. While the government existed largely on the periphery of Din and Grogu’s adventures in the first two seasons, the New Republic is front and center in “The Convert” and sprinkled throughout the rest of this year’s story. We take trips to Coruscant to see first-hand the dystopian qualities of the New Republic’s amnesty program as well as the red tape that is hampering its institutions. When Carson tries to ask for aid for Nevarro during a pirate attack, he’s essentially told to fill out a request form that will more than likely be rejected anyway.

Meanwhile, we get to know more about Elia Kane, a formidable villain we first met in season 2 but who is much more fleshed out now that we’ve seen what she can do as a double agent. Pretending to be a rehabilitated former Imperial now serving the New Republic as a spy, Elia actually works for the Shadow Council, the secret circle that rules the Empire under the auspices of the elusive Grand Admiral Thrawn, who we know is coming in Ahsoka. How Elia’s story ties back to all of these other villains, and her ongoing efforts to thwart her oblivious benefactors, could be something a more New Republic-minded The Mandalorian season 4 could explore further.

In fact, Din and Grogu vs. the Shadow Council could be a way to jump start the next phase of The Mandalorian’s story now that all of that business on Mandalore has concluded. With Gideon out of the picture (for now), our heroes can now turn their attention to all the other warlords terrorizing the innocent people of the Outer Rim. This is the Way.

The Mandalorian season 3 is streaming now on Disney+. Ahsoka hits the service in August.

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