10 details you might have missed in 'The Mandalorian' season 3 premiere

When "Star Wars" fans last saw the Armorer (Emily Swallow) and Paz Viszla (Jon Favreau) in "The Book of Boba Fett," they were the only two Mandalorians left from the Children of the Watch.

Although their numbers had dwindled after Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) attacked the sewer base on Nevarro, the season three premiere establishes that the group has bolstered its ranks with new members in that time.

The episode starts with the Armorer carrying out a ceremony where a young boy is pledging himself to the Way of the Mandalore. There are around 35 Mandalorians attending the ceremony, which means the Armorer has wasted no time in building up a small army.

And it's definitely useful to have that many soldiers when a giant creature interrupts the proceedings. It'll be interesting to see how the group comes into play later in the season.

When we first see the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), also known as Din Djarin or Mando, in season three, he is using a new spaceship: a Naboo starfighter.

The ship is the same one used in the final battle of Naboo in "The Phantom Menace."

The creation of the new ship is explained in "The Book of Boba Fett." The spaceship was just a bunch of scraps until Mando and his friend Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) rebuilt it for the rogue to use as his new spaceship.

The episode also features an adorable moment where the dynamic duo is traveling through hyperspace in the modified N-1 starfighter, and Grogu is sitting in his pod watching the lights and colors outside.

But he sees several large shadows looming in the distance, and they have long tentacles flowing behind them. These are actually giant creatures called Purgil, and this isn't the first time they've shown up in the galaxy far, far away.

The "Star Wars Rebels" animated series introduced the Purgil, with Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall) telling the crew of the Ghost that these giant space whales are incredibly disruptive because they have the natural ability to jump into hyperspace themselves. This isn't exactly ideal, because the huge creatures often cause pilots to crash their ships.

However, by the show's final season, young Jedi Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) uses the Force to actually communicate with the Purgil in a way, using them to pull Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and his fleet into hyperspace.

Unfortunately, it was never explained where Ezra and Thrawn ended up after the finale, and this will probably be something that's picked up in the "Ahsoka" series with Rosario Dawson.

The "Star Wars" galaxy has always been full of wonderfully bizarre creatures and monsters, and one of the most infamous practical critters is Salacious B. Crumb from 1983's "Return of the Jedi."

The Kowakian monkey-lizard was Jabba the Hutt's personal pet, and until recently he was the only one fans had ever seen in live action.

Back in "The Mandalorian" season one, a Nevarro vendor was selling roasted monkey-lizards in the street, while one of the creatures sat in a cage waiting to be killed, which was pretty bleak.

But times have changed on Nevarro thanks to Mando and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), and the season three premiere shows the lizards living freely in the trees, rather than in cages waiting to be eaten.

It's a small detail that just shows how the planet has become a nicer place to live for all of its inhabitants, even weird lizards.

When we last see Greef in season two, he had appointed himself Magistrate of Nevarro and attempted to rebuild and clean up the planet with the help of Cara Dune (Gina Carano).

This episode shows that the character has succeeded in his mission and has been given a new title: high magistrate.

It is unclear whether he gave himself the new title or was given a promotion after restoring Nevarro.

Greef also received an upgrade in his style as well. His cape is a lot brighter than the previous season, and he now has two small droids following him to keep the cape untangled. He also now has a gold ornament over his shoulders.

While Greef is talking to Mando, they are interrupted by a group of pirates causing trouble.

These pirates seem to be wearing clothes like the Ravagers in "Guardians of the Galaxy." However, this may be a reference to the famous "Star Wars" pirate king Hondo Ohnaka and his pirate crew.

In "The Clone Wars," his crew wore similar jackets and burgundy clothing. Also, Hondo and his crew were Weequay, an alien species that looks like the pirate attempting to attack Greef and Mando, Vane (Marti Matulis).

This could just be a coincidence or maybe some of the pirates are the remains or descendants of Hondo's crew.

While Greef is speaking to Mando, he briefly explains the whereabouts of two major "Mandalorian" characters that we do not see in the season three premiere.

The first is Cara Dune (Gina Carano), who was previously a self-appointed marshal for Nevarro before becoming an official marshal for the New Republic.

Greef explains her whereabouts after the season two finale: "After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by Special Forces."

In 2021, Carano was fired by Disney after the actor shared a social media post that compared the treatment of modern-day Republicans to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.

"Mandalorian" executive producers Dave Filoni and Rick Famuyiwa told Deadline ahead of the episode that Dune will "continue to be part of the world" but will not appear in season three.

"Now season three is mainly dealing with Mandalorians and the Mandalorian saga, the Mandalorian tale," Filoni said of season three's story arc.

As for Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), the Imperial main villain of the first two seasons, Greef said he was being tried by the New Republic's war tribunal.

Part of the episode sees Din try to revive bounty hunter droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi) so he can take him to Mandalore with him in search of the planet's mines. This doesn't exactly go well when the droid reverts back to his old programming and tries to kill Grogu on the spot.

IG-11 goes full "Terminator," crawling on the floor to try and throttle everyone's favorite little green alien to death. Once the droid is disabled again, Greef takes Din to the Anzellan droidsmiths to try and fix him.

Anyone who's seen "The Rise of Skywalker" will recognize the miniature Anzellans, because one of them showed up in the 2019 movie. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Rey (Daisy Ridley), and Finn (John Boyega) visited Babu Frik (Shirley Henderson) to help C3-PO read the Sith language.

Unfortunately, Babu Frik doesn't appear in "The Mandalorian," but "Harry Potter" alum Shirley Henderson returns to voice the Anzellans.

When Mando leaves Nevarro, he is ambushed by Vane and his boss, the pirate king Gorian Shand.

While Shand is only in the episode for a brief moment, he is played by Emmy award-winning actor Nonso Anozie.

Anonzie has starred in several sci-fi and fantasy projects before ranging from "Game of Thrones" and "Sweet Tooth" to "Conan the Barbarian" and "Artemis Fowl." Since the character is played by a seasoned actor, this may not be the last we see of pirate king Shand.

In the final scene of the premiere, Mando arrives in Kalevala to meet up with his ally Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff).

This may seem like just another plan but some fans may notice that the planet has been mentioned in the "Star Wars" universe beforehand.

In "The Clone Wars," it is established that Kalevala is the homeworld of Satine Kryze, Bo-Katan's sister, and the house of Kryze, so it is likely Bo-Katan's homeworld, too.

Bo-Katan's sister Satine was the Duchess of Kalevala, which would also explain why Bo-Katan is sitting on a throne in a Mandalorian castle when Mando comes to see her.