Great Scott! The Mandalorian Casts A Back To The Future Star For Season 3

Star Wars may be in between live-action TV shows at the moment, but there's some big casting news about The Mandalorian that may just have fans saying "Great Scott!" for Season 3. Back to the Future star and icon Christopher Lloyd has joined the cast of the Disney+ series for the third season, which is currently in production. 

Christopher Lloyd has reportedly been added to the call sheet for The Mandalorian Season 3, and THR reports that his role is expected to be in the nature of a guest star. No details are available about what kind of character he'll play, or if he'll be like Timothy Olyphant, with the potential to return for multiple episodes (and a huge twist) after the initial guest star appearance, or a one-off. Pedro Pascal did recently hint that there will be a lot of new faces in the new batch of episodes.

Season 3 of The Mandalorian is currently in production in southern California, not too long after The Book of Boba Fett (which featured Mando, Grogu, and more Mandalorian characters) wrapped its run and a couple of months ahead of the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi in May. Not much is known about the third season, but Christopher Lloyd coming to the galaxy far, far away is a big reason to get even more excited.

Although Season 2 ended in a way that potentially reset the entire premise of the show with Mando letting go of Grogu – a.k.a. Baby Yoda – to go train with Luke Skywalker as his first student, The Book of Boba Fett ultimately reunited Grogu with his surrogate dad after being presented with the choice between rejoining Mando or staying with Luke. Considering what happens with Luke's school by the time of the sequel trilogy, Grogu probably made a smart choice! 

Mando will presumably have a new mission now that he doesn't have to try and reunite the Child with his people, and Ahsoka will presumably handle the Thrawn plot that was introduced back in Season 2. The cast list for the Rosario Dawson show is full enough without indicating that Ahsoka will need Mando's help. The reset from the end of The Book of Boba Fett really may mean that fans won't have many clues to speculate about until Season 3 comes to Disney+. 

Movie buffs are undoubtedly going to be excited to see Christopher Lloyd join the cast, even if he does only appear in a one-off guest role. Lloyd became an icon of an actor thanks to his role as Doc Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy in the '80s and early '90s, and he (kind of) reprised his role in a Rick and Morty video in 2021. That said, he has had a prolific and varied career beyond the Delorean, including a role in a Star Trek film. Let it not be said that some stars can't appear in both Trek and Wars!

Lloyd has also appeared in plenty of TV shows, winning Emmys in 1982 and 1983 for Taxi and again in 1992 for Road to Avonlea. More recently, the 83-year-old actor appeared in 12 Monkeys from 2017-2018, Roseanne in 2018, A.P. Bio in 2019, and a special episode of NCIS in 2020, among others.

The only bad news is that Star Wars fans (and Back to the Future fans) will have a while to wait before seeing Christopher Lloyd in action in the Star Wars universe, as Season 3 is currently only in production. There is exciting Star Wars content on the way sooner rather than later, however, with Obi-Wan Kenobi bringing Ewan McGregor back starting on Wednesday, May 25 in the 2022 TV schedule. In the meantime, you can check out plenty of Star Wars content – including the films, the live-action shows, and the animated series – with a Disney+ subscription

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).