Katee Sackhoff Was Surprised She Was Cast as Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian

Despite her legacy as both a fan-favorite, and a critically-acclaimed, actress for playing Lieutenant Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica — she was nominated for four Saturn Awards and won Best Supporting Actress on Television award in 2005 — Katee Sackhoff admitted on the Inside of You podcast to feeling a bit deflated over the years because she never got “that big, huge, massive” acting gig that would make her career.

Sackhoff was so resigned, in fact, that it simply might never happen for her that she assumed that if the Clone Wars and Rebels character that she voiced, Bo-Katan Kryze, ever made the leap to live-action, she would be passed over for a “name” talent.

But, it’s never happened to me, it never, like, that big, huge thing had never happened, so I always joked with [Rebels creator Dave Filoni], ‘Of course they’ll recast it, they’ll probably hire Scarlett Johansson or something like that.’ But when Mandalorian came out and I him at [Star Wars] Celebration. I made a joke about Bo-Katan, ya know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, ‘I’ve been playing characters like this for 15 years, buddy.’ And I never really thought it would happen. I was just sort of joking. … It was this moment where, I was always just joking, and when a phone call came in that Jon Favreau wanted to sit down with me, I almost had a heart attack. It took me halfway through that meeting to realize that he was actually talking about me doing Bo-Katan. I remember sitting across from him — total out-of-body experience — thinking to myself, ‘Is he…? Oh, those are pictures of me on the wall. What is happening? Oh, he’s still talking. Wait, what is he talking about? What is going on?’ It was crazy! And I still to this day, I’m still pinching myself. My mind is blown that not only did they have the thought to do this, but that they believed that I could and they ultimately let me.

With Season 3 of The Mandalorian only in pre-production and not even expected to debut on Disney+ until Spring 2022, it’s too early to tell what the plot might entail. However, one point that is likely to be addressed is the fact that the [SPOILERS] Darksaber that Bo-Katan covets so that she can rule Mandalore is in the hands of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) makes it likely that Sackhoff will be returning in a big way in Season 3, and possibly as an antagonist instead of a friend and ally.

Jon Favreau is the co-creator and showrunner of The Mandalorian. Carl Weathers, Gina Carano and Giancarlo Esposito also star.

Images courtesy of Disney/Lucasfilm