Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian season 2, episode 1.
In The Mandalorian season 2 premiere, Cobb Vanth rides a speeder bike that bears a striking resemblance to an engine from Anakin’s podracer, suggesting the bike may have been built from its parts. Vanth, played by Timothy Olyphant, is a new character in The Mandalorian season 2 but not one new to Star Wars canon. He was first introduced in the Aftermath novels, and in both the books and the Disney+ show, Vanth is the marshal or sheriff of a mining town on Tatooine who wears Boba Fett’s armor.
The Mandalorian season 2 has Din Djarin (and of course, Baby Yoda) crossing paths with Vanth while searching for more Mandalorians, with Vanth’s armor leading to tales of there being one on Tatooine. This isn’t the first time the Disney+ show has visited the popular desert planet, and as it did with season 1’s stopover, The Mandalorian season 2 makes good use of what audiences already know about Tatooine. In this episode the Tusken Raiders feature prominently, Djarin and Vanth team up to hunt a Krayt Dragon, and there are multiple mentions of womp rats. Even Peli Moto’s (Amy Sedaris) pit droids reappear, working as a callback not just to a previous Mandalorian episode, but to the Tatooine seen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
In The Mandalorian season 2 episode 1, Din Djarin and Cobb Vanth set out into the desert on speeder bikes. Djarin’s is more or less the typical model seen across Star Wars media, while Vanth’s appears to be built from a podracer engine – and specifically, one of the engine turbines from the podracer flown by Anakin Skywalker during The Phantom Menace. In that film, Anakin competes in a podrace at Mos Espa, flying a podracer with two cylindrical engines similar in design to the engine of Vanth’s speeder. After winning the race – and his freedom – it’s unknown what happens to Anakin’s podracer, making it entirely possible that the vehicle remained on Tatooine until it was salvaged for parts. Therefore, one of its engines could have easily been repurposed into a speeder.
In addition to the shape of the engine, the intake fan is similar as is the yellow plating – though neither are exactly the same as those on the engines of Anakin’s podracer. There’s also some red plating covering more of the engine, not to mention the seat now affixed to the side. However, these are modifications that could have been made to the original engine, altering its design so that it now only bears a passing resemblance to the engines that powered Anakin’s victory in the Boonta Eve Classic. By the time of The Mandalorian season 2, it’s been 40 years since Anakin’s podrace, so were the engines still in use, they’d have surely required a few new parts to keep them running.
Regardless of if the engine once belonged to Anakin or not, it’s hard to dispute that the speeder is built from a podracer. It even its sound like one, with the speeder’s sound design audibly mimicking that of a podracer, especially in the scene of Djarin and Vanth maneuvering through a desert canyon. As either a direct callback to Anakin’s podracing days or simply to the once popular sport, the marshal’s speeder is another example of how The Mandalorian continues to reuse old Star Wars canon in fun, new ways.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/mandalorian-season-2-marshal-podracer-anakin-phantom-menace/