Here's the famous face behind Zero the droid in The Mandalorian. Episode 6 of Disney's live-action Star Wars series sees Din Djarin take Baby Yoda to visit some of his old law-breaking friends from the old days but, predictably, this is far from a happy reunion. Pursued by both the Empire and the Bounty Hunters' Guild but also in need of supplies, Din agrees to carry out one last job for Malk, which turns out to be a daring intergalactic prison break. During the mission, it becomes clear that Malk has instructed his followers to betray the Mandalorian and leave him behind as soon as his usefulness has been exhausted. This does not turn out well for anyone involved.
Among the colorful bunch of criminals Din is forced to work with is a deeply unpleasant droid known as Q9-0 (or Zero to his friends). Zero stays behind on the Razorcrest during the mission and is eyeballed with deep suspicion by Baby Yoda but, once Zero catches up to 2019's green sensation, he goes to blast the child. Fortunately, Din returns just in time to decommission the droid. Before being destroyed, Zero is tasked with providing remote reconnaissance support, directing the rescue team through the labyrinthine prison. Zero carries out his function with a cold logic not seen in the main droid characters of Star Wars but, in a similar way to C-3PO, he is prone to misreading human situations, for example when he continued relaying information to his colleagues even though he knows the comm link is down.
The Mandalorian's star-studded cast extends beyond on-screen talent and features a number of big names offering their vocal abilities for droids, aliens and masked characters. In this case, Zero is voiced by British actor, Richard Ayoade. A well-known name in British comedy, Ayoade rose to prominence playing Moss in The IT Crowd over the course of 4 seasons, and he continued portraying this widely-loved character in the infamously bad unaired U.S. remake. Ayoade looked set to break out into Hollywood with 2012's The Watch opposite the A-list trio of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill, but the film bombed, partly because of a forced title change necessitated after the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Since then, Ayoade has voiced Mr. Pickles in Boxtrolls, Treebor in Early Man and the ice cream cone in The LEGO Movie 2, but television remains the bread and butter of Ayoade's career, and he took the coveted position as host of The Crystal Maze for the 2017 revival of the classic game show, as well as starring in his own travel series, Travel Man. Ayoade continues to make sporadic appearances on comedy panel shows. Arguably, however, it's a shift behind the camera that has proven most fruitful for Ayoade in recent years, having written and directed the likes of The Double and Submarine, both of which were nominated for a slew of awards.
Ayoade's vocal performance brings his trademark deadpan humor to the character of Zero, adding comedic layers to a relatively brief role. This helps add some levity to what is an otherwise intense and action-heavy offering. The casting also continues The Mandalorian's tradition of casting big names in fairly minor parts, with Ming-Na Wen, Bill Burr and Amy Sedaris featuring in similarly short but sweet fashion.
The Mandalorian season 2 premieres in Fall 2020 on Disney+.