The 25 most influential Star Wars characters

21. Din Djarin

There are many Mandalorians in the Star Wars universe, but none can compare to the life story that is Din Djarin’s. Din (otherwise known as the Mandalorian) started his life out as an average bounty hunter, and just about the best there was in the New Republic. But it was his discovery of the most exclusive bounty in the galaxy that kicked off his journey to becoming one of the most influential Star Wars characters.

Upon the successful extraction of the bounty, Din found that the bounty was actually a child from an unknown species — though we all knew the little guy was of the same species of Yoda. (Hence the nickname “Baby Yoda.”) Din discovered much about the Child during his quest to deliver the bounty and the subsequent quest of trying to bring him to his home. With the Jedi nearly extinct at this time, Din was amazed to discover the Child was Force-sensitive, thus kicking off the search to find a Jedi to train him.

Din encountered heroes like Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano on his journey, and eventually Luke Skywalker himself. The Child (who we later found out was named Grogu) was to become one of Luke’s first padawans. And yet, we also discovered the darker purposes behind the bounty placed on Grogu’s head, seeing as Moff Gideon wanted to use him in some midi-chlorian, cloning experiment. If it wasn’t for Mando taking the job, so much might not have been discovered about the Empire during the era of the New Republic.