The Mandalorian’s Ming-Na Wen reveals she had no idea Boba Fett would save Fennec Shand. Season 1 of the breakout Disney+ hit introduced a lot of intriguing new characters to the Star Wars universe, including the mercenary Shand.
Fans got their first look at Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian’s fifth episode "The Gunslinger." In the episode, Din Djarin landed on Tatooine in a damaged Razor Crest and reluctantly teamed up with a green bounty hunter named Toro Calican who seeked to gain entry to the Guild by collecting on Shand. Calican did indeed end up shooting Shand, apparently killing her, before himself being killed by Djarin. Famously, the episode ended with a caped figure approaching Shand’s seemingly lifeless body. Fans immediately concluded that the mysterious cape-wearer must be Boba Fett, but this wasn’t confirmed until the Mandalorian season 2 episode “The Tragedy,” in which it was revealed that Fett saved Shand’s life by giving her cybernetic implants, a favor Shand returned by becoming Fett’s partner in his quest to regain his lost armor.
The Fennec Shand/Boba Fett storyline indeed proved an interesting and effective way of not only re-introducing the famous bounty hunter Fett to the Star Wars universe, but also establishing a new character in Shand. As it turns out, Wen herself had no idea where things were going when she shot the season 1 episode that brought her into Star Wars lore. The actress previously said her Mandalorian role was meant to be a one-off but thanks to a combination of factors, including her lobbying to return, was later expanded. Speaking recently to ComicBook.com, Wen again emphasized how in the dark she was about Shand's ultimate fate when first playing the role:
"I had no idea ... I did of course try really hard. You know to suggest that she's only seriously injured, but I had no idea Boba Fett was going to come and save her. That blew me away. They didn't even tell me ... to wait and find out everything was just this wondrous, magical surprises, like winning the golden ticket."
Winning the role of Fennec Shand has indeed turned into a career bonanza for Wen. Not only did she get a return engagement on The Mandalorian, she’s set to star alongside Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett in the new Disney+ show The Book of Boba Fett. Secrecy surrounds The Book of Boba Fett but it was recently revealed by Morrison himself that the show will dig into Boba Fett’s unseen backstory. Wen herself has little to say about the new show as details are being kept under wraps, but she did recently give a hint about her character’s costume, quipping that Shand “likes her outfit a lot, because she wears it quite often.”
It’s no surprise of course that Wen was kept in the dark about the ultimate fate of Fennec Shand when she first shot the role for The Mandalorian. Indeed, it’s likely Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni themselves weren’t entirely sure whether Shand was alive or dead, or who that mysterious caped figure was. At the time, Disney could have opted to stay out of the business of reintroducing older Star Wars characters like Fett in favor of creating new ones. It’s a matter of debate whether they ultimately made the right decision by filling The Mandalorian season 2 with familiar characters from various Star Wars properties. But their plan indeed seems set in stone now, as the future is about Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cassian Andor and other recycled characters. Thankfully there’s also room for an original character like Fennec Shand, who in addition to her live-action appearances, also figures into the animated show The Bad Batch.
Source: ComicBook.com