The Mandalorian star Katee Sackhoff says she didn't realize showrunner Jon Favreau was asking her to play Bo-Katan when she first met with him. Sackhoff starred as Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian season 2, reprising the role she voiced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Sackhoff, who is also known for her roles in Battlestar Galactica and Longmire, has spoken openly about her surprise at being asked to play Bo-Katan in live-action, saying she thought she'd be recast by another actress like Scarlett Johansson.
She wasn't, though, and her appearance in The Mandalorian season 2 was hailed by fans, who appreciated the connection to the wider Star Wars universe. Sackhoff's live-action performance highlighted Bo-Katan's moral gray area, acknowledging the fact that she's able to do the right thing or choose to act out of self-interest instead. Initially assumed to be a smaller role, Bo-Katan ended up playing a fairly large part in season 2, appearing alongside Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and the other main characters in the finale where Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) shows up to save them and take Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, to safety.
Now, Sackhoff has opened up further about the casting process for The Mandalorian. Speaking to comicbook.com, Sackhoff says she initially floated the idea of appearing as Bo-Katan in the Disney+ series to Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni, who is also an Executive Producer on The Mandalorian. She says that six months later she was asked to meet the latter show's showrunner Jon Favreau, but didn't realize he had brought her in to offer her the part. This despite the room they were meeting in being covered with images of her as Bo-Katan. She admits she didn't pick up what the meeting was about until the moment Favreau officially offered her the role. She ends by saying she's "still shocked" she appeared in the series. You can read her full story below:
It was so funny. So, I was at [Star Wars Celebration] when they were announcing our last season of Clone Wars and they were also, I think, there for Mandalorian and I remember saying to [Dave Filoni] in that moment, in sort of a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, "You know I play a Mandalorian. I'm still alive, I'm free." And I think it was probably about six months after that when we got the call. When I was asked to sit down with Jon Favreau, I remember sitting in that meeting and getting halfway through the meeting and still not realizing that he was talking about me being in The Mandalorian. I don't know why, I could have been intelligent enough just to look around and see the artwork on the walls, but I don't know. There was a part of me that was like, maybe this was a trial, like he wanted to make sure that I wasn't insane or something, I don't know. But no, it was literally in that moment. So I was, I'm still shocked.
Sackhoff's story is incredibly endearing, and a sign of how she's managed to remain humble despite her success on a number of great TV shows. Thankfully her unintended ignorance didn't ruin her chances of getting the role, as she would have missed out on a great opportunity to appear in one of the biggest TV shows of the past few years. There's no doubt Sackhoff is committed to her role as Bo-Katan, having said in the past that she often texts with Filoni about the character's backstory, and how she got to where she in The Mandalorian.
As for returning to the role in live-action, Sackhoff says she has no idea when Bo-Katan will return to The Mandalorian. Though that should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the actress wouldn't outright let audiences know that she'll be appearing in season 3 before it airs. In all likelihood she'll have some part to play in the upcoming batch of episodes, given Bo-Katan's connection to the Darksaber which played such a large role in the season 2 finale.
Source: Comicbook.com