Did you spot this classic Star Wars baddie in the new Mandalorian trailer?
An old foe from the prequel films look set to make a comeback in the upcoming Disney+ series
Armour that actually works, a fantastic carbonite callback and even a tantalising hint of a jetpack: the second trailer for new Star Wars live-action show The Mandalorian has it all. However, the new sneak peek also teases a very intriguing return of an old prequel foe: the super battle droids.
That's right, the battle bots that made their Star Wars entrance during Episode II: Attack of the Clones can be spotted in a few frames.
But how exactly will these formidable old droids – controlled by the Trade Federation in the prequel films – find their way into the new series, which is set after The Jedi Returns? After all, weren’t they all shut down after the end of the Clone Wars in Episode III, over 20 years before?
Well, although most were decommissioned after the Separatist Droid Army fell apart, some were modified and reactivated for private use, according to the Star Wars novels.
And made from fictional super-metal 'Duranium' and designed to operate independently (without a command centre, unlike other battle droids), it makes perfect sense why a few of these bots would still be roaming around a galaxy far far away at the time of The Mandalorian.
So who could have reactivated these droids? Is this just one person/alien who’s modded a droid to become his personal bodyguard? Or, are the two bots we see on-screen part of a larger army?
Our guess: the latter. That’s because immediately before the droids appear on screen we see an aircraft that looks an awful lot like an HMP droid gunship, the Separatist’s missile-ship-of-choice during the Clone Wars (as fans of the old Star Wars: Battlefront games will know).
Judging from this, it seems very possible we’ll see some sort of mass droid attack in The Mandalorian.
And whether this is carried out by some rebooted bot force or even the original army in a flashback (one illustrating the reason why the Pedro Pascal’s lone gunfighter becomes a Mandalorian in the first place), still much to be excited about, there is.
The Mandalorian streams on Disney+ in the US from the 12th November, and will stream in the UK at a later date
