Moff Gideon was a simple man with a simple mission in life. He wanted to rule the galaxy with his personal army of Force-sensitive clones that looked exactly like him. Who among us… But when Axe Woves crashed a Star Destroyer during The Mandalorian‘s season three finale, Moff Gideon’s dreams went up in flames. So did his body. Thus The Mandalorian‘s main villain and Giancarlo Esposito’s time on the Disney+ series ended with death.
Maybe.
We can’t be Moff Gideon is really dead after The Mandalorian season three finale, even if Din Djarin and Carson Teva are. Not when we didn’t actually see the Imperial officer’s corpse. Plus, there’s a very logical reason to think the Moff genuinely survived that inferno. But if he didn’t, this episode showed a Gide-clone could ultimately take his place in the Shadow Council with ease. And even though technically, Moff Gideon would still be dead in the Star Wars universe, having his clone around means he also technically remains alive.
Every Star Wars fan knows “no one’s ever really gone” in the franchise. Dead Jedi turn into Force ghosts. Melted Sith become more machine than man. Slain Emperors “somehow” get new bodies decades later. And mod doctors turn fatal wounds into cool new accessories. It’s easier to come back from death in the galaxy far, far away than it is to find a droid that isn’t a total sass-hole. And since The Mandalorian didn’t show us Moff Gideon’s extra crispy body like Breaking Bad showed Gus Fring’s, we can’t even be sure there was a dead body to show.
If Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have plans/decide to bring Gideon back, they could craft any number of reasons to explain how he’s still alive. Or they could use the obvious explanation that is readily apparent. Moff Gideon was clad from head to toe in a beskar steel armor suit when he gave himself over to the flames. That inferno was massive, but the episode showed once again how well beskar holds up to fire. An enemy’s flamethrower fired from a few inches away can’t damage it in any way. It could just have been enough to protect Moff Gideon from death on The Mandalorian‘s finale.
Even though Gideon surely took burns on some parts of his body, that wouldn’t matter, either. Liquid hot magma devoured Anakin Skywalker’s entire body, and he lived. He had the Force to help him survive, but Gideon likely suffered a fraction of the injuries Anakin did wearing nothing but robes.
Take the beskar suit, combined with what we know about prosthetics, medicine, and surgical advancements in the galaxy, and it’s far more likely Gideon would have died from a long fall in that Mandalorian pit than he did in that fire. And if Moff Gideon didn’t die, he could come back part machine, the same as Darth Vader once did. That would be fitting since Gideon clearly idolized the Sith Lord.
But even if Moff Gideon did well and truly perish, Giancarlo Esposito himself could still return to the show. The Imperial officer spent years having Dr. Pershing make Gide-clones. Sure, Din Djarin “smothered” the Force-sensitive clones of Moff Gideon before they took their first breath. But that doesn’t mean other regular clones aren’t out there. Vats of Moff Gideon copy clones could be sitting in secret lairs throughout the galaxy. Some might already be alive.
What if Moff Gideon trained these clones to act as his avatars? While those replacement clones wouldn’t actually be Gideon, they would still have value to someone looking to influence the Shadow Council. A Gideon clone could make sure the respected, powerful, feared member kept his place in the group even after his death. (And what would a fake Gideon mean for the coming Thrawn’s influence over the Shadow Council if Thrawn also had influence over the clone?)
The Emperor is going to use Snoke as his avatar someday. Maybe Gideon’s genetic Force-crossover project wasn’t the only idea Palpatine got from his former Moff.
Moff Gideon might really be dead. He just might really be alive or have a clone ready to replace him. We won’t know for certain until The Mandalorian actually ends. Or, for that matter, Star Wars does. No one will ever be truly gone in this franchise until they stop telling more stories.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.