It seems every Star Wars actor has a unique story about how they landed their roles. The original cast themselves obviously had no idea that what they were signing up for would lead to over four decades of imaginary hyperspace travel and more. Even those recently introduced into the franchise such as Bill Burr never seriously considered joining a galaxy far, far away until the opportunity simply landed in front of them.
Apparently, the first time Burr heard about the opportunity to appear in The Mandalorian wasn’t over a business lunch or a phone call — he just happened to run into Jon Favreau at a party, reports Comic Book.
“I went to Mike Binder’s birthday party and Jon was there,” he recalled. “He said, ‘Hey, we’re writing this thing and we kind of have you in mind, you wanna do it?’ And I was like ‘well, I don’t know Jon. I’ve teased Star Wars people a lot.’”
It’s not uncommon for actors new to the Star Wars franchise to not know much about it. Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Indira Varma admitted she had some catching up to do while filming the series. Daisy Ridley didn’t know much about it either and has since become a highly recognizable face in Hollywood overall despite that.
Burr has spoken before about his initial disinterest in Star Wars, telling Rich Eisen (per Comic Book), “I was never into the Star Wars thing, by the time I saw it I was too old, Ewoks and stuff… so I missed the boat.” But he came around and accepted the role, even if he still hasn’t finished watching back the show’s first season. It’s fine. There’s a lot to stream these days.
The last we saw of Burr’s character, he was setting out on foot to begin a new life out of reach of Imperial remnants. Even if Mayfield doesn’t appear in The Mandalorian again, Burr can at least say he might know more than he used to about the galaxy he got to play around in per Favreau’s generous request.
Season 3 of The Mandalorian does not have a release date yet, but we’re expecting to arrive on Disney+ sometime in 2022.