Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 5 Easter Eggs Explained

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

The Mandalorian season 3 kicks things into high gear with “The Pirate.” Gorian Shard wants to take Nevarro for himself but seriously underestimates Greef Karga’s connections. When Din, Bo-Katan, and the rest of the Mandalorians show up to kick the pirates out of town, all hell breaks loose in the skies above the city as well as on the ground. The Armorer smashes a few faces in with her hammer while Paz lays down the law with his gatling blaster, with air support from Din and Bo. By the end of the episode, Gorian has nowhere to go but down.

Unsurprisingly, the lead up and the battle itself cue up quite a few callbacks and references to other Star Wars stories, including a few cameos that should get fans excited for the future of the Mandoverse! Here are all the easter eggs and other things we noticed in “The Pirate.”

Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum)

Yes, the Lasat in the blue flight suit is indeed our pal Zeb Orrelios from the Rebels animated series! Thanks to The Mandalorian, we finally get to see what old Zeb has been up to since the end of the Galactic Civil War. No longer with the Ghost crew, Zeb’s now stationed on Adelphi with Carson Teva and the rest of the Rangers operating as space cops in the Outer Rim. CGI Zeb is once again voiced by Rebels veteran Steve Blum.

A fun fact about Zeb: his species, the Lasat, was originally Ralph McQuarrie’s design for the alien character who eventually became Chewbacca in A New Hope. In other words, Zeb’s legacy goes all the way back to the very beginnings of Star Wars. And The Mandalorian finally gives us the character in live action as was originally intended (from a certain point of view). Pretty cool!

You can read more about Zeb here.

Colonel Tuttle (Tim Meadows)

Tim Meadows’ cameos as New Republic requisitions officer Colonel Tuttle, a name that not so subtly nods to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, a satire about a dystopian society ruled by bureaucracy and the kinds of officials who are more interested in paperwork than actually helping anyone. We’ve already seen plenty of other ways the New Republic resembles the totalitarian rulers of Brazil and here we get to see another way the galactic government is completely ineffective.

You can read more about Tim Meadows here.

Lt. Reed (Max Lloyd-Jones)

Max Lloyd-Jones returns as Lt. Reed, one of Carson Teva’s New Republic wingmen when out on patrol in the Outer Rim. The character first appeared in The Book of Boba Fett. But this isn’t Lloyd-Jones’ most famous role in Star Wars, of course. He first served as Luke Skywalker’s body double in the famous The Mandalorian season 2 finale, with Mark Hamill de-aged face CGI’d onto Lloyd-Jones’ head. Lloyd-Jones didn’t play Luke on Boba Fett, though. That was Graham Hamilton.

“He Shot First!”

It’s the old “Han Shot First” debacle all over again when Greef Karga and Gorian Shard argue about who started the fight on Nevarro in “The Apostate.” At one point, Greef asserts that the pirates shot first and therefore he and Din were forced to defend themselves. We know of course that it was actually technically the other way around…but only because the pirates wouldn’t back down!

Carson Teva and the Adelphi Rangers

Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and the other New Republic rangers who patrol the Outer Rim operate out of an outpost on Adelphi, a planet first mentioned in season 2, but that makes its first real appearance here. All we know about the planet is that it offers nice views for the bar where all the rangers hang out after hours.

It’s at this bar that we of course reunite with Zeb, but there are also three other cameos in the scene. Sitting on the opposite side of the bar are exec producer Dave Filoni as Trapper Wolf, director and exec producer Rick Famuyiwa as Jib Dodger, and director and Obi-Wan Kenobi showrunner Deborah Chow as Sash Ketter. All of these characters were first introduced in The Mandalorian season 1 episode “The Prisoner.”

Snivvian and Other Aliens

If you love Star Wars aliens, this episode is absolutely packed with all different races, from the pirates working for Gorian Shard to the citizens of Nevarro. We’ve got all the classics like Aqualish, Gran, Jawas, Klatooinians, Mon Calamari, Nikto, Quarrens, Rodians, Trandoshans Twi’leks, Ugnaughts, and Weequay.

But we have to give a special shoutout to the pig-like Snivvian tending bar on Adelphi. Not only was this one of the original species featured in A New Hope but it was introduced in the famous cantina scene, so the return of the Snivvian here sort of serves as a double nod to the Original Trilogy.

Y-wings and the Corsair

– While the New Republic rangers seem to favor X-wings as their starfighter of choice, we also see Y-wings landing at the outpost on Adelphi. These ships were first introduced in A New Hope during the attack on the Death Star. Although in that movie, they went on the trench run like all the other fighters, Y-wings primarly function as bombers.

– Gorian’s ill-fated pirate ship is identified as a corsair, a type of warship that was actually first introduced in the recent Thrawn prequel novels. In those books, these ships are piloted by the Lioaoin Regime, one of the powerful factions that operate in the Unknown Regions of space. They often rivaled the Chiss Ascendancy, the nation from which Thrawn originally hails from. The Thrawn connections keep on coming!

Bulloch Canyons

We learn that there’s a locale in Nevarro called Bulloch Canyons. This is undoubtedly a reference to Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who wore the original Boba Fett armor in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.