These Are the Cameos The Mandalorian and Grogu Wants Us to Be Excited For?

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A fun part of being a Star Wars fan is spotting those quirky, minor characters with a lot of personality in the background of the main story – especially if they have a ridiculous name! Fans affectionately call these characters “Glup Shittos.” However, in Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, there aren’t many of these memorable background characters – though a few of the Anzellans, similar to Babu Frik, come close.

Given the show’s premise of traveling to different places and taking on various jobs, you’d expect a compelling new character to emerge. However, the characters most likely to become fan favorites are mostly references for dedicated Star Wars viewers – specifically, those familiar with the animated shows created by Lucasfilm’s Dave Filoni. Since Ahsoka Tano was introduced by Rosario Dawson, characters from The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels have been appearing more and more in the live-action shows, and now even in the films. The issue is that these characters are presented as if we’re already supposed to know and care about them, rather than being properly introduced or developed for a wider audience.

In The Mandalorian and Grogu, Din Djarin and Grogu team up with Zeb Orrelios from Rebels, but their connection doesn’t really get a chance to develop. Mid-season, Mando is captured by Embo, a bounty hunter from Clone Wars (voiced by Dave Filoni on the original show), though he remains completely silent in this appearance. The main storyline revolves around Mando and Grogu attempting to save Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), who Ahsoka once playfully called “Stinky,” from a rather unthreatening crime boss named Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne). It’s unclear if Jeremy Allen White knew he’d be voicing a minor character with such a nickname, or if he was simply focused on other things.

The film includes a couple of fun cameos from director Dave Filoni, who appears as an X-wing pilot named Trapper Wolf – a role he also played in The Mandalorian. While he shows up at a Rebel base and later flies an X-wing in the finale alongside Sigourney Weaver’s character and some pilots he’s worked with, the film doesn’t really develop his character. These appearances seem designed for fans to recognize him, much like spotting George Lucas in earlier Star Wars films – it’s a moment for viewers to nudge their neighbor and say, “That’s Dave Filoni!”

The issue isn’t that Dave Filoni’s animated characters shouldn’t be adapted for live-action. It’s that these adaptations seem to assume fans already love these characters as much as Filoni does. If he focused a bit less on showcasing his personal fondness for them and more on making them appealing to a wider audience, viewers could develop their own connections to these characters.

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2026-05-22 23:55