THE MANDALORIAN Will Feature Classic STAR WARS Bounty Hunters, and Nick Nolte's Role Possible Revealed
We’ve got some more exciting news to share with you regarding Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian. It seems like a lot of people are excited about this series and it’s good to see most fans excited for a new Star Wars project again.
I think it was safe to assume that we would see some additional Star Wars bounty hunters in The Mandalorian, but now Making Star Wars is reporting that some of those characters will be classic bounty hunters that we were introduced to in Empire Strikes Back.
The two characters that the report specifically mentions are IG-88 and Bossk. We never got to see these characters in action in Empire Strikes Back, but it sounds like there’s going to be plenty of action involving them in this series!
IG-88 has recently been seen on set, filming his close ups, and being the star that he is on the set of The Mandalorian. The old time bounty hunter isn’t just standing around either, we’ve had credible reports about blasters being fired and he’s riding speeder bikes and attacking enemies.
That’s awesome! We also have some possible information on Nick Nolte’s character. According to the site, Nolte will be providing the voice of an alien character known as an Ugnaught, which is a pig-like humanoid. One of these alien characters was featured in The Empire Strikes Back. Check out the image below:
Here’s a description:
Ugnaughts were porcine sentient humanoids that were native to the planet Gentes. This species is possibly one of the hardest-working species in the galaxy. Despite originating on Gentes, many Ugnaughts now consider Bespin’s Cloud City their home. According to legend, when Lord Ecclessis Figg, the well-known Corellian eccentric, struck on the idea of building a floating city, he enlisted the help of the Ugnaughts, knowing their reputation as industrious and loyal workers. In return, the Ugnaughts were given the freedom and eventually allowed to build their own home in the lower reaches of Cloud City.
As for how the character will be brought to life, it’s explained:
Nolte’s character will not be digital. It doesn’t appear Nolte is performing the role on set either. Instead a new practical animatronic mask has been developed that works on voice command. So the mask which is being worn by a small woman matches Nolte’s infliction perfectly. The mask’s mouth movement is said to be phenomenal. MSW sources also have said that the mask was developed by Stan Winston’s shop of experts.
Very cool! It’ll be interesting to see how this looks on screen!
The cast for the series also includes Pedro Pascal (Narcos) as “a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy.” He will be joined by Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man).
The Mandalorian is written and executive produced by Favreau, with Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) directing the first episode and serving as executive producer alongside Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson. Additional directors include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).
The plot of the show is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order and follows “a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”
It was also previously revealed the story will follow a bounty hunter who is protecting a baby that he was initially sent to kill. You can read some more details regarding that here.