‘The Mandalorian’: Katee Sackhoff On Darksaber Quest, Boba Fett & Potential Bo-Katan Spinoff

Anthony D'Alessandro
·6 min read
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Last Friday, the prayers of several Star Wars fans were heard as Katee Sackhoff made her live-action debut as Bo-Katan Kryze on Disney+’s The Mandalorian. It is the character she voiced for eight years on the series’ animated predecessors Clone Wars and Rebels.

And Bo-Katan made it clear about her mission going forward: She wants to reclaim that darksaber that fell into the hands of Imperial baddie Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), a weapon she once owned, and she wants to reunite her fractured planet of Mandalore, previously ruled by her sister, the slain Satine. What many are expecting with future episodes of Mandalorian is that we’ll learn about how Bo-Katan lost the darksaber and how it ultimately fell into the hands of Gideon.

We caught up with Sackhoff today, who is in production in Canada on Netflix’s sci-fi space drama Another Life, to parcel out some intel on Bo-Katan moving forward.

“For Bo-Katan, the darksaber represents so much, there’s so much lore about it, but at the same time, it’s in her mind and based on history; it’s the way to bring together the people of Mandalore and the way to rule and respect that is by earning it,” Sackhoff said about the weapon’s significance.

In newly created Star Wars canon outside of movies, largely inked by Mandalorian, Clone Wars and Rebels EP Dave Filoni, the darksaber was forged by Tarre Vizsla, a Mandalorian who trained as a Jedi and took control of Mandalore and ruled it. The darksaber fell into the hands of bad guy Darth Maul eventually, and then the Mandalore Sabine Wren on the animated series Rebels. Sabine offers the darksaber to Bo-Katan, seeing her worthy of the title to lead Mandalore.

While Sackhoff is extremely quiet about her future on the Disney+ Star Wars universe, including a buzzed about spinoff with Gina Carano’s bounty hunter Cara Dune (“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about; that’s legitimately the truth,” she told us today) or Boba Fett, the Battlestar Galactica alum mused about what she’d like to see unfold for Bo-Katan. Bo-Katan at one point was poised to have oversee of the planet Mandalore, after Darth Maul inserted himself into power and was pushed off. She was annointed the Lady of House Kryze and Regent of Mandalore. But Bo-Katan lost that post when she refused to follow the newly appointed Galactic Emperor, Palpatine, and a rival Mandalorian sect, Clan Saxon, took over. There was ultimately the Great Purge, a Mandalorian genocide under the rule of the Imperials. It’s the aftermath of that which Bo-Katan is looking to make right this season.

“She’s a warrior and she has struggled tremendously with being a leader. For her, I think there is a struggle and a story about who she becomes in peace, if that were to ever be accomplished and what kind of ruler she would be. She’s never really, that we’ve seen, gotten that opportunity, and whether or not she’s ready for that. Just because she thinks it’s her rightful place, doesn’t mean she’s ready or equipped to rule Mandalore,” Sackhoff tells us about Bo-Katan’s situation.

Following her last batch of Clone Wars episodes, Sackhoff’s big question about Bo-Katan is “whether or not she can bring together and rule Mandalore.”

During last Friday’s episode, Bo-Katan asks Mando in regards to his quest to find Jedi: ‘What do you know about the Jedi?’ In regards to why Bo-Katan asked that question to him, Sackhoff answers, “To say that she had a good relationship with the Jedi is a bit of an overstatement. I think that there is some sort of history there [with the Jedi]. What Bo-Katan specifically means by that is not for anyone to know yet.”

While the Mandalorians are split into different clans — famed Star Wars character Boba Fett being a member of the tribe which bears his last name — as far as Bo-Katan’s connection to the bounty hunter (who we see at the end of Season 2’s episode one, clad in a monk get-up on Tatooine), Sackhoff laughs. “All of that is stuff I can’t talk about,” she said. “There is stuff that I know about talking with Dave Filoni about the world, and there are things that no one is meant to know yet.”

This brought us to ask how much downloading Filoni and Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau do in advance of shooting with their actors. Sometimes, showrunners reveal the entire character arc to an actor before a season begins. On other shows, actors will find out on an episode-by-episode basis.

“From my experience with them and my experience in the industry, if you go and sit with a showrunner and ask questions, they’ll give you answers,” she said. “It may not be specific answers, and it may not be directly what’s going to happen in the future. But if I go and sit down with Dave Filoni and we talk about the world of Star Wars and how it relates to Bo-Katan, he’ll tell me anything I want to know. It’s just a matter of asking the right questions and then seeing how it fits in a storyline. There are no guarantees moving forward for anyone in any series. Things change and you never know. My questions are never, ‘What’s my involvement in this?’, rather it’s ‘Let’s talk about Bo-Katan’.”

In regards to whether Bo-Katan meets up with her old Clone Wars friend Ahsoka Tano, Sackhoff recently told ET online that she didn’t film any scenes with Rosario Dawson, and in fact doesn’t know if the Sin City actress is playing that character or not.

Sackhoff also told us Wednesday that there isn’t any talk of her reprising her role of Starbuck on the Peacock reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Adds the actress, “I’m just excited to see what they do with the mythology of Battlestar. It was such an important part of my life, but it was over 15 years ago. While I do feel a love and an attachment to Starbuck and the show we created, I feel completely happy and excited to see what they create without us. If there is a role for me, whether it’s who I was, or could be, and it makes sense, and it isn’t just stunt casting, then I would absolutely love to participate. It’s such a vast story with many possibilities.”

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