Why wasn’t Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere?

Moff Gideon was teased as having survived in The Mandalorian season 1, so why wasn’t he in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere? 

The one thing that Star Wars gets right pretty much every time is introducing us to some of the best villains of all time. And in The Mandalorian season 1, while we didn’t get to see too much of the villainous character Moff Gideon (portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito) — he was just menacing enough for us to fear for Mando’s life in the coming episodes.

We also saw in the season 1 finale that Gideon was wielding the Darksaber, and it left many fans wondering how he got it and what he was going to do now that we know he’s in possession of it. Unfortunately, in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere, Moff Gideon was nowhere to be found. Admittedly, in the midst of the excitement of The Mandalorian premiering, this omission was barely on my mind while watching the show.

But looking back, I can’t believe I had forgotten about one of the show’s most important characters. And I can’t believe that the show decided to leave him out of the premiere narrative as well. We’ve already discussed four flaws of the season 2 premiere. And what those have in common with this is that for a season premiere, as far as the overarching plot is concerned, the show didn’t necessarily take any huge risks. As a standalone, it was great. But as a season premiere, not a ton was done to advance the story.

So, without the inclusion of Moff Gideon, we’re missing out on a lot that could have been introduced in this first episode. Already, we’ve wasted one out of a small eight episodes in this season. And for fans, it’s been nearly a year since we’ve seen this character. So of course we’d be longing to know what he’s been up to. We’ve gotten plenty about our hero, but nothing about our villain. By those measures, then, they missed the opportunity to set up the conflict of this season, making it seem like Mando’s quest to return Baby Yoda home is going to be a piece of cake.

There was Temuera Morrison lurking in the background at the end, and they’ve yet to establish if he’s friend or foe. But because this hasn’t been confirmed, this means there’s still really no established opposition for Mando. And really, this was probably one of the easiest adventures for The Child thus far. Nobody was after him, and the stakes were significantly lower than they have been last time, which is a step backwards. (Not that we’d want to see Baby Yoda in danger. But everyone loves the action and suspense that comes with Mando trying to protect the c=Child.)

Understandably, you don’t want to reveal your entire hand at the beginning of the series. It’s better if things unfold slowly over time. But in that same regard, episode 1 could have done something to tease what Moff Gideon was doing in the background. Perhaps he is in fact working with Boba Fett, and that’s why we saw him at the end of the episode. But a little more concrete evidence would have been helpful to confirm that if Gideon was, indeed, behind that.

Hopefully in episode 2, they don’t miss out on a chance to bring Gideon back. Giancarlo Esposito is a fantastic actor, and an especially chilling one whenever he gets to play a villain. So the show definitely could use a lot more Moff Gideon. While the villain-of-the-week approach is fine too, you can’t neglect this season’s big bad!

What would you like to see from Moff Gideon this season? Let us know in the comments!