Timothy Olyphant Says He Enjoyed Working On ‘The Mandalorian’ While Temuera Morrison Teases New Future for Boba Fett
The second season of The Mandalorian introduced a brand-new character to live-action audiences, one that fans of the Aftermath book series were already familiar with. This is, of course, Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth, the Marshal of Mos Pelgo (or Free City, as it was later rebranded), who not only was a nod to the Chuck Wendig trilogy but also a way to introduce the Boba Fett armor into Din Djarin’s life, which eventually led him to meet Boba himself.
Vanth would return in the final episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, and Favreau used the post-credits scene of that series to tease he’d be back. It was assumed then that he would be a recurring character in The Mandalorian and some of its spin-offs. He didn’t show up in season 3 of that show, to some fans’ disappointment, yet Olyphant looks back at those times fondly. In a new interview by Rolling Stone with the actor (that was performed before the SAG-AFTRA strike was called last week), Olyphant, who has made a name for himself as the “ultimate TV cowboy”, as the headline of the story so accurately describes him, said the following about working in the Star Wars galaxy:
“I’ve enjoyed that. I don’t know if it’s a cash grab or I’m just getting lazy, but I’m OK playing the greatest hits right now.”
It’s obvious that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni could use him time and time again, much like they did with Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) in past adventures, so this is not the end of the story. There was a time where Boba Fett was to return in The Mandalorian season 3, and perhaps those later-scrapped plans would have involved Vanth as well. While that never happened, and Temuera Morrison has been very outspoken about it, publicly complaining that Mando stole his own show but he didn’t get to do the same later.
But there is plenty of speculation that Morrison will be back as the helmeted character in the fourth season of the show, which is in pre-production and was to start shooting this fall before both strikes were called. To add more fuel to the fire, Temuera Morrison was recorded while signing autographs at the London Film and Comic Con, which took place July 7-9, saying that he was going to stop by LA on his way back to New Zealand to “see what’s going on” about Boba Fett. Here’s what he said:
“There’s a few things happening in LA. I’m gonna stop by LA on my way home to New Zealand just to have a catch up and see what’s happening in the galaxy.
When asked about a potential season 2 of The Book of Boba Fett, he then added,
“This is why I was gonna pop up and see what’s going on, and make sure they’re not gonna put me on a shelf.”
That sure sounds a lot like Temuera Morrison describing a general pre-production meeting to work out Lucasfilm’s plans to bring him back in season 4. He obviously knows more than he says, and he’s not just going to “see what’s up”. The scripts are ready by now, Morrison knows very well what’s happening with Boba Fett. It’s also no coincidence that said meeting was scheduled just before the deadline expired for SAG-AFTRA and the studios to avert a strike.
For now, the actor is heavily rumored to be appearing in Ahsoka as the fan-favorite Captain Rex, who he’s never played in live-action. We will find out if that is true when the show starts streaming, on August 23.
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.
