The Mandalorian: Gina Carano reveals season 2 finale ending was a complete surprise

The ending of The Mandalorian season 2 wasn’t just a surprise to the fans, it was a surprise to the actors as well.

The finale of The Mandalorian season 2 brought one of the biggest twists of all time in Star Wars: Luke Skywalker himself would come to train Grogu (The Child) as one of his first (if not the first) padawan on his journey to re-teaching the ways of the Jedi.

The twist ending was a huge surprise to fans, and even the creators themselves were surprised that the ending wasn’t spoiled and that Mark Hamill had returned to reprise the role. The Mandalorian was prone to so many other leaks, after all, such as the reveal that Rosario Dawson would appear as the live-action Ahsoka Tano, among a few other leaks. But part of that success in keeping the ending a secret may have been due to the fact that not even the actors knew about what was to come in the final episode.

Reminiscent of the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame tactic of revealing very little to their actors, the same was apparently true on the set of The Mandalorian season 2. According to Cara Dune actress Gina Carano, she didn’t find out about the Luke Skywalker twist until she made it to set. Carano told Drunk 3PO on YouTube (via /Film):

"So, I started finding out about it in the makeup trailer, basically because you’re like, “Oh wait, who’s that?” And because they didn’t say it in the script… everyone that has worked on The Mandalorian is insane, like insane Star Wars fans. And they have the shirts, and they’re like, “Wait a second.” And so, everybody starts doing a little whispering… we’re like “Who’s that? Who’s that?”… And I think that’s the genius that is Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. It’s– they’re not out there doing a bunch of promoting because what happens when you promote? You start giving away secrets."

After that, Carano even joked she had to make sure Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), wouldn’t give away any spoilers about The Child when it came to season 1 of the show. And, she added, she liked that Favreau enjoyed having some things be a mystery.

Overall, Favreau’s work really did pay off in the end. Many fans were left guessing ’til the very end who would be the one to come rescue The Child after the call was sent out on Tython. The mystery was so ambiguous, in fact, that we didn’t even know if a Jedi would answer his call in the first place. Many guessed that there would be some other Jedi like Cal Kestis or Ezra Bridger. But with The Mandalorian not necessarily a part of the Skywalker saga, that made it even less likely for him to show up. (Though to be fair, we had Luke at #2 on our list of guesses!)

Now, there are so many other loose ends and questions that we have about seasons 2 and 3 of The Mandalorian. But we know Favreau won’t go divulging all the information anytime soon!