After some speculation, the white-armored soldiers have been seen on the set of Jon Favreau’s live-action series.
According to Jason Ward of makingstarwars.net, two stormtroopers were spotted on the set of The Mandalorian, the highly anticipated live-action series from Jon Favreau.
The series takes place a little after the fall of the Galactic Empire and at the beginning of the New Republic era. With that said, it’s entirely possible that there are still some stormtroopers hanging around even after The Emperor met his demise.
Ward posed an interesting question as to how this might play into the show’s story, asking “is this like when the Nazis escaped to South America but with a Star Wars twist?”
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I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty appealing premise to me. I can definitely see our protagonist hunting down rogue stormtroopers – not for the New Republic, but for himself. Maybe he lost somebody at the hands of these guys? Some kind of old vendetta with the Empire? We’ll see.
Ward’s piece goes on to mention that because of the time gap between The Mandalorian and The Force Awakens, it’s unlikely that these stormtroopers could be the first remnants of the First Order. The question to me, however, is this: just how many stormtroopers are left? I’m assuming a solid group of them got fried on the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Still, there could very well be enough of them to start some kind of faction. After all, the Rebel Alliance started out small, too.
Photo Credit: Marvel, LucasfilmMy theory about the sudden appearance of the stormtroopers might surprise you (but then again, it might not).
They’re working for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
What? How? Is that possible? Yes, my friends, it is quite possible. Remember in the Rebels finale when Thrawn and Ezra were launched into hyperspace? Of course you do. By no means does that prove that the Grand Admiral died. These stormtroopers might indeed be working for the red-eyed genius.
In the Thrawn trilogy (now Legends, unfortunately), Thrawn leads the last of the Galactic Empire’s army against the New Republic, which is still in the early stages of its development. In the books, Thrawn’s genius is on full display throughout, as we saw in Rebels. There were still plenty of stormtroopers left, and don’t forget the fact that Thrawn also discovered cloning facilities that The Emperor had left behind. Could these stormtroopers be clones? Or are they on the run as Ward guessed?
I’m hoping the stormtroopers spotted on set could lead to a backdoor way of getting some form of the Thrawn trilogy into live-action. If I’m wrong, it’s still cool to see that Favreau is getting his hands dirty with some original trilogy material.