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Over the decades, there have been a handful of instances of Star Wars characters debuting in an animated project before making the jump to live-action. However, The Mandalorian Season 2 marked a first in that particular area, as Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff, who previously voiced the Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze in The Clone Wars and Rebels, was chosen to also play her in live-action. However, ahead of learning she’d get to appear on camera for a Star Wars project, Sackhoff figured that the day Bo-Katan finally appeared in the live-action realm, Lucasfilm would bring in a Marvel actress to play her.
During her recent appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Katee Sackhoff recalled how for years, she didn’t hear anything from the Star Wars powers-that-be about interest in having her play Bo-Katan in live-action. As such, the actress wouldn’t have been surprised if the role ended up going to someone else, such as a certain Black Widow. In Sackhoff’s words:
I’ve had a beautiful career and there have been great things. But I’ve seen people around me get that big, huge, massive thing and you go, ‘Wow, so proud of them, so excited for them.’ It’s amazing, because if it happens to someone else, there’s still hope, right, that it can happen to you? But it’s never happened to me, like that big, huge thing had never happened, so I always joked with [Dave Filoni], thinking, ‘Of course they’ll recast it. They’ll probably hire Scarlett Johansson.’
Scarlett Johansson has certainly established herself as a major player within the Marvel side of the Disney empire, having played Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, since 2010’s Iron Man 2. Although Avengers: Endgame marked the end of Natasha’s Marvel Cinematic Universe journey, the upcoming Black Widow movie is winding the clock back to show what she was up to between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. As far as Star Wars goes though, Katee Sackhoff’s amusing speculation about Johansson taking over as Bo-Katan Kryze didn’t come to fruition, although that’s not to say Johansson couldn’t be looked at for a Star Wars project down the line.
Katee Sackhoff first voiced Bo-Katan Kryze in The Clone Wars episode “A Friend in Need,” which aired on January 13, 2012. While Bo-Katan would go on to be a recurring character in that animated series and Star Wars Rebels, there was no indication that Bo-Katan would ever appear in live-action until it was reported in May 2020 that Sackhoff would appear as her in The Mandalorian Season 2. Sackhoff described the experience of learning she’d get to play Bo-Katan in the hit Disney+ series (if you’re not signed up for the Mouse House’s streaming service, you can use this link to do so) as follows:
But when Mandalorian came out and I saw [Filoni] at Celebration. I made a joke about Bo-Katan, ya know, ‘Wink wink, nudge, nudge.’ I’ve been playing characters like this for 15 years, buddy. I never really thought it would happen. I was just sort of joking... It was this moment where I was always just joking and when a phone call came in that Jon Favreau wanted to sit down with me, I almost had a heart attack. It took me halfway through that meeting to realize that he was actually talking about me doing Bo-Katan. I remember sitting across from him, total out-of-body experience, thinking to myself, ‘Oh, those are pictures of me on the wall. What is happening? Oh, he’s still talking. What is he talking about?’ I still, to this day, I’m still pinching myself. My mind is blown. They believed that I could and they ultimately let me.
Bo-Katan Kryze appeared in the Mandalorian episodes “The Heiress” and “The Rescue.” Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin met Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian cohorts in the former episode and teamed up with them to hijack an Imperial freighter filled with weapons in exchange for information about where to take The Child (a.k.a. Grogu) next. Din also learned from Bo-Katan that he is a Child of The Watch, a group of zealots who, unlike other Mandalorian sects, follow “the ancient Way of the Mandalore,” which includes never taking their helmets off in front of other living beings. Bo-Katan returned in The Mandalorian Season 2 finale to aid Din in rescuing Grogu from Moff Gideon in exchange for obtaining the Darksaber, although with Din ending up winning that weapon in combat from the Imperial baddie, he and Bo-Katan now finds themselves in an awkward situation.
Officially speaking, there’s no word yet on if Katee Sackhoff will reprise Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian Season 3, but given the way things ended for her last season, it seems unlikely that she won’t return. Rest assured, as more updates concerning the next round of Mandalorian excitement trickle in, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, keep track of forthcoming Star Wars TV shows and movies with our comprehensive guide, as well as what’s currently showing on the airwaves, or about to air, with our 2021 winter and spring premiere schedule.
