5 Years Later, One Star Wars Villain Could Somehow Return
Attack of the clone?
Baddies in Star Wars can’t help but clone themselves. Way back in 1991, the way that Palpatine somehow returned was revealed in Dark Empire, in which he transferred his wicked soul into a young clone body. Ditto Palps in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, in which he basically did the exact same thing. But cloning yourself in order to live forever isn’t just a Palpatine trick. It’s also the major villain’s move at the end of The Mandalorian Season 3. First introduced in 2019 in Mando Season 1, Moff Gideon, as played by Giancarlo Esposito, was revealed to be obsessed with creating clones of himself in 2023’s Season 3 finale.
Presumably, all of those Gideon clones, and the original Moff himself, perished in a big explosion. But new comments from Giancarlo Esposito suggest that maybe... he didn’t.
Giancarlo Esposito in 2025.
“There is a big movie coming out that’s focusing on Mando and The Child,” Esposito told Empire in a recent interview. “I can’t say it’ll be that. But I hope to be able to join that franchise again because I think there’s more road for Moff Gideon.”
For one thing, isn’t it great that Esposito calls Grogu “The Child?” It’s almost as though he still believes he is Moff Gideon, and everyone is just confused about his character’s demise. But, more seriously, his almost in-character observation about the upcoming film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, could perhaps, indicate that he’s lying. If Esposito was secretly in the movie, he would totally say something like this. So his denial, combined with his interest in the future of the character, might be a giveaway. Maybe.
But even if Gideon isn’t in The Mandalorian & Grogu, the method of the character’s hypothetical return to the franchise is pretty clear. Before Palpatine was revealed to have been brought back from the dead, the notion of Sith clones wasn’t even a thing in the mainline canon. Conversely, a path to Gideon’s return is very clearly spelled out in Mando Season 3 — he could certainly come back as one of his own clones.
What’s interesting about this notion is that Esposito wouldn’t necessarily have to return as the exact same character. If he did reappear in a future season of Ahsoka, or some other Star Wars project, it’s possible that a Gideon clone might have the same personality or motives as the original Gideon.
Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon in 'The Mandalorian.'
The other nice thing about the clone set-up in Mando Season 3 is that it’s possible that we’ll never really know which of the Gideon clones was the “original” one. Like the Cylons, if there are many copies of Gideon, it may not matter which ones were destroyed. All it takes is for one to be left.
That said, Star Wars certainly doesn’t need to bring back Moff Gideon, mostly because the revelations about the character in Mando Season 3 rendered him as a kind of rogue Imperial hobbyist rather than a mastermind. While there’s close to zero chance a younger Gideon will pop up in Andor Season 2, it feels like the best place for “more road” with this character is in the past rather than the future.
In other words, while it would be easy to bring back a clone of Gideon, another approach might be more interesting. At this point, it seems like we know all of Gideon’s secrets, unless of course, there’s something in his past that sheds different light on what happened in The Mandalorian. Remember when Gideon freaked out when he saw Luke Skywalker in Season 2? What was that about? What was his relationship like with Palpatine during the height of the Empire?
If there’s ever been a character who deserves a prequel and a bigger backstory, it’s totally Moff Gideon.
