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In the season 3 finale of The Mandalorian, Moff Gideon revealed that he had created clones of himself that had been imbued with the Force. Decked out in Beskar armour, they would have been an unstoppable army, but Din Djarin destroyed all of them shortly before confronting the villain.
Or did he?
When Gideon returned in the penultimate episode, he no longer had any facial hair. That's hardly something to make a big deal out of, especially when there was a pretty sizeable gap between seasons 2 and 3. Plus, Giancarlo Esposito has obviously taken on various other projects since, hence why his 'tache has vanished.
However, the fact Gideon's clones also had no facial hair has spawned a theory that the villain Din Djarin, Bo-Katan Kryze, and Grogu faced before his fiery demise was, in fact, also a clone. Something which contradicts that theory is the Imperial exhibiting no signs of being able to use the Force, though that can be explained away by him being an earlier duplicate.
It seems Lucasfilm actually wants us to speculate about the real Gideon being out there as his character poster for The Mandalorian season 3 shows the character rocking his trademark facial hair, something he never had in the series itself this year.
This clone might have been a decoy or even a copy that went rogue; alternatively, the whole scenario on Mandalore was potentially a ruse to distract Din Djarin and company from whatever Gideon is really up to. There's some ambiguity surrounding his demise, anyway, and we can't discount the possibility that the armour he was wearing actually protected him from that blast.
Even if it didn't, then he could live on through another clone, and it feels like there's something here. Perhaps the real Gideon is in ill health and somehow controlling his copies from afar? We won't find out until season 4, but after the villain's near-misses in the first two seasons, yet another escape might be pushing it.
If nothing else, Gideon's experiments have laid the groundwork for the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke, especially as he's mastered a way to create clones capable of wielding the Force.
What do you guys think?