Anthony Mackie Wanted To Join ‘The Mandalorian’, Discusses His History With ‘Star Wars’
He might be Captain America now, but Anthony Mackie also had ambitions of joining the Star Wars universe a few years ago.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused show (skip to 33:05, hat tip to The Direct and their extensive report), the Marvel actor — who just starred in Netflix’s We Have a Ghost and is headlining the Twisted Metal series adaptation later this year — openly discussed his dream of joining the Star Wars franchise at some point. In fact, he already tried a few years back, when he heard Lucasfilm was putting together The Mandalorian. Here’s what he said:
“Yo, when I heard they were doing– this is the one and only time I call my agent, and my manager, and said, ‘It’s gonna be a problem,’ was when I heard they were doing ‘The Mandalorian.’ I was like, ‘Yo, now, I ain’t gonna make this no conversation. I ain’t gonna get on no, I’m star-type sh*t, I ain’t gonna yell at y’all, but we we need to– Come on. Come on. I am the best. I have the helmet. I can literally show up in my costume from my house, ready to shoot.’”
Of course, his love for the Mandalorians and their iconic helmets comes from watching Boba Fett just being cool as he was growing up. He elaborated on this:
“You just never knew why, or what, or how. There was something so unique about the way he moved through that universe that no one else could emulate. Like I always wanted to be Lando. Growing up my nickname was Lando. That’s what I made people call me.”
It appears that Mackie still uses “Lando” as a nick among his childhood friends to this day, and sometimes even as a fake name elsewhere, when he doesn’t want to attract too much attention. So that makes him a big fan of two major Star Wars characters introduced in The Empire Strikes Back.
Of course, Horowitz returned to the point of him trying to join The Mandalorian, to which Mackie added:
“That’s real. I wasn’t available. Now, I’m trying to get one of those roles in the background, where they’re doing the thing, and I take off my helmet, and go, ‘That was a long flight.’ That’s it. That’s all I want is one scene. I just want everybody to know that I was one of them.”
As much as Anthony Mackie wants that sweet Star Wars role, it seems like he’d be just content with showing up for a quick cameo, like other big-name actors such as Daniel Craig or Tom Hardy. With how packed his current and near-future schedule is, including Captain America: New World Order, a couple of Avengers films, and plenty of other non-Marvel projects, a small part in The Mandalorian would certainly be more doable than a major role. That being said, never say never, especially with former MCU heavy-hitter Jon Favreau at the helm of the Pedro Pascal-led show and many more to come.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
