With a franchise as expansive as Star Wars, fans are always scanning every new entry for references to previous ones. Bits of obscure lore or funny Easter eggs can be hiding everywhere, but with The Mandalorian and Grogu, it turns out that the best hidden reference was hiding in plain sight.
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, at the behest of the New Republic, the Mandalorian is sent on a job by a pair of Hutts known as “The Twins” to locate Rotta the Hutt, the son of their departed cousin Jabba. When the Mandalorian tracks down Rotta, he’s happily employed as the star attraction in an ongoing, Roman gladiator-like fighting competition where he faces off against various warriors and monsters.
At first, when we see Rotta fighting, the competition looks similar to fighting competition scenes in countless other movies, like Thor: Ragnarok or even the Petranaki Arena in Attack of the Clones, where Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Senator Padmé Amidala do battle with the Beasts of Geonosis. But as the camera pulled out after a battle with Rotta, it revealed something that should look familiar to Star Wars fans. On the floor of the circular arena, a black-and-white checkerboard pattern was revealed, which looks exactly like the board of the holographic game R2-D2 plays against Chewbacca in the first Star Wars film, where C-3PO advises R2-D2 to “Let the Wookiee win.”
Commonly referred to as “Holochess,” the in-universe name for the game is Dejarik. Despite the game existing way back in 1977, the name Dejarik didn’t come around until a 1995 Star Wars role-playing game. Soon after, in 2000, a Chewbacca action figure named “Chewbacca: Dejarik Champion” was released. It features Dejarik as an accessory with a prideful-looking Chewy, complete with his arms folded behind his head. In The Mandalorian and Grogu, the Mandalorian even refers to the match as a “Dejarik match,” relating it directly to the game.
According to the Star Wars Wiki, in current Star Wars canon, Dejarik is simply a game that predates the Clone Wars, while not much else is known about it. However, in the pre-Disney continuity now referred to as “Star Wars: Legends,” Dejarik began as a Jedi game. That may still be its history, though its origins would have to be re-established in a Disney project to be considered canon once again.
That said, The Mandalorian and Grogu may imply a different origin for the game. Perhaps the board game was inspired by Dejarik matches like the one Rotta partakes in. Or, the match is inspired by the game, much like we’ve made game shows out of things like Pictionary and Scrabble.
Regardless of its origins, it can be assumed that Wookiees are sore losers in all forms of Dejarik.
