‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Finale Will ‘Hurt Too Much’ — Is Mando Going To Die?

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

The Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian is just days away, and the more I think about it, the more I feel like something big is about to happen. Whatever it is, it comes at the end of a season that has left many—myself included—feeling rather let down, all things considered. This season has been a bit of a mess, but it’s possible that the season finale will wrap things up in a satisfying way.

That’s what the show’s creators—Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni—seem to be hoping, in any case.

“Hopefully they’ll feel satisfied. They’ll feel resolved, and they’ll also feel a little surprised,” Favreau told Collider during the Star Wars Celebration.

Filoni echoes this sentiment, telling Collider that fans will be “cheering” during the finale but the ending may also feel bittersweet when “you realize it’s an ending.” Here’s the full quotation:

They’ll have a lot to take in, and I think with any good ending there’s the moment you’re in it when you’re cheering and you feel satisfied, but then there’s a little bit after that where you think back at all the things that happened. Maybe you start to put them together in a different way and you realize it’s an ending, but there are other things happening out there in the galaxy that now you know more about.

It’s an Instagram post by stuntman and actor Brendan Wayne, who is often in the Beskar steel armor of Din Djarin, that raises eyebrows and makes me contemplate a potentially much more devastating event.

“This next episode is gonna make you wish you hadn’t asked for more,” Wayne posted. “It might just hurt too much.”

That’s . . . a pretty bold statement.

Here’s the thing: At the end of Episode 7 I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach like something bad was going to happen soon. Maybe it was just the brutal, tragic death of Paz Vizsla, but I don’t think so. Mando being captured by Moff Gideon makes me nervous, especially after everything that’s happened this season, as we’ve seen Din Djarin fade into the role of a more secondary character and Bo-Katan take the lead.

Then there is the question of Pedro Pascal, whose star continues to be very much on the rise, and who has so many other projects keeping him busy that it’s actively impacted production on The Mandalorian. The gut feeling, combined with a sense that Pascal may want to move on from the role, makes me wonder: Could they be preparing to kill of Mando in the Season 3 finale?

It might just hurt too much.

But it would also be incredibly bold and unexpected, and would give Grogu some serious motivation and backstory. He might even decide to go on and train as a Jedi, after all, if Mando were no longer around. He’s not a good fit with the Mandalorians, after all.

There’s also whispers that The Armorer could potentially be a double-agent working for Moff Gideon, which some say is backed up by her getting away from the rest of the group just before they were ambushed. If that’s the case, Baby Yoda would have even less reason to want to stick around.

Still, this is Star Wars, not Game Of Thrones. Sure, they kill off characters in this galaxy, but rarely the title character of their own show. They’ve definitely hit us with deaths before in this show—Kuill was a big one, as was IG-11—but even then, these were side characters.

And yet . . . what else could “hurt too much” other than Mando’s death? They’re not going to kill Baby Yoda, and no other character is loved enough to make us hurt that badly. Bo-Katan isn’t going to die. Axe Woves isn’t a big enough character. I hope I’m wrong, of course, but I’m starting to think it might be Mando, sacrificing himself during some failed rescue attempt so that Bo-Katan and Grogu can get away.

What do you think?

Spoilers for HBO’s Succession follow.

As a brief side-note, I recently predicted something bad happening—like a major character death—in HBO’s Succession and I was right, but I wasn’t exactly right. I wish, in hindsight, that I’d gone with my gut and posted “Is Logan Roy Going To Die In The Next Episode Of Succession?” Being right about that is pretty cool. Being wrong is no big deal. So that’s what I’m going with here. I hope I’m wrong.