Katee Sackhoff Talks ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Spoilers: How the Episodes Are Originally Longer, the Point of the Darksaber, and Collaborating With the Cast and Crew
On Monday, Kristian Harloff released on his YouTube channel an 80-minute conversation with Katee Sackhoff, who portrayed Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian season 3. It was a follow-up to a prior video recorded before the third season came out, in which the actress couldn’t really dive deep into the storyline of the season. You can check out the entire interview at the bottom of the article, but here are some of the highlights from it. Spoilers ahead.
The third season was mostly centered around Bo-Katan, as many have pointed out over the past couple of months, though there is still so much more to the character than we’ve seen. Katee Sackhoff first explained how they did talk about potentially including some backstory to the character and references to the events depicted in the animated series:
“We spoke about it, for sure. I think the problem with a show like this is that you’re straddling that line between keeping the episodes shorter and then stuffing them so full. You can’t do everything you wanna do and there’s definitely a lot that the fans wanna see. There’s a lot I wanna know. We’ve talked about her backstory, we’ve talked about everything that happened. And I really love those moments where we saw a different side of Bo. We saw the pain, we saw the regret, and I always would love to have more of those, you know, selfishly. Maybe in a different time and a different place.”
Time is of the essence on this show, as she hinted there and expanded on later. Dave Filoni also touched upon this in a recent conversation with Collider, when he said that they are always trying to keep the episodes shorter so that they flow faster and they keep the rhythm going for the entire runtime. In fact, as Katee Sackhoff then explained, the scene in the seventh episode of the season where she rallies the Mandalorians to go retake their home planet was initially much longer and featured an epic speech à la William Wallace in Braveheart. That was significantly cut down in the editing room, though:
“You know when Bo gives her speech of ‘We’re gonna get back Mandalore’ with two different clans? That scene was much longer. That scene was super long. This is the rousing thing, you’re inspiring these two separate clans to get out there and go retake their homeworld. It has to be emotional, it has to be big, and for whatever reason it got cut down a lot. I love this entire season, I thought it was fun. But that moment for me was like… I wish they’d given more context to what’d happened right before, because I think that it would have made that speech land heavier. And the majority of the takes I did were William Wallace-esque.”
Despite the fact that the scripts didn’t really explore Bo-Katan’s history, this was something that was instrumental to the actress when prepping for shooting:
“This entire season I took her entire backstory with me. That was one of the things that I wanted to focus on. This is her redemption arc, she has to be relatable, she has to win people over, and if she doesn’t, the whole season won’t work. So I think that a way that people can be forgiven and find atonement is to be genuinely regretful and remorseful of the things they’ve done and the events of their past. To hear Bo say that she did surrender… This is a person whose ego has driven her for so long, and to see that she surrendered because it was the only option she had… The destruction that continued after that was heartbreaking. And I thought, in my mind, the only reason he didn’t kill her was because he wanted her to live with that. and that’s why she hates him so much.”
We first meet her at the end of the first episode of the season while she’s sitting on the throne, in a scene that has been the subject of countless memes and Internet jokes. Katee Sackhoff had fun with it during the interview, and also explained what their intentions were when they decided on the pose:
“I knew that visually this was gonna be something that people talked about, because it’s such a relaxed, disrespectful position to sit on the throne. And also it’s really uncomfortable-looking. So my husband is like ‘How long is she sitting there?’ In my mind, it was like, I think she ran in there as soon as she saw him.
I love [the moment Grogu comes to ask for help in episode 2] because I think it’s the only thing that would have made Bo say yes. I think that there’s this soft spot that she has. She knows how important the Jedi are, she knows where Ahsoka is. She’s seen someone like this before. It makes complete sense that she knows the importance of this child. And to not then go help him, when she was the one who sent him… She knew she sent him to a place that was dangerous, she didn’t know what was there. She didn’t know that she was gonna get captured. So I think there’s a lot of guilt, and I think with the guilt she’s already carrying on her back, the last thing she wants is more Mandalorians on her conscience.”
