Beskar in ‘The Mandalorian’ Is Like Star Wars’ Version of Vibranium
Spoiler warning: This post has spoilers for the first episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Stop reading here if you haven't seen the episode yet and don't want to be spoiled.
Beskar is mentioned frequently in The Mandalorian's first episode.
It's a very important piece of Star Wars and Mandalorian background.
It serves Star Wars much in the way that Vibranium serves Marvel.
As any new show does with it's first episode, The Mandalorian opened up a lot of questions: Who is The Mandalorian? What's his motivation? Is he a hero or a villain? And what was up with that ending? But one question you might have, believe it or not, we actually know the answer to; the Beskar that The Client (Werner Herzog) gives The Mandalorian? That's an old Star Wars classic.
As legend (and Star Wars mythos) goes, Beskar Steel (sometimes known as just 'Beskar') is essentially a super-powered metal that Mandalorian Armor—including the suits of Boba Fett and Jango Fett—is made from. This metal can stop blaster shots, withstand lightsaber strikes, and more. If you think about Vibranium in the Marvel Universe, or Valyrian Steel in Game of Thrones, Beskar is very similar. In fact, many believe that Boba Fett's Beskar armor is the reason why he just might have escaped alive from his tumble into the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi.
Beskar Steel was frequently mentioned and brought up in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, though it was eventually mostly stolen by the (very much alive) Darth Maul, now operating with Spider-esque mechanical legs (after being cut in half by Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace). As you may recall, Darth Maul made a brief appearance in 2018's Solo—it's likely that the armor he was wearing here was also made from the Beskar Steel that he took from The Mandalorians.
In The Mandalorian, the titular bounty hunter is promised Beskar as a reward for bringing the face-to-face client his target back. He gets a first piece—which kind of looks like a very blinged-out iPhone case—as a down payment, and within a few scenes, we see it melted down and converted into a new piece of shoulder armor. This is a key Star Wars culture or species taking back what was once theirs, assuming that they never retrieved it after Darth Maul's co-opting.
More than almost anything else, the idea of bringing the Beskar back to the heritage where it belongs seem to be what's motivating The Mandalorian. We get a couple glimpses of his childhood at one point, and it seems like there was a battle, and unrest on his planet—perhaps this is a flashback to something involving more traumatic.
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