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Fan Theory Madness: A Riverdale time-jump, The Mauldalorian, and Arm-Fall-Off-Boy
Welcome to Fan Theory Madness, your guide to what fan theories, good and bad, are taking the internet by storm!
With so many fan theories floating around the web, it can be hard to know which ones to take seriously and which ones are wildly off the mark. Some theories are brilliant breakthroughs that reveal a whole new understanding of what a work of fiction means, or they're spot-on predictions about what's going to happen in the next installment. Others are specious bunk, deeply flawed theories that nevertheless get aggregated by some of the less scrupulous news sites.
It's been kind of a low-key week for fan theories. It really seems likely that we'll never really have the same level of fan theory fever as we did in 2019, when there were all sorts of speculating about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Avengers: Endgame, and, of course, Game of Thrones. Still, there are theories out there, so we'll start with Nathan Fillion debunking a kinda fun Suicide Squad theory, move on to a theory connecting The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and finish with Riverdale because why not?
NATHAN FILLION SAYS HE'S NOT PLAYING ARM-FALL-OFF-BOY IN THE SUICIDE SQUAD
We don't know a ton about James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, but we do know that Firefly star Nathan Fillion is in the movie. We don't know what character Fillion will be playing, but some fans had started speculating that he'll play Arm-Fall-Off-Boy — an obscure, infamous character from a 1989 Legion of Super-Heroes story. Arm-Fall-Off-Boy's amazing superpower is his ability to remove his arms and wield the limb as "a deadly weapon." He is extremely dumb, which is why it would be kinda fun to see what Gunn and Fillion would do with such a silly concept.
In an interview with SiriusXM, Fillion look the legs out from under the Arm-Fall-Off-Boy theory.
"That was never a comic I really dived into, so I didn't really know who that was that they were talking about. And it certainly wasn't the name I was reading in the script," he said.
The Suicide Squad doesn't come out until next August, so it'll be a while before we get much more information on the film, but pour some out for Arm-Fall-Off-Boy.
THE MANDALORIAN'S ARMORER HAS TIES TO DARTH MAUL
With the miraculous, long-awaited final season of The Clone Wars now underway, there's some theorizing about how the events of the series might connect with the other Star Wars series on Disney+, The Mandalorian. One theory — which isn't exactly new but has been making the rounds — posits a connection between The Armorer and Darth Maul. In The Clone Wars, we meet a Mandalorian extremist organization known as Death Watch. Darth Maul (or just Maul as he's no known in the series) becomes the leader after defeating the former head honcho, Pre Vizsla, in a duel. Many members of Death Watch, honoring Maul's right-by-combat to be the leader, adorn their helmets with horns or paint their armor red — perhaps similar to The Armorer's horned helm and red breastplate?
There's definitely already a connection between the Mandalorian clan in the show and Death Watch. Paz Viszla, the big guy who initially feuds with the titular Mando, is a descendant of Pre Vizsla. And, it would make sense that given the tragedy that the Mandalorians have had to endure by the time of the new live-action show, Death Watchers and less-extreme factions would have to work together. The Armorer may be too young to have been an actual contemporary of Maul (it's hard to tell under the armor), but it seems pretty clear that there are some connection.
Maul — or at least, his influence — seems like it could play a part in The Mandalorian Season 2. Disney made a secret #Mauldalorian hashtag on Twitter, so the idea is definitely a potential for both Disney+ Star Wars shows. Perhaps the only question is, how deep in the weeds is The Mandalorian Season 2 going to get. Clone Wars is a great show, but The Mandalorian appeals to a much larger, much more casual fan base, one that perhaps isn't going to watch seven seasons of a more child-oriented animated series to figure out what the deal with Maul is. In other words, while this theory is very, very likely, don't expect it to take over the main plot of Disney+'s flagship show.
RIVERDALE'S SEASON 4 FINALE WILL HAVE A TIME-JUMP
A blind item posted by TV Line (so take it with a grain of salt) says that the producers of an unnamed mystery show are thinking about ending the current season of the series with a massive time-jump. Riverdale fans think this might be the case with Archie and the gang. Skeet Ulrich and Marisol Nichols, actors who play some of the parents on Riverdale, recently announced they won't be coming back for Season 5. Might this be because, if a time-jump graduates the core cast from high schoolers to young adults, parents aren't an as essential part of the plot? Furthermore, the Katy Keene spin-off series takes place five years after the events of Riverdale, so a time-jump of that amount of time would make the two shows take place concurrently, allowing for easier crossovers.
It's totally unconfirmed, but this is Riverdale — unexpected things happen all the time.