Sackhoff had said in the previous interview that the fact that she had to be under the helmet for a good chunk of the season allowed her to spend more time with her newborn than she imagined. In the new interview, she clarified that it is her in the suit 80% of the time, except for when it’s much better for the stunt double to take over. Case in point, the scene where she first wields the Darksaber when trying to rescue Din in the second episode:
“That was a scene that I was there for very little. That was [stunt double] Joanna [Bennett]. We talked about how big this season is, right? There are two units moving at all times. There are very few scenes that I saw… I don’t wanna say few. There are scenes that I saw that I was not there. I would say 80% of them I was there, and I did it at least once, if not most of it. But that being said, Jo is a phenomenal athlete. I mean, she literally doubles Brie Larson. She’s amazing. To have me do the scenes where you know she’s gonna go in there with the helmet on and look ten times better, it’s just stupid to have me try. That being said, that last fight [with Moff Gideon in the finale], I did as much of it as I could.”
Mercedes Varnado (Koska Reeves), on the flip side, spent very little time on set as she was busy with her wrestling career. When talking about her, Katee Sackhoff also brought up a hot topic, Axe Woves’ disappearance in the final episode of the second season. Sackhoff was asked a lot about this in interviews, and she used to joke that he was just in the bathroom. Apparently, he was supposed to die in Chapter 11, the episode that introduced Bo-Katan in the series, but his death scene was cut out:
“[Mercedes is] physically incredibly capable. She wasn’t physically as Mercedes available a lot, that’s why there’s a lot this season that’s also her stunt double, because she was off fighting.
Axe, we knew… He was supposed to die last year. That was the thing that no one could talk about. There was this moment where he sacrifices himself in that episode, and he did it, we shot it, and then they were like ‘It needs to be Din, not him’. And so then you shoot a person’s death, and then there’s a scene left and they’re like ‘Where did they go?’ ‘Well, he’s pooping.'”
Speaking of death scenes, though… Paz Vizsla. Chapter 23 brought an end to his character, when he sacrificed himself to allow the rest of the Mandalorians to escape. Katee Sackhoff described how hard it was to shoot that scene for them:
“That was a hard scene to shoot I love Tait [Fletcher, Paz Vizsla’s stunt double]. Tait’s one of the coolest people. I mean, talk about steady as a rock, and just a phenomenal person, so cool to have around. And shooting that scene, because Bo is the last one… You know, in the day, when you shoot these things, you wanna make sure that they land. Leaving another Mandalorian behind is very hard for Bo, and especially having known him and having known of them for a while now. It was hard. She knows he’s not coming out of that, he knows that he just sacrificed himself for them, for her. That’s crazy. And I wanted her to run back and not wanna leave. And in situations like that you get overruled, you realize that the story is not about you, and you take your ego out of it and you’re like ‘But I want her to go back’. But that’s not the story right now.”
The season ended with the destruction of the Darksaber when Moff Gideon crushed it during his battle against Bo-Katan and Din. Sackhoff talked about his collaboration with Giancarlo Espósito and how the destruction of the Darksaber brought the point of th season home:
“Giancarlo is amazing. Talk about a talent. He’s such a smart performer. I love watching him work. I love watching him talk and engage with fans, he’s such a powerful artist and person. It was a hard scene, it is this moment where you realize he’s stronger than anyone of them, and it took all of them to defeat him. And I love that because I think that’s the whole thing. I think that’s the big metaphor of this season, they all have to come together for the greater good. This thing that has led to wars, and in-figthing, has to be destroyed for them to move forward.”
Going behind-the-scenes, Katee Sackhoff also explained the dynamics between the cast and crew. For starters, Dave Filoni took a step back this season as he was prepping Ahsoka, only acting as co-writer on a couple of episodes, and credited overall as an executive producer. Rick Famuyiwa stepped up to fill in for him in day-to-day operations, though Filoni was still on set and at the other end of a phone call constantly. Here are Sackhoff’s words describing how this worked:
“Every single one of those guys is there. It’s a huge lot, and they are so busy. They are all there. If they are not physically on set, they have what I have. I was watching the doubles play me the entire team so I could literally call over to another unit, I had it on my phone, I could see what they were doing on live time and I could call over and say ‘Tell her to walk like this, tell her to do this, her hand is in a weird way”. They are collaborating at all times. Physically on set every day? You know, Jon is there, Rick is there. Dave is working his butt off. They are all so busy. But he’s there. I saw him every day on set. So it’s this big collaboration between everybody, they have a lot going on.”
Someone who wasn’t there as much, as we know, is Pedro Pascal, who was busy shooting The Last of Us in Canada. Of course, he is only one of the three people that are required to bring the character of Din Djarin to life, and as Sackhoff explained, he mostly works with the two people in the suit. Having multiple people play one character in a suit is not a rare thing in modern Star Wars; Hayden Christensen described last year how it took five people to bring Vader to life, and that was also the case for Bo-Katan:
“I primarily work with Brendan Wayne and Lateef [Crowder]. Those guys are there all the time, and they put the character together with Pedro. It is literally those three guys, you can’t do the character without the three of them, and I think that’s something they’ve realized as we’ve gone on. You can’t do Bo with just me. It’s impossible. You’ve got, not only the fighting and then the acting, you have the sheer fact that you have two units going at all times. I can’t be in two places at the same time. I tried. This season I was running back and forth to the backlot and having to change out pauldrons, and sprinting back and forth, and killing myself trying to do it. And I was like ‘Just put someone else’. But there are moments where I can tell when it’s not me, I can tell when it’s not me standing, and it kills me, because I have such ownership over this character. But I realized it’s not about me. If it works for the fans, then that’s all that matters.”
On the directors’ side, Sackhoff also talked about working with Bryce Dallas Howard, who had helmed her introduction into The Mandalorian in season 2. She described how her personality and her desire to see other women succeed helped her tremendously in her journey:
“I love Bryce. She’s got like an infectious smile, and this giggle that she has… You can’t help but wanna stand next to her. And she’s a fantastic director. She knows what she’s doing, she knows the storyline, she knows what the goal is, she adds her own spin on it, and she puts her mark on it. It’s fantastic, she’s so good at what she does.
There are certain people that you work with, certain women that you work with, that just want other women to succeed. […] So when you meet a woman who’s like, let me give you a platform, let me raise you up, let me do this… Rosario Dawson is the same way. She loves other women. That is cool. That is amazing, ’cause it’s not common.”
And finally, looking at the future, Sackhoff was asked if there was any chance we’ll see her in Ahsoka or Skeleton Crew, to which she replied:
“I think it’s all possible, I’ve said this from day one — as long as she’s alive, it works in this world. So I don’t know, we’ll have to see. It’s definitely above my paygrade, but it’s possible.”
Of course, seeing her in Ahsoka would make a lot of sense. We know that the two are in touch with each other, as it was Bo in season 2 who pointed Din in Ahsoka’s direction, but we haven’t really explored that connection. Ahsoka has a lot going on, but there might be something else that we don’t know yet and the season could explore it. Or maybe they will wait for Dave Filoni’s film, which will wrap up the storyline of the show. Speaking of which, Sackhoff said during the interview that, while she knew Favreau and Filoni were planning a culmination event, she didn’t know it would be a theatrical film directed by Filoni:
“I found out when you guys did, I had no idea. [The idea of a big event that will close off the storylines] has been chattered. That has definitely been in conversations between Dave, Jon, and I. And they’ve talked to other people about it, and they’ve talked to me as well. So I knew it was coming, [but] I have no idea what it’s about. I have no idea who’s in it.”
There was a lot more to the conversation than what was included here, including more insights into the making of the third season, as well as some personal-life stuff like how she and her husband managed to take care of a newborn while Sackhoff was off shooting the series; make sure to check it out if you’re interested:
Ahsoka will premiere in August, with Skeleton Crew coming out later in the year. The Mandalorian season 4 is in the early stages of pre-production and will start shooting later in 2023.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
