Baby Yoda and his bounty hunter dad are back Season 2 of The Mandalorian explodes next month with the continuing adventures of Mando and the kid Fans can look forward to the second season of Disney Plus' "Star Wars" series with the release of some fascinating new information

Entertainment Weekly has posted interviews with showrunner Jon Favreau, executive producer Dave Filoni, and stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian/Din Jarin) and Gina Carano (Cara Dune), and has published a " a major cover story on "The Mandalorian" was released

The Mandalorian team seems confident that the new season, which premieres on October 30, will exceed expectations on a galactic scale Carano told EW, "I have no doubt that fans will love this season even more If you're a Star Wars fan, you're going to see what you've always wanted to see"

And Filoni compared it to the "Star Wars" original trilogy: you hope "The Empire Strikes Back" is better than "A New Hope"

Given how beloved "The Empire Strikes Back" is among fans, the bar is very high

Here are four things we learned about "The Mandalorian" Season 2 from EW

While the story continues to follow Mando's quest to keep Baby Yoda safe and find his home world, Favreau told EW that "the new season is about introducing a larger story in the world"

He added, "We have the opportunity to follow different stories by introducing other characters The world is fascinated by 'Game of Thrones,' and it's fascinating as a viewer to see how the characters evolve as they follow different storylines"

When we last saw Mando and Baby Yoda, they were narrowly escaping an attack by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) However, the villain revealed that he not only survived the crash of the TIE Fighter, but also wielded a dark saber And he continues to pursue Child

It evokes Din Jarin's unlikely paternal instincts, Pascal said 'He is entering very dangerous territory He doesn't know what's going to happen, and he doesn't know to what degree or how best to protect his children We don't know how far he will go for that, and he is finding new ways to push the envelope"

Star Wars fans went wild when the Darksaber was revealed in the season 1 finale of The Mandalorian The legendary black-bladed lightsaber has also appeared in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels Filoni himself added the idea that the dark saber originally belonged to Mandalore How it came into the hands of Moff Gideon has yet to be told

The dark saber will be a formidable tool in Gideon's arsenal against the Mandalorians, but his most dangerous weapon may be his brain 'I want to disarm him mentally,' Esposito told EW 'Who knows? Maybe I'll have a chance to make him fight for me You may think I am a villain, but I am trying to harness some energy and power You will see him become somewhat diplomatic and more manipulative"

Carl Weathers and Gina Carano return for season two as bounty hunter guild leader Greff Karga and former shock trooper Kara Dune, respectively In the finale, Carla agreed to remain in Nevaro and join forces with Greff, who, according to Weathers, "wants more legitimacy"

A somewhat unlikely pairing, he notes, but the two characters become so close that they "almost finish each other's sentences"

While they will share the spotlight in Season 2, they will also have to share it with a new character; no new cast members have been confirmed by EW, but there are rumors that Rosario Dawson will join as Jedi trainee Ahsoka Tano There are also reports that Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett in the previous film) will play the iconic Boba Fett, or some other version of Jango's cloned soldiers Katee Sackhoff will reportedly play a live-action version of Bo-Katan Krys, the Mandalorian leader who controls the Darksaber