Katee Sackhoff Taking Over As The Mandalorian Lead?
Producer Rick Famuyiwa's recent comments about the title "The Mandalorian" applying to more than just Pedro Pascal has fans angered that the star may be replaced.
Step aside, Din Djarin: there’s a new Mandalorian in town, and her name is Bo-Katan Kryze. As Forbes reports, execs behind Disney+’s hit The Mandalorian have slyly reinterpreted the title of the show to mean “a Mandalorian” and not necessarily the one fans were expecting when they first tuned into the show four years ago. Does Katee Sackhoff‘s larger role this season signal that we’re coming to the end of the Pedro Pascal era of The Mandalorian?
Season 1 of The Mandalorian was largely stand-alone adventures featuring Din Djarin and “the child”–affectionately called Baby Yoda by fans and eventually named Grogu by Disney–bumming around the galaxy and getting in and out of trouble. Since season 2, however, The Mandalorian has become, well, crowded. No longer primarily concerned with Pedro Pascal’s mysterious lone samurai/gunslinger, the Star Wars series became a testing ground for new characters like Boba Fett and Ashoka Tano, who would go off and have their own spin-offs.
Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan was one of the characters introduced this way. Already a veteran of Star Wars’ animated offerings like The Clone Wars and Rebels, Bo-Katan made her live-action debut opposite Mando and the aforementioned Boba Fett in the second season of The Mandalorian. Originally a supporting cast member to Pedro Pascal, Sackhoff has been slowly gaining purpose and airtime until the most recent few episodes of The Mandalorian have made Bo-Katan, if not the main character, a co-lead.
Executive producer Rick Famuyiwa explained the shifting dynamic thusly:
“Who is the Mandalorian at this point? And so I think it could be anyone. And I think that’s what they’re trying to define in many ways, is what does that mean to be Mandalorian.”
-Rick Famuyiwa
Famuyiwa’s quote has angered many fans who fear that Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan will eventually take the show over entirely from Pedro Pascal. If that happens, will those fans still watch The Mandalorian?
Without sounding like a broken record, there are those fans that will reject this new dynamic based solely on Katee Sackhoff’s gender. Disregarding the outlying trolls, however, there is still a large section of the fandom that tunes in specifically for Pedro Pascal and may not take kindly to a daddy-less The Mandalorian. Between The Mandalorian and The Last of Us, Pascal is extremely hot right now, and his absence would be undeniably felt.
On the other hand, those Star Wars fans that know their death sticks from the Death Watch know what a big deal Bo-Katan Kryze is and what an even bigger deal it is that she now has the Darksaber.
To put it another way, fans who watch the show casually for Pedro Pascal and his puppet baby (which is fine, no gatekeeping here) may not stick around if they leave, but hardcore nerds into deep Star Wars lore will still watch The Mandalorian to see the rebuilding of the once great Mandalorian empire.
But let’s be honest, the biggest slice of The Mandalorian’s audience are interested in one thing and one thing only: Grogu. As long as the most adorable puppet to come along since Gizmo of Gremlins stays on the show, the majority of fans couldn’t give a fig whether it’s Pedro Pascal or Katee Sackhoff carrying him around.
