While everyone is going to be focused on that adorable new character on The Mandalorian, there is another question facing fans after Episode 2 aired on Disney Plus. What planet is all this taking place on? And did we see Jawas or Ewoks? Read on to learn more.
This article will have spoilers for Episode 2.
No, They Aren’t on Tatooine
Unlike Star Wars movies, The Mandalorian doesn’t caption the new planets as the characters arrive. So you might have mistakenly thought that they were on Tatooine, where we’ve seen Jawas before. But that’s not the case. (As one Redditor noted: “If that was Tatooine there would have been at least twenty different shots of the twin suns to remind us.”)
According to the official Star Wars databank, they’re on Arvala-7. This is the planet where Mando meets Kuiil, who came to seek peace. But mercenaries have overtaken his world as a bounty is constantly offered on the mysterious “asset.”
So what is Arvala-7? According to Wookieepedia, Arvala-7 is inhabited by Jawas, Blurrgs, Mudhorns, and others. But it appears to have been mentioned for the first time in The Mandalorian.
Some people thought they were on Ryloth because of the Blurrgs, but they’ve been seen on many planets, including Ryloth, Arvala-7, and even Endor.
So, Episode 2 took place on Arvala-7 (along with part of Episode 1.)
We Saw Jawas, Not Ewoks
Some people a little less familiar with Star Wars lore might have thought that we saw Ewoks in Episode 2. But we actually saw Jawas.
Remember when Jawas captured R2-D2?
Jawas are scavengers and although you would think they only had their sandcrawler scavenger vehicles on Luke’s homeworld of Tatooine, the Star Wars databank makes it abundantly clear that we are not on Tattoine. The ones on Arvala-7 are pretty formidable, considering how well they held their own against a trained Mandalorian.
(Interestingly, the Star Wars databank’s listing for Jawas says, “They comb the deserts of Tatooine in search of discarded scrap and wayward mechanicals.” It looks like this listing hasn’t been updated to include Arvala-7, since it only lists Tatooine as a location for them as of the time of publication.)
Jawas wear hoods and have red glowing eyes. They scavenge and steal, reselling what they took in order to survive. It’s only been about five years chronologically since we saw them in A New Hope, so it’s not surprising that they’re still pretty much the same.
As Wookieepedia points out, we’ve only ever seen them with hoods on, so their actual appearance is still a mystery, much like Mando. The colonists of Tatooine speculated that they were devolved humans or maybe giant rodents. Jawas speak Jawaase, which uses scent and spoken words, along with Jawa Trade Talk that they use with other species.
Ewoks, in contrast, have bright round eyes and do wear hoods too, but you can see their ears and teddy-bear-like appearance. Here’s a video with Ewoks to help you remember the difference:
You might get them confused because they both are short and wear hoods. But Ewoks look like teddy bears and don’t hide their faces. Jawas, meanwhile, never show their faces and have glowing eyes.