46 Years Later, Star Wars Might Finally Be Going Back To An Iconic Planet
Don’t call it Starkiller Base...
One question nobody expected to be asking themselves on Super Bowl Sunday 2026: Are Tauntauns indigenous to Hoth, or were they brought there by the Rebel Alliance? The reason for this question is fairly simple. In the truly unexpected new trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the Star Wars brand seemed to homage Budweiser commercials featuring Clydesdale horses by busting out what is, apparently, the Clydesdale of the Star Wars galaxy, the Yaggle-Gakkling Tauntauns. In the new, truly odd Super Bowl trailer, Mando and Grogu are riding a kind of sleigh, being pulled by a pack of Tauntauns.
Is this an actual scene from the movie? Because if so, this would almost certainly confirm that for the first time since 1980, a live-action Star Wars project is returning to the Ice Planet Hoth. And if that’s true, there’s a very clear follow-up question: Why?
If the latest trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu is a scene from the upcoming film, then, yes, this almost certainly has to be Hoth, and not some other snowy world. (Like, say, Starkiller Base before it became Starkiller Base.) And the reason for that deduction is clear: Yes, Tauntauns are native to Hoth, and unlike Banthas — which you can find on different planets outside of Tatooine — we don’t have any good reference points for Tauntans outside of The Empire Strikes Back, on the planet Hoth.
So, if Mando and Grogu are hitting up Hoth, there’s hopefully a good plot reason for the visit. Hoth had little strategic importance in the classic trilogy, and was only useful because it was a good place for the Alliance to hide from the Empire. It was considered part of the Outer Rim, and as such, is very much the kind of place Mando would have tried to hide out back in Season 1 of The Mandalorian.
But, the overall story of The Mandalorian and Grogu seems to have Mando working directly for the New Republic, so, if he and Grogu are hitting up Hoth, then perhaps there’s something that’s been left behind by the Rebel Alliance that the Republic wants back?
A Tauntaun poses with two humans.
And, if that’s the case (a big if), then it seems likely that Mando and Grogu could be going on a slightly bigger nostalgia-filled mission than we initially thought. Because if Lucasfilm is putting the Tauntauns in a Super Bowl trailer as a kind of inside joke, then imagine what bigger Hoth-y Easter Eggs they haven’t revealed? Mando has already crossed paths with Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, and Ahsoka Tano. Who else could he encounter in this movie? Other than more Tauntauns?
Well, in the Mando timleine, we’re still just a few years out from Return of the Jedi, so it seems possible that all sorts of beloved characters and creatures from the past could appear. We already know that Rotta the Hutt will show up, but for the most part, The Mandalorian and Grogu has kept its Easter egg cards very close to the vest.
And so, even though the Tauntaun tease wasn’t much of a trailer, it still feels that the more this Star Wars movie holds back, the more it might be hiding.
