The Mandalorian: Who was Mando before the events of the show

When The Mandalorian begins, he is an established bounty hunter with a tragic past. Here’s all we know about him from before the events of the show.

In The Mandalorian, we follow the travels of a bounty hunter and member of the Mandalorian Creed as he travels the galaxy trying to protect a child (which the internet has dubbed as “Baby Yoda”).

When we first meet our hero, he is an established and seasoned bounty hunter, but as the show goes on, we do get a look inside his tragic past. While it hasn’t explicitly been spelt out in stone, so far, the show has given us a pretty good idea about his early life.

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Firstly, Mando’s birth name is Din Djarin. When he was a child, his parents were killed by a squadron of Separatist Droids during the Clone Wars, after which, he was rescued by a group of Mandalorians, known as “Death Watch”, fending off the droids and taken in by the tribe as a foundling. Him seeing his parents killed by droids as a child is what lead to his hatred of them in the show.

Additionally, based off the fact he was a young child during the events of the Clone Wars, and that the show takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, we can deduce he is in his early-to-mid 40s by the events of The Mandalorian. 

The identity of the specific Mandalorian’s who rescued Din has yet to be revealed, but many speculate that Moff Gideon was a member of the tribe who later abandoned his oath and joined the Empire, leading to their assault on Mandalore, hence how he knew his real name despite Mando saying that no one has called him that since he was a child.

After being discovered as a foundling, the Mandalorians raised Din Djarin and once he came of age, he was sworn into their Creed. In Chapter 4: Sanctuary, Mando mentioned that since no one had seen him without his helmet on since he was a few years older than a group of playing children, meaning he was likely sworn to the creed some time in his teenage years.

In his later years, he worked with a heist crew involving Ran, Xi’an, and Qin, who we met in Chapter 6: The Prisoner, and a fall out between him and the other members was alluded to in the episode, but was explained in detail. However, that fall out is why none of his former crew members had any qualms betraying him during and after the job.

Some time after that, Mando joined the Bounty Hunters Guild and settled on Nevarro with the rest of his Mandalorian covenant, and travels around the galaxy collecting bounty’s in order to make a living, that is until the events of the show.

That’s all that has been revealed to us so far regarding Din Djarin’s past, but I’m sure that more about him will be revealed in Season 2, particularly if our theory about Moff Gideon turns out to be true.

Season 1 of the Mandalorian is currently streaming on Disney+.