The Mandalorianjust made a huge part ofStar Warshistory canon. TheStar Wars Holiday Specialis either loved or hated by fans, with hardly anything in between. Jon Favreau is a man that happens to love the campy holiday special, which originally aired on CBS in 1978. It featured characters and actors fromA New Hopeand even introduced some new ones, like Chewbacca’s family and the villainous bounty hunter Boba Fett. Favreau decided to go all in with his love of the special and has made it an official part of theStar Warscanon in the first episode ofThe Mandalorian.
In the premiere episode ofThe Mandalorian, we see the bounty hunter doing what he does best. His first acquisition is a fast talking alien named Mythrol, played by formerSNLcast member Horatio Sanz. In the episode, Mythrol says he needs to use the restroom (or rather Vac Tube, as toilets are now known in the Star Wars galaxy), while on board Dyn Jarren’s ship, though he really wants to scope out an escape route. As he discovers the bodies in Carbonite below, we get the bigMandalorian Star Wars Holiday Specialreference. He talks about how he’s probably going to miss Life Day, to which Jarren agrees.
Mythrol is definitely missing out onLife Day. But that’s not the important part here. The important fact is that Life Day was brought up at all, since it’s the main event of theStar Wars Holiday Special. Per the special, it’s a Wookiee holiday celebrated on the forested planet Kashyyyk, which involves feasts and journeys to the Tree of Life. And now, it’s official canon. TheStar Wars Holiday Specialwas only aired once and it was never available commercially, though bootlegs have existed for decades now. Even George Lucas has spoken out about the special over the years, allegedly wishing that every copy was burned, smashed and obliterated.
Now,Jon Favreau wants to make another Star Wars Holiday Specialafter name dropping it inThe Mandalorian. “Oh I would definitely be interested in doing a holiday special,” Favreau said in a new interview. He even knows who he would want to star in it, though he’s keeping his lips sealed. “But one of the people is the member of the cast in an upcoming episode of the show. So we’ll leave it at that for now.” Favreau had this to say about his version of the holiday special.
“I’ve been thinking about it. It’s ready, the ideas are ready. I think it could be really fun. Not as part of this, but there’s an excitement around it because it was so fun and weird, and off and not connected to whatStar Warswas in the theater.The Mandaloriancartoon, the Boba Fett cartoon, from the holiday special was definitely a point of inspiration for what we did in the show.”
Life Day isn’t the only connection to theStar Wars Holiday SpecialinThe Mandalorian, as Jon Favreau noted. The Boba Fett cartoon from the special introduced the world to the bounty hunter and showed off his rifle, which Dyn Jarren uses in the new series to “disintegrate” his enemies, something thatDarth Vader warned Boba Fett about in The Empire Strikes Back. It will be interesting to see if Favreau follows up on his own holiday special, but for now, we still have Malla, Lumpy, Itchy to keep the Life Day celebrations going. Head over toDisneyPlus.comto find out how you can watchThe Mandalorian.
