Star Wars actress Katee Sackhoff is sharing what it was like to finally join the live-action Star Wars universe via The Mandalorian.
On Friday, Nov. 13, The Mandalorian fans were in for a huge treat with season 2 episode 3, otherwise titled “Chapter 11: The Heiress.” In that episode, it was finally revealed that Katee Sackhoff was indeed playing the live-action version of her Clone Wars animated character, Bo-Katan Kryze.
It’s not often that a voice actor gets to play a live-action version of their character. And it’s a bonus that Sackhoff closely resembles her animated counterpart. In the episode, Sackhoff (as Bo-Katan) was one of the allies who came to the Mandalorian’s rescue after being lored into a trap on the sea. In exchange for some information, Mando was to help Bo-Katan and her fellow Mandalorian crew take down an Imperial ship. As we later learned, it was her mission to retrieve the Darksaber back from Moff Gideon.
We know we’re far from that story arc being over, and there should be a lot more excitement in store. For Sackhoff, in particular, there was a lot of excitement when it came to just being cast in The Mandalorian in the first place. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight (as found by The Direct), she recalled a moment where The Clone Wars creator Dave Filoni hinted that she could have a future in the live-action Disney+ show.
In talking to ET, she described her initial thoughts about playing the character in a live-action setting, saying:
"When the news of The Mandalorian came out, I sort of thought to myself in the back of my mind, you never know. I knew that it would probably never happen. Fan castings never happened, and so I sort of slyly mentioned it to Dave Filoni when I saw him at one point, and he was like “Well, you never know,” one of his cheeky little ways that he does it."
Then, as we know, the rest was history. What she called a “dream role” was going to be taken a step further, from the animated world to the live-action one. It was all surreal to her, she said as she continued the story:
"When I got a phone call to sit down with Jon Favreau, I think my brain exploded. And I sat down sort of thinking I was gonna take this and really have to, like, jump through hoops. And I walked in and it was pretty surreal. He was like, “Do you want to do this?” And I was like, I didn’t even know how to answer the question. Of course, I wanted to do it. I was such a huge fan of the show so this was pretty amazing."
With so much at stake, we hope this isn’t the last we see of Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian. She loves her home of Mandalore and wants to do right by it, and we could possibly see Mando joining in on those efforts — even if his clan is a little more… cult-like than the Mandalorian crew that Bo-Katan is a part of.
We’re also looking forward to the introduction of Ahsoka Tano, who Bo recommended Mando seek out for information about the Jedi. We’re really beginning to dive deeper into the worlds that Dave Filoni set up in The Clone Wars and Rebels, and we know the rest of season 2 should certainly be exciting.
For more The Mandalorian news and updates, keep up with The Mandalorian category on Dork Side of the Force.