The Mandalorian And Grogu Features A Major Connection To The Original Star Wars Movie
Contains spoilers for "The Mandalorian and Grogu"
"The Mandalorian and Grogu" connects to various eras of Star Wars. The Anzellans, the alien species Babu Frik (Shirley Henderson) belongs to that were introduced in "Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker," return here. And Zeb (Steve Blum) from "Star Wars Rebels," the best Star Wars series, has a comeback as Din Djarin's (Pedro Pascal) ally. But there's also a deep cut reference related to the first "Star Wars" film that should be a dream come true for hardcore fans.
When Djarin goes to Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne) to free Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), Janu makes his intent to kill Rotta clear in this last bout by throwing an onslaught of monsters at him. This gets referred to as a "dejarik" match, a reference to the holographic chess-like game seen in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope." R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) play dejarik, a holographic game where monsters exist on a field and battle each other.
No firm rules have ever been established; however, for those who have always wanted to play this fictional movie game in real life, Dejarik board games can be purchased at Disney World Galaxy's Edge, which comes with its own rulebook. But its reference in "The Mandalorian and Grogu" does raise some questions.
Is the dejarik hologram game based on a deadly real-world event?
Not only does Din Djarin refer to the fight as a dejarik match, but many of the creatures seen in the hologram game appear in the arena. The Kintan strider, Mantellian Savrip, and others do battle with Djarin and Rotta, so it feels like a dejarik match is supposed to involve specific creatures that fight one another.
This could be a simple coincidence, and Djarin could've called it a dejarik fight as a frame of reference. But there's a far funnier explanation in thinking that the hologram version of dejarik is like when contestants on "The Price Is Right" get to walk away with the home version. It's a kid-friendly board game that happens to be based on a brutal fight to the death. Of course, the real world has Risk, which is all about colonial expansion and conquering nations, so we're not much better.
Dejarik has popped up in various Star Wars media. Among the Easter eggs you may have missed in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is a dejarik reference when we see a physical version of the game in Saw Gerrera's (Forest Whitaker) base. Up to this point, dejarik has always featured as a game, but "The Mandalorian and Grogu" implies it has a real-life foundation of monsters duking it out to the death, showing how many new sides of the galaxy there are to explore.