The Mandalorian is the ONLY show from Disney+ to make it onto the latest streamings rating chart, but at least it’s way high up there.
Did the watch the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian? If not, best look away, because we’re about to SPOIL it.
At the end of the episode, freaking Luke Skywalker shows up to collect little Grogo, aka Baby Yoda, and take him away to train him in the ways of the Jedi. And lo, there was weeping everywhere as Din Djarin removed his helmet and bid goodbye to his little green buddy.
But that Luke Skywalker cameo, though…it blindsided the fan base, who up to this point had actually sussed out a lot about what was coming in season 2…we knew Ahsoka Tano would be in it, we knew Bo-Katan Kryze would be it, but this we didn’t know. And Disney had to work hard to keep us in the dark, as star Gina Carano (Cara Dune) explained on the Drunk 3PO YouTube channel.
According to Carano, The Mandalorian set was “the most secretive thing that I’ve ever been a part of.” Cast members had to wear “big, black cloaks” while traveling between studios to minimize the possibility that they’d be photographed in costume. Actors were only given the scripts they were in, and even then, stuff like Luke’s cameo wasn’t included.
Carano found out about it on set through the whisper network. “I started finding out about it in the make-up trailer, basically because you’re like, ‘Oh wait, who’s that?'” Carano recalled. “Everyone that has worked on The Mandalorian is insane Star Wars fans. They have the shirts and they’re like, ‘Wait a second’. And so, everybody starts doing a little whispering.”
Kudos, Disney, you managed to keep this a secret. We’ll join this battle again in season 3.
The prospect of more stunts like that will probably only increase The Mandalorian’s popularity when it returns, and it’s pretty popular already. In fact, according to Nielsen’s latest streaming chart for the week of December 7 to 13 (that’s the week of second-to-last Mandalorian episode), the show was bested only by The Office, which was being inhaled by people on Netflix before it left for rival streaming service Peacock:
- The Office (Netflix, 192 episodes, 1.3B minutes)
- The Mandalorian (Disney+, 15 episodes., 1 billion minutes)
- Virgin River (Netflix, 20 episodes, 948 million minutes)
- The Crown (Netflix, 40 episodes, 932 million minutes)
- Manhunt: Deadly Games (Netflix, 10 episodes, 827 million minutes)
- Supernatural (Netflix, 327 episodes, 774 million minutes)
- Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix, 365 episodes, 698 million minutes)
- Criminal Minds (Netflix, 277 episodes, 681 million minutes)
- Big Mouth (Netflix, 39 episodes, 622 million minutes)
- Schitt’s Creek (Netflix, 80 episodes, 621 million minutes)
I’ll be curious to see what the chart looks like when the next week comes out, the week of The Mandalorian season finale. Will Luke help push the show and Disney+ into the number one spot?
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h/t Digital Spy